What to do about an aggressive Rooster?

[Rammy]

Here is what I do with aggressive roosters.

 

[2 many chickens]

View attachment 1955237

Here is what I do with aggressive roosters.

Is that yours that you made?
It looks delicious

 

[CatWhisperer]

I have a bachelor flock of serama cockerels in my back yard. They always dance around me and are non-aggressive. I raised them from chicks and pick them up almost daily to pet them.

 

[Rooapalooza]

The dancing thing is cute and has never preceded an attack from my roosters. Keep spending time with your flock. Hand out treats and let him be a part of hanging them out. If your rooster attacks you sometimes ignore him and walk through him (walk towards him until he turns around). Pick him up sometimes and carry him around.

If he always attacks you, you'll have to decide if you can handle it. He's much much smaller than you but some roosters never learn and make themselves real nuisances.

If he's mean to your hens then or you have young children or small dogs that he's gone after, then I'd give him up to be food.

 

[Rooapalooza]

There are certain behaviours in all species that fall under the general category of facts. There are others that are still open to opinion.
It is unfortunate imo that currently we seem to live in a climate where any expertise and science in general, are dismissed and the subjective view that all opinions are equally valid prevails.
It is for example a fact that a rooster pecking at the ground and nodding his head and making what has been identified as an I've found food call, is in fact a call to tell hens that he has found food. Yes they do lie, but that doesn't mean that particular combination of movement and sound isn't correctly described as an I've found food call. It's a fact until reliably proven otherwise.
In your post you have essentially undermined your own argument. If the herding shuffle was in fact a precursor to aggressive action then it would be reasonable to expect the other roosters and hens you mention to then be the subject of such an attack. You don't mention this so it's safe to assume that has not been the case.
The roosters here, particularly those in family groups do the herding shuffle to each other; they don't fight afterwards. The roosters here do the herding shuffle to the hens, they don't fight afterwards. Some of the roosters here do the herding shuffle to me, most noticeably iin the mornings when I open their coops. I have never been attacked after such a movement. The younger roosters do it to me because they see me as part of their tribe. It is (this is opinion) there way of saying good morning, you are one of the tribe.
I have dealt with problems associated with the herding shuffle in other flocks whose keepers have believed this was an indication of aggressive intent. What often fails to get mentioned is the keepers immediate response to receiving the herding shuffle and it is the keepers response that may in some circumstances elicit aggression.
There is a person in the local village who has recently had to become a chicken keeper.
Their partner unfortunately died and they were left with a semi feral chicken population to care for and not much information on how best to go about the job. This person did get attacked by a cockerel apparently after the cockerel had done the herding shuffle.
I went to help and was there when they opened up in the morning. This cockerel, much like some here bounded out of the coop and immediately did the herding shuffle to the inexperienced keeper. The keeper panicked and shoved the cockerel out of the way with their foot. The cockerel tried the shuffle again and the person kicked the cockerel; not hard but it was enough to goad the cockerel into an attack.
Three days of training the person and the cockerel comes out and does the herding shuffle, the keeper stands still and talks to the cockerel. The cockerel does a further shuffle and does that neck strain try to look you in the eye movement and then goes about it's business.
To make this quite clear, the herding shuffle is not a precursor to aggressive behavior; it's a fact.

Totally agree. I have to train my human friends on how to treat my rooster, not train my rooster how to deal with humans. Some people think my rooster hates them because he attacks them and doesn't attack other people. I tell them to stop running away and/or kicking the poor bird, and he wouldn't go after them. So far everyone who's grown the balls to stand their ground and face him nonviolently has earned his approval to enter his property.

 

[drumstick diva]

They say the meanest roosters make the best stew.

 

[Rammy]

Is that yours that you made?
It looks delicious

No. But I have made it that way. He was delicious.

 

[TheChiggens]

I agree a lot of this is just normal rooster behavior.

 

[harmonyp]

I do not have experience with roosters as I've had all hen flocks, but I do have experience breeding horses, and raising stud colts. That's 1000+ lbs of hormones. Fortunately gelding fixes a majority of them, but many are wanted to be kept for breeding stock. Just like roosters, there are good colts and bad colts, but most bad colts are the result of poor handling and are made to be bad by humans.

One of the most common mistakes people make with colts is to be overly aggressive with them when it isn't warranted, or to be fearful with them and in that fear, hand the dominant position over to them. In everything I read on roosters, sounds like a similar scenario.

Being unfairly aggressive or dominant with a stud tends to make them mean, or timid and distrustful (and still mean - just sneakier about it). They immediately sense any fear at all, and even if they are kind and sweet, if you let them into your personal space, you are exhibiting vulnerability and that raises them on the hierarchy over you, and you have a problem.

I know horses aren't birds ... but common sense would say to me - be fair to your birds, don't over react, never give up your space (like walk around them instead of walking where you intend to walk), do not show fear.

 

[Folly's place]

That's all true about horses, but unfortunately, cock birds aren't as smart as horses, and some are just programmed to attack humans, and won't give up. There are also some horrible horses out there, as there are horrible dogs, cats, etc, and good management doesn't fix everything.
I'd go out on a limb and propose that there's a higher % of human aggressive roosters, than the % of truly 'rogue' stallions, given that both have not been mismanaged. There's been greater incentive to weed out horrible horses, rather than roosters of some breeds.
Mary