Rooster aggression questions

[bubbalucas]

Hi all

I’ve had my rooster for about 6 months now and raised him from an egg and have always brought him inside, pet him, held him, and he never fussed. But recently he pecked me for the very first time and has been asserting dominance on me, like running at me and flapping his wings.

I am aware that as it is his first mating season he is extra aggressive, but will he go back to normal after spring or even next year? Also, silly question but could this mean that he doesn’t like me anymore?

He had never shown any agression or assertion of dominance whatsoever before about 1 week and a half ago

Thanks so much and I appreciate and help, comments, or advice

 

[Yardmom]

You had a chick who grew into a cockeral. It doesn't mean he doesn't like you, but it might be that he sees you as a flock member, so he wants to be dominant. Do you have other chickens?

 

[DobieLover]

Unfortunately coddling him while he was young was a big mistake. Now that his hormones are coursing through his body he has become a sexually mature cockerel. And he wants to take over the flock that he probably sees you as running. That's obviously a mistake on his part but trying to be your roosters best friend is not going to work. You have to have mutual respect for one another. You have to respect his position and role in the flock and work at making him understand you do not want it.

Until you get this resolved with him I would only enter the chicken area with sturdy pants and boots on and keep one eye on him without making direct eye contact. When you go out to feed treats go straight to him and give him the treats to dole out to the girls. If he starts flogging you stand your ground and slowly walk directly into him and don't stop until he stops. That always confuses them. And it quickly teaches him that his flogging will not make you stop.

Once you spend more time with him simply watching behaviors you will start to see the signs he's giving you that he's going to make a run for you. When you see early signs of that immediately go and squash him down to the ground pinning him there. Then pick him up and hold him under one arm football style and keep his face away from you because if he is truly aggressive he may bite you. And let me tell you, that's not fun. Carry him around with you for several minutes or sitting a chair and set them on your knee and restrain him. When he settles down let him jump off. Then continue to observe or go about your business.

You need to always walk calmly and assertively but not aggressively. Some people will tell you to walk right through him. I think that's just rude and unnecessary. I walk around all of my birds. None of them have any problems with me anymore.

And don't worry about your rooster liking you anymore. He probably never did from the beginning.

Now having said all of this I will throw in this caveat. If you have young children that are around your flock either make absolutely sure they never enter the chicken area without you or rehome that bird. You cannot take a risk of him injuring a young child.

 

[bubbalucas]

You had a chick who grew into a cockeral. It doesn't mean he doesn't like you, but it might be that he sees you as a flock member, so he wants to be dominant. Do you have other chickens?

Yes

 

[WingItRanch]

Hi all

I’ve had my rooster for about 6 months now and raised him from an egg and have always brought him inside, pet him, held him, and he never fussed. But recently he pecked me for the very first time and has been asserting dominance on me, like running at me and flapping his wings.

I am aware that as it is his first mating season he is extra aggressive, but will he go back to normal after spring or even next year? Also, silly question but could this mean that he doesn’t like me anymore?

He had never shown any agression or assertion of dominance whatsoever before about 1 week and a half ago

Thanks so much and I appreciate and help, comments, or advice

Hi. Narrowing in on one thing you asked... there's no such thing as "mating season" with cockerels/Roosters. They will mate all day every day- no matter the season. He's not a rooster until he is 1 year old. He's a hormonal cockerel right now. Think teenage boy but with a tendency to fight. He probably won't calm down until over a year old and even then, it's not a guarantee. Some males will always be human aggressive.

Cockerels and roosters can do serious damage, especially to children, so be very careful and be prepared to remove him from your flock if necessary.

 

[DLA]

Unfortunately coddling him while he was young was a big mistake. Now that his hormones are coursing through his body he has become a sexually mature cockerel. And he wants to take over the flock that he probably sees you as running. That's obviously a mistake on his part but trying to be your roosters best friend is not going to work. You have to have mutual respect for one another. You have to respect his position and role in the flock and work at making him understand you do not want it.

Until you get this resolved with him I would only enter the chicken area with sturdy pants and boots on and keep one eye on him without making direct eye contact. When you go out to feed treats go straight to him and give him the treats to dole out to the girls. If he starts flogging you stand your ground and slowly walk directly into him and don't stop until he stops. That always confuses them. And it quickly teaches him that his flogging will not make you stop.

Once you spend more time with him simply watching behaviors you will start to see the signs he's giving you that he's going to make a run for you. When you see early signs of that immediately go and squash him down to the ground pinning him there. Then pick him up and hold him under one arm football style and keep his face away from you because if he is truly aggressive he may bite you. And let me tell you, that's not fun. Carry him around with you for several minutes or sitting a chair and set them on your knee and restrain him. When he settles down let him jump off. Then continue to observe or go about your business.

You need to always walk calmly and assertively but not aggressively. Some people will tell you to walk right through him. I think that's just rude and unnecessary. I walk around all of my birds. None of them have any problems with me anymore.

And don't worry about your rooster liking you anymore. He probably never did from the beginning.

Now having said all of this I will throw in this caveat. If you have young children that are around your flock either make absolutely sure they never enter the chicken area without you or rehome that bird. You cannot take a risk of him injuring a young child.

Good advice! Roosters are good for 4 things in order of importance- making chicks, distracting predators so hens can escape, soup, being pretty to look at. They are not in charge, you are. If they can't accept that then they must go.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll offer my opinion on some of this.

