Roovolution recently made an awesome video on tried-and-true methods for taming roosters (and they're certainly not the typical ones we see so often!) -- check it out here! ruclips.net/video/4TPsh44AIak/видео.html We can't wait to apply this psychology with our boys, too.
I love my 2 roos. I sit down on a lawn chair and they hop up on my lap for their petting time. Can last for up to ten mins then they wander off and look after the hens. They are 6 months old. I have a chicken cam in the coop to keep an eye on everything. Every day then hen goes in to lay her egg, her roo will stand by and help her make the nest and just stands there for about 15 mins while she lays. It's the most adorable thing. Then walks her out and the day proceeds. Crazy right? I'm in love with my chickens.
My brother’s friend raised a rooster from when he hatched until now, and I can honestly say it is the nicest rooster I have ever seen or met in my life! She raised it by itself, as the other eggs they incubated did not hatch anything out, so he was all alone. She had hoped he was a hen, as her family had only kept hens and processed the roosters, but he ended up being a rooster and she was terrified for him. Luckily for her, and the rooster😅, her family fell in love with him as well, and he is literally like her little feathered dog; he follows her wherever she goes around the farm, and he has never pecked/spurred anyone ever! He doesn’t strip the hens of their back feathers, and he has saved some of their hens from hawk attacks as well. What makes this little guy even more fascinating is that he is a Rhode Island Red, and, nothing against them (I have a hen myself who is SUPER smart and friendly), the breed isn’t known for always being the friendliest in terms of roosters. She spent every moment of every day she could with him since he hatched, so he probably imprinted on her which helped strengthen their bond; she even used to study with him by reading through her study guides with him wrapped in a blanket on her lap until he fell asleep😂.
Wow nice, Almost the same story. All my hens in profile pic are my super lovely 😍 pets They came out from Incubator and I love them so much. I raised them from day one 🐣🐤
I have 1 rooster, he's a white silkie and he hasn't reached maturity yet. He became aggressive at the beginning of his teen months? but now he loves being picked up and he's just my adorable spoiled boy. I don't know anything about training roosters or chickens since I am new to this whole chicken world, but I'm learning little by little with your help and other kind people on RUclips who take valuable time from their lives to inform us and teach us about these wonderful animals. Thank you so much for your wonderful videos, love them!!
Yes They can Be super friendly and lovely pets, I have few hens and roosters which are now so grown up, I am raising them from the day first and they hatched in my Incubator 🐣🐤
i just lost my buddy named Rocky. his temperament was day by day. sometimes he'd sit on my knee and watch the Saints with me and most of the time he was hanging with the girls. He went out protecting them from a coon. Thank you for your tips and discussions. Watching your videos has helped me out a lot. Bless y'all.
We love our rooster. He can be aggressive at times. My husband has been training him and this last time seemed to stick (it took several). My husband will catch him and pin him to the ground briefly, them pick him up and walk around the yard with him tucked under his arm for various lengths of time. The last training was a couple weeks ago, I think, and had finally stuck. We love the sounds he makes and luckily we live close to a highway so his crows are pretty much drowned out. I’m with you about much rather hearing the crowing than dogs barking.
my buff cochin roo was a sweetheart until the day he wasn't. He used to sit on my lap and watch Monday night football. Now he's a big beautiful 13 lb rooster. At about 1 year, a switch got tripped and he became aggressive when I would walk into the coop to do chores. I thought if I showed him I'm the alpha, he would chill out. I learned the battle of wills doesn't apply. It took time to make some connections but I did learn a few things. Not sure if this is the case with all roos, but it was with mine and might work for others who have an aggressive rooster. I took note of what I was doing before he attacked, where his eyes were and what part of my body he was actually going after. I noticed he was looking at and attacking my shoes only..never my legs. Then a light bulb went off... It completely mattered what footwear I had on as the determining factor of whether he attacked or not. If I had the barn boots on he was accustomed to seeing, he was fine. My wife has barn boots with little chicken prints on it and he would attack her every time. If she wears mine, he never goes after her. If I wear crocks he stares at them and gets all worked up and sometimes attacks. If I wear sneakers into the coop, he goes ape shit. It's as though he doesn't realize my footwear is attached to me. As an experiment one day I wore my boots but carried my sneakers into the coop and set them down in the corner. He went after them like they were the enemy of all things chicken. So I think that confirmed my theory. Now I only wear my boots and there are no problems. I've seen several vids too and most of those "techniques" are just cruel and at best, make their rooster fear and hate their owners. I don't agree with mistreating any animal. We all need to have a basic understanding of rooster psychology if we're going to have one. When we enter the run/coop, we are barging into his domain. Roosters, like Tom turkeys, actually have egos and they have a strong drive to impress the hens and always be the alpha. When we enter the coop, we are viewed as a threat and challenging them for supremacy. They take this very personally because it directly impacts the flock dynamics. If they lose the respect of the hens, they won't want to mate with him and that's literally all that matters in nature. There is validity to this across all species. With this in mind, I have found that when I go in to feed them, I will first bring greens, raisins or a handful of something they like. I always offer the treats to him and him only. It matters. When we hand them out to the girls, we are in reality usurping his role yet again and making him irrelevant. I noticed that when I give the treats to him alone, he will distribute them to the girls and everything is hunky dory. In fact he will actually feel quite pleased with himself and his mood is completely happy. I can then go about filling waterers and feeders without any issues. When he first started attacking I would catch him and pick him up and stroke his feathers until he calms down. I noticed that his poor heart was racing so there's definitely something physiological going on. After I would put him down, he would actually walk away and act depressed. Most importantly, the girls actually behaved differently toward him afterward too and would avoid him. So I think I unwittingly humiliated him in front of the hens which is all that matters in his world. Once I figured this out and began treating him with the dignity he deserves, everything changed. He hasn't taken a run at me in well over a year and he actually lets me scratch his belly without pecking me. The girls come running to him when everhe clucks, they follow and hang around him and often initiate the mating. There really is a chain of command and if we respect that, we get a happy flock. He is a noble boy and great protector who will sacrifice himself without hesitation if the need arises. He deserves our respect.
