Rooster attack

[Okaythen]

My 6-month-old rooster just attacked me for the first time. He's been fixating on one hen during mating and often hurts her. Whenever I see this, I pull him off and shoo him away. However, this time, he bit my hand hard enough to draw blood, which has never happened before. Is there still hope to correct this behavior? After leaving him alone for about two hours, I returned, and he didn’t attack me—he only gave my hand a light peck when I reached out to pet him. Should I just leave him alone, or is there a better way to handle this?

 

[The Moonshiner]

You're stopping him when he's trying to breed a hen?
Ya I don't think he's gonna ever be your friend.

 

[Okaythen]

You're stopping him when he's trying to breed a hen?
Ya I don't think he's gonna ever be your friend.

I'm new to raising chickens and still learning. How can I keep my hen safe and prevent my rooster from attacking me? Should I just let him do his own thing?

 

[nuthatched]

Seperate him out until he calms down or cull, he shouldn't be attacking his girls or you.

 

[Mrs. K]

Well if I was umping this game, he would have two strikes. One for the pullet and one for you.

I am assuming that you are a first time keeper, and have a flock of chickens that were raised together as flock mates. A lot of times this does not work with cockerels.

There are a couple of thoughts on raising roosters - none of them are 100% solid. Truth is, a lot of cockerel behavior is hormonal and genetic. And a lot of roosters turn out to be aggressive. They are rathe a crapshoot.

So what you really need to do (IMO) is come up with a plan B. Have it set up, close to hand, and ready to go. A small dog crate, a long handled fish net and leather gloves. This way you can capture an aggressive bird. Or you can back to the house and capture him in the dark while he is on the roost.

The only way you can protect your pullet from him (and this is very common, cockerels mature much faster and earlier than pullets) is to remove him from the set up. Keeping him separate from the pullets until most of them are laying can be very good.

I am in the camp of not making a pet of a cockerel. But then, I don't pet my hens either. I just watch them and enjoy them that way, chickens demonstrate respect, by giving space. I like that.

As for training the cockerel, once they get mean, there really is no training that you can trust. If you have young children, be very careful for them to be around him. They tend to attack children first. If I had children - he would be culled.

I would stop feeding him by hand. But a lot of people will swear by it. However, it did not work for him. Don't let your hand get that close to him.

The truth is cockerels are a crapshoot, some work out, and some don't.

Mrs K

 

[AGstudy]

Is he actually attacking your hen or is he merely overzealous in his mating? If he is attacking her you need to seperate him, if he is just hormonal you might try a saddle on her. It seems like at the beginning the young roosters have surging hormones. For some reason they go crazy for my rhode island reds.

I do the opposite of Mrs K. Though I respect her position. When animals are just for food then you don't act the same as when they are pets.

Both my roosters started showing signs of aggressiveness at 5-6months. They posture themselves different and the look in their eye is different. The one who imprinted on me was upset any time I crowed. So I spent a day of training with him crowing once and calming him down, then repeat. That was all he needed.

His brother is a different story. He started attacking me randomly when I wasn't paying attention. He went so far as to fly at my face, obviously trying to attack my eyes and made a cut across my nose. He has drawn blood with his bites many times. Now, even though I am new to roosters (they are currently 1.5years) this didn't really deter me cause I had had a hen who had the same temperment. Every day when I let her out she would run out happily, then stop, turn around and run back to bite me really hard on the shin. Then run off again. I would often hear 'thump, thump, thump' as she would run up behind be to bite my calf. So this was merely the male version of that. I like to think of it as the sneak attack personality.

For him I tried pushing him to the ground. It didn't work, he would keep coming back more aggressive. I tried crowing and pinning him. Didn't work. I tried intimidation by standing erect and looming over him without bending over. This stopped current attacks. I tried advancing towards him or chasing him. This helped in that he was skiddish of me, but when he would become comfortable around me he would start attacking me again.

Eventually I tried a new tactic. I turned him on his back and cradled him like a baby. I did this all the time. He hated it. So undignified! I stopped all aggressive tactics and did this instead. He started calming down. More and more the longer I did this. His stance became less aggressive and the look in his eye changed.

But since he is on top of the pecking order, I think he just wanted to duel somebody. I started doing gentle kicks with my boots around him body and he would attack the bottom of my boots. This would get him wound up and he would start attacking again.

Then my brother started dueling with him barefoot. He still does this. He literally goes out to the yard and the rooster sees him at a distance, runs over and tugs on his pant leg cause he wants to duel. My brother does a bunch or little kicks with his feet and taps the rooster on the chest gently. The rooster seems to know it is just for fun and jumps up and down and pecks his feet, but much more gently than in the past. As for me. If the rooster pecks me I gently hold his waddles. He used to really struggle, now he just goes still. And alls good.

Obviously, I would not recommend dueling your rooster. It was just something fun that has evolved as his exercise program. We do monitor his mood though to make sure he isn't getting too wound up. As for the hormonal sex drive, it seems to have mellowed with time.

Note: I would trust the first rooster around kids, the second rooster I wouldn't, but I don't think that your rooster is that bad. I would go for more interaction, though taking the hen out of the equation would make calming him easier. I agree with the Moonshiner. You were getting in the middle of something he really wanted. Even if he likes you, there are limits to what behavior he will tolerate from you.

After all, even human kids rebel when you get in the way of something they really want.

 

[Mrs. K]

Wow, Ridgerunner is right, we all do things differently. I would not keep a pet to rough house with, and certainly not to be bitten by.

Between pets and food, is a hobby. I think. Mine are a hobby. But the important thing is that we all enjoy how we do it.

Mrs K

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
I'm with @Mrs. K and @nuthatched on this! Is he injuring this hen (or is she a pullet), or just being rude to her? I don't condone actual injuries to the hens or pullets either, and I don't interfere with normal mating behavior unless there are injuries.
Cockerels with only hatchmates don't get the interactions with adult hens and roosters that can make a difference in their behaviors; eating humble pie is a good thing for them!
I'm not convinced that one bite, when he's so upset, is necessarily unforgivable. Hope he had some sort of negative response from you immediately though.
He needs to respect your space, and he's not a pet, he should pay attention to his flock and look out for dangers, which shouldn't include you.
Meanwhile, you are getting experience in flock dynamics and chicken behavior, and will see how this guy develops, either as a keeper, or not. There are many nice roosters out there, no need or reason to battle with a jerk.
Mary

 

[AGstudy]

I would not keep a pet to rough house with, and certainly not to be bitten by.

This "rough housing" is a mere fraction of the time. He has many great qualities in spades. He is extremely gentile with my girls, finds them good quality food. He is also a great peace maker in the flock. He appears to have adopted my new cockerel and is a peace maker between him and the other rooster. He is also very chill with the guineas. My people pleasing rooster doesn't have near these many good qualities.

 

[Scooter1A]

I'd put him in the pot. Somebody gave me two guineas. I raised them and the male started attacking my favorite laying hen. I gave him 2 days to shape up or ship out. He b gone.