Some people raise chicks the way you did, some do the opposite. Many do somewhere in between these extremes. If you read enough stories on here you'll find that you can have absolute terrors or absolute sweethearts with any method. Some are sweethearts until they are not. You don't get guarantees about behaviors with living animals. Don't beat yourself up thinking you made him this way.

It is correct technically that a female chicken is a pullet and a male chicken is a cockerel until they are exactly one year old. That has nothing to do with behaviors. It's like humans go from being children to adults at precisely 18 or 21, depending on the specific law. They do not immediately change behaviors. I've known some very mature teenagers and some others in their 50's that are still immature children as far as behaviors go. I'm more interested in maturity than exact age when it comes to behaviors. I've had a five month old cockerel act very mature, I've had them about a year old much less mature. Still, age is a guide as to where he might be in behaviors.

There have been threads on here about the mating season thing. Some people see an increase in aggression in their flock during the warmer days of spring and early summer. Some don't. Some breeders specifically have mentioned a decrease in fertility during the molt or in the fall/winter but others don't see that. I don't think mating season has anything to do with your cockerel at his age (it's his hormones in puberty) but with mature chickens it can be a thing.

Your cockerel is in puberty. His hormones are pretty much in control. They are telling him that he needs to be in charge and he needs to protect his flock. I don't know if he sees you as a threat to the flock, if he sees you as a challenger to his authority, or if he sees you as a flock member that needs to obey him.

When I get one like this I chase him down, pick him up, and carry him around some. Sometimes this stops him from attacking me, sometimes not. Sometimes he is trained to leave me alone but will attack other people that come around. If he does not attack me or others after a couple of lessons I keep him. If he continues to attack me or other people I eat him. There are too many good ones out there to keep a bad one. I don't want to have to worry when my grandkids visit. I don't want my grandkids parents to limit visits because I value a chicken over my grandkids.

 

[Fifi B]

Yes I would agree on what all of you said...
I have had my share of aggressive and sweet boys, and every single one of them started out "loving" me

the method that has worked best for me is to stare them down until they back off.

I have two Rhode Island Red roosters that guard my flock, (Pete and Delmar for any of you who have seen "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?") and they are too scared of me rn to try to attack me... but they have fought each other before! For some reason after I bandaged them up the first time after a rough fight, and carried them around wrapped up like babies, they stopped fighting and haven't fought since!

Generally, your roo will not like you, but it is important that he respects you, and anyone else who enters his domain.

I definitely agree wholeheartedly that if your rooster will not back down and there is a risk of him hurting a child or anyone else, the best thing to do is to cull him. The wellbeing of a human is much more important than that of a chicken.

 

[Revkimberlysflock]

Hi all

I’ve had my rooster for about 6 months now and raised him from an egg and have always brought him inside, pet him, held him, and he never fussed. But recently he pecked me for the very first time and has been asserting dominance on me, like running at me and flapping his wings.

I am aware that as it is his first mating season he is extra aggressive, but will he go back to normal after spring or even next year? Also, silly question but could this mean that he doesn’t like me anymore?

He had never shown any agression or assertion of dominance whatsoever before about 1 week and a half ago

Thanks so much and I appreciate and help, comments, or advice

I had a rooster who was extremely aggressive all of a sudden at about 3 months.. he tried to rush at my grandson. My grandson is not even 2 years old yet. His name is Richie Rich and he's biggest one in the whole flock and he's a Copper Maran. He thought that he was going to run things and he was going run over anyone and everyone he wanted.


That trick of holding them down by their neck and then holding them and talking to them and spending time with them works. I would agree with everyone above me that states if he won't straighten up get rid of him. We had two separate incidents and after holding him down to the floor twice by his neck, I put him out of the coop the second time , because he was picking on all of the other chickens in there and being totally mean to them . Then he ran at my grandson again , when I let him back in the coop with everybody the next day I fussed at him, he ran to the back side of their Coop where they can all hide.. and I have had no issues since.

We have older and younger chicks in separate coops belonging to separate people on four acres. I have seen the other person that lives here deal with aggressive roosters and roosters pecking and chasing kids. One of hers ran up to my granddaughter while she was blowing her whistle in the yard, and pecked her twice and then started to chase her when she was crying and running to the house. You just can't allow it.

I'll tell you what, Richie Rich made me angry that day he charged at my grandson and I pinned him. I was going to kill him that day. I just didn't have the heart. Now, He looks at me like okay you're the food Giver and we're cool and doesn't cause any problems. I thought that I was going to have to have some stew. That really would have broken my heart, as well as my 7-year-old granddaughter, because this one is one that my granddaughter picked, watched hatch, and spent massive amounts of time with when he was tiny. She also named him. I allowed them to name the first batch, most of the second batches named chicken names like chicken tenders Zaxby's Chick-fil-A and so forth. Anyway with that first batch, I had them in a brooder and they would come up and climb up on their little toy I had in there when we raised the lid just to get attention.

Needless to say we were first-time hatchers, and we learned our lesson on the second batch but we still do have some of our first batch and they're about 4 months old now. Once we discovered he was a rooster we started paying better attention to the hens and giving him his space . He's already trying to mount some of the hens so I guess his puberty came early.