We have a rooster named Johnny. He is still young, not even a year old yet. He has gotten huge (he is an EE mixed with I think a Jersey Giant or some sort of big black chicken). I currently have a love/hate relationship with him. He is a great protector and provider of the hens, but sometimes he gets too big for his britches, and decides to test my authority, and will try to run at me and attack me, especially in the mornings. Food distraction really helps most of the time. If I give him something that he can give the ladies, he normally leaves me alone. I will say, as much as you want to, running away from them when they are being aggressive is NOT the answer! I have had to physically keep him away from me by wacking him or at least at him with what I have in my hand or putting my foot up towards him. As silly as it sounds, what I have found that works the best when he is agitated is mimicking his behavior towards the hens when he is correcting them: I will flap my arms and stomp my feet towards him, and normally, he will pretty quickly back down after that, because he then respects my authority. But before it gets to that, I try to talk to him, feed him extra food, and make him feel special. I am praying that as he gets older, he will calm down, because other than that, he is a good rooster, and he is beautiful.
Yes Roosters are Really Angry and Aggressive sometimes and Its also depends on their breed too some type of roosters are calm and some are really Aggressive, Specially at morning time when they really wanna eat something 😂
I have a similar situation with one of my cockerels, our head honcho. He was my favorite chick so I'm thinking it's partly because I handled him quite a bit. Anyhoo, he is wonderful with the flock and is a devoted guardian, but he behaves very similarly towards me. It is getting less frequent, last time he tried to jump at me I caught him by the tail feathers and held him upside down. I like your idea of behaving like a rooster correcting his ladies. I didn't know they did that. Hope his manners continue to improve because I really love him. That said, he's an olive egger and I do still have to consider if he adds any value to the flock other than protection. I haven't really seen our other cockerels behave like him, good or bad, but that could be because they are lower in the hierarchy. I do have one wimpy wyandotte who is almost twice his size😆
We have a buff orpington rooster and 20 hens. They came with the house when we bought it. Not sure of his age but he seems to be maybe a few years old. We knew NOTHING about raising chickens so the learning process has been fun and interesting. He is an absolute sweetheart!! He loves his girls and keeps one eye on the ladies and one eye on the sky. Great protector and is diligent about keeping the girls feeling safe by alerting them when he senses danger (Alot of hawks around) We love the little noises he uses to alert the girls when he finds tasty treats lol. We have a lot of fruit trees so when he finds a fallen fruit he lets them have it all. They follow him around and seem to absolutely adore him. It's such a beautiful thing to watch. He is tame with us. We have never picked him up or handled him. He respects us and we respect him. Loving the chicken life and we love your videos!
Our boy Lincoln is a real pill! We adopted him last year after 3 overhead attacks to our flock! He’s very effective though; haven’t lost a hen this year and gained a chick too! He charges at us and pecks the hands who feed him so we always carry a water spray bottle to fight him off! He’s a real character…
I have 4 roosters. I worked everyday with them. When they start the aggressive phase. I go in the run and pick him up when he attacks me. I keep doing that until he stops. It’s worked with them all. They are all different breads.
Do what the rooster does to the hens. Force him down and pull up and back on his comb while standing over him. Don't let him up till he stops resisting. It works I assure you. The problem you will have is when you do it the other roosters may attack him while you pin him. That will likely mellow the problem rooster out for a couple of months.
Please explain how to pick up a rooster without getting hurt in the process. Mine runs at me (not all the time, he's mostly good but he has his moments) and I don't know how to get around that and pick him up without getting hurt.
