Rooster Psychology

[NatJ]

My husband's turned out to be a rooster, but he was in love with "his" bird...The thing is, he's very sweet and docile when he's just hanging out in the house with us. He turns into a completely different bird outside when he has ladies to impress (and my husband isn't there).

Since your husband is the one most attached to this rooster, and he doesn't have trouble (at least so far), I do hope you have talked with your husband about the matter. Maybe he could be responsible for all outdoor things that involve the rooster. Having the rooster inside a pen, and only your husband enters that pen, would be a way to keep everyone else safe.

Maybe keep the whole flock of chickens in a pen you don't go into, or maybe make a pen for just the rooster and have it next to the hens' area so he can interact with them through the fence but cannot actually get into the space where you and the hens go. Then your husband could do anything that needs to happen inside the rooster's pen, and you would not be attacked.

It is usually best for chickens to have time outside, and to be part of a flock instead of living alone. But in this case, having you considered having the rooster live inside all the time? Since it sounds like he is not a problem there.

Unfortunately that guy can draw blood even through my jeans. I've been told you can have their spurs filed down, but here in Los Angeles it's almost impossible to find a vet who will even see a chicken.

That is definitely a problem. Filing the spurs should be a job that you & your husband can do, without needing a vet. The usual advice is to wrap the rooster in a towel, with his head sticking out one end (so he can breathe) and one or both feet sticking out the other end (so you can work on them.) It is probably a two-person job, with one to hold the rooster and the other to work on the spurs.

You should be able to blunt the ends of the spurs with a dremel tool, or maybe even with a hand-held file. You don't want to go too deep, just like you don't want to cut a dog's or chicken's toenails too short, but you might be able to just cut off the tip, the way you would with a dog's toenails, to save time with the dremel or file. The spur is bigger than a toenail, so a small saw might be the right tool to cut off the pointy end. (I have never done it personally, but I've seen quite a few articles about it, and there are also youtube videos as another poster pointed out.)

 

[LaurenRitz]

He has decided you are a chicken, but you are not behaving the way he expects a chicken to act. Either you're one of his girls and not submitting--does he try to wing-dance, or try to herd you?--or you're another rooster messing with his hens. He doesn't have room in that little chicken brain for any other categories.

Your husband is obviously dominant, and he acts it. I am guessing that you are looking down to step around any hens in your way, walking wide around them, and especially around him.

This puts you below the hens in the hierarchy. There are other aspects to the behavior, but keep your head up and walk right through the middle if they happen to be in your way. Dominant roo doesn't move aside for anyone except a more dominant roo.

 

[Cee]

Our rooster is now around 2 years old. It's absolutely true that his aggression seems to be all about the girls. Before we got a rooster, the hens were all very friendly "lap chickens," but now they're all flighty and I can't touch any of them. Makes it a little hard to examine them for mites and dirty butts, or to even do a thorough job cleaning their coop and run. I feel a little guilty, because I'm not able to keep everyone nearly as clean as I used to. I will try ignoring him when he "challenges" me to a fight. This usually results in my getting attacked from behind, but maybe if I just shake it off he'll get tired of jumping on me.

Do your hen upkeep at night.

 

[PennyWars]

I've got suburban Los Angeles chickens, so this is another one of those questions that real farm people will probably laugh at. But we have 4 hens and an "accidental" half-bantam rooster that we took a liking to and decided to keep. But out of consideration for our neighbors, I take him out of the coop and put him in a kennel inside the house at night, and I don't put him back out with the hens until a reasonable hour of the morning. When he's inside the house, he's a sweet little pet rooster who likes to sit in my lap with the dogs and get pets. When he's outside with the girls, it's another story. He takes advantage of any opportunity to attack me, especially sneaking up from behind. Other times he'll puff up his feathers and challenge me head-on. He does this with me and any other kids or women who come into the yard (although he's too intimidated to attack my husband). He's a complete chickenSh*t when it comes to protecting the girls. (A strange dog got into our yard the other day and he headed straight up a tree, every bird for themselves).

I've done the thing where I don't let him win a fight. I hold onto him tight, do the "forced affection" thing, show him he can't win, etc. I've tried the "rocking" trick I saw someone do on YouTube. But he does the same exact thing over and over again. I wish I could get inside his little head to understand his thinking. It seems to me he's attacking me specifically because he knows I won't hurt him and isn't intimidated. Is he showing off for the girls? It's even occurred to me that he might think this is a really fun game, and he might actually enjoy when I grab hold of him and restrain him.

Does anyone have any insight? Am I inadvertently encouraging him to attack me because of the way I respond? Is there something else I should try to prevent these showdowns in the first place? Or is this just an individual rooster personality thing?

When I was a kid we had an Americauna rooster who would fly up to attack me whenever he could. One day as he flew up, I grabbed his feet and hung him upside down for a moment. He looked so darn confused, couldn't figure out what just happened. Then I flipped him upright, held and talked to/petted him (he would grumble back) and set him down. He'd walk away turning his head this way and that, eyeing me and making rooster noises, like a kid who got sent to his room and complained the whole way . After a week or so he quit trying, with me at least. My mom he never gave up on, but she wouldn't do the upside down thing. So I was the only one feeding chickens from then on.

 

[FrostRanger]

Either keep him away from the girls permanently and never breed him ever or cull him. Since it sounds like your situation isn't ideal for keeping roosters anyways, I'd suggest the latter. Once they start attacking people behavior modification rarely works to change that and oftentimes it'll just get worse. We recently had a case of someone getting sent to the hospital because of a rooster attack, they can absolutely do serious damage with those spurs so I would deal with him sooner rather than later