In my experience thus far with seven different roosters once you pin them give it a moment they’ll stop moving once you keep their wings in place they’ll stay immobile
In my experience thus far with seven different roosters once you pin them give it a moment they’ll stop moving once you keep their wings in place they’ll stay immobile
I enjoyed your rooster video and just wanted to comment on my rooster experience. I originally got 6 chicks from a local farmer, 1 was a Cochin, and 5 were Silkies. I didn’t know it at the time, but 5 turned out to be roosters and only 1 was a hen! Against ALL advice I raised them all together, and as luck would have it they all got along pretty well! After they grew up, 2 of the roosters would fight with me every time I walked near them! They are all pretty small so they didn’t present too much danger… but it was getting exhausting fighting with them all the time. I ended up giving them away 😢. Then along came 4 more babies that my sweet broody hen raised… and they turned out to be 2 hens and 2 more roosters. Then 2 more babies came, jury is still out on them, but I think they may also be roosters! (These last 2 babies must have been fathered by the Cochin because they look like him and have his personality!) Soooo, I now have 10 chickens, only 3 are hens! The pecking order has changed over time, but they all get along except for some squabbling every now and then. They are my pets, all of them are named, and I’ve spoiled them so they come up on my porch looking for treats all the time. My original Cochin rooster will hop up on my lap and just hang out with me!
First year owning a flock of 6 and one of my chicks turned out to be a roo. They are almost 8 months old now and he is turning out to be a good protector. He can definitely be aggressive at times, especially if he feels I’m stressing out his hens too much. When he gets ridiculous I hold him down or pick him up and he seems to chill for a bit but it doesn’t last for longer than a few days. Being out in the country I don’t overly mind because I do feel better knowing he’s keeping an eye on the girls when I can’t always be out there. (They aren’t free range but they do have a somewhat open area with bird netting). He’ll signal and they all scurry for the coop.
Along with my roo, I have a 10 month old Jersey Giant hen and a blue australorp hen about 4 months old. My chickens are pets. I rescued a porcelain D'uccle that was supposed to be a female, 2 months old. He was kicked out of two homes because they picked on him. He kept trying to get in the house. He is my snuggle buddy. He doesn't Crow that much so I haven't gotten rid of him and now he's a house roo. I have a diaper for him. He's afraid of his own shadow. He loves to be held. I lay on the bed in front of the open window and he loves to sit with me in the sun on the bed as I take a nap or work on my tablet. He just likes to hang out. I have a no crow collar for him that I put on more as a deterrent if he crows and then take it off after a bit or he gets it off himself because I put it on a little loose. I'll spray him with water if he crows which scares him and so he stops. Also stops if I pick him up he stops. He's a love bug. He is close to 6 months old now. The only aggressive thing I have seen him do is to poke my Jersey Giant in the butt. lol He does it and then he runs! It's hilarious to watch. She's always so calm and patient with them. I get almost an egg a day from my Jersey Giant! They go outside during the day but they come inside to sleep at night and I have diapers for them when they're inside. The diapers have a v-shaped pouch that the poop falls into so it never touches them or their feathers and it's plastic lines so you just wipe it off and dump it in the toilet, so easy. They sleep in a big 7 ft tall old ferret cage. I have the big ropes for the big birds higher up in the cage and that's where they sleep. I have the food hanging on the side of the cage so in the middle of the night if they want to eat they can. I have little magnetic motion lights that will come on if they move in the cage. They are Rechargeable. All three will sit and snuggle with me as I drink my morning coffee. My hens aren't necessarily touchy-feely but they like to sit with me. I do make sure I snuggle each love to have their waddles rubbed. My australorp will sit on my desk as I work from home. When I snuggle with my Jersey Giant she will actually purr like a cat. I put the rule out when I'm home so I can hurry and get him if he crows. I don't live in a neighborhood where they're allowed so I'm hiding them all. My roo really doesn't crow that often. I have their food next to the dog food in a normal chicken feeder that sits in a boot tray so it doesn't get everywhere.
In my limited experience with Roosters, they are also good at keeping the peace between squabbling hens and also alert the hens when they find food or treats while free ranging. I have a really good boy who always puts his girls first ❤
Great video! We have 4 roosters, a Buff, 2 Barred Rocks, and a Starlight Green Egger (he was in the Pullet bin by mistake, but ended up being a beautiful and sweet guy) I think, like you said, they are all so different, and sometimes are just jerks. We handle one of ours a lot, and he is the sweetest, and two of them are amazing protectors and respect us but definitely do not want to be picked up. We give lots of treats, literally keep them in my pocket, so all the chickens look forward to me coming. We also make lots of eye contact and use very calm voices while hand feeding.
Catch him and hold head/body down non aggressively for 30 seconds. We did that about 3 weeks ago to remind him who is in charge. He still keeps one eye on me and I never turn my back to him now but he hasn’t been aggressive or attacked me since. You may have to do this a few times I’ve heard but so far so good!
I found that offering the food and treats to the rooster instead of the hens goes a long way to befriending a rooster. Otherwise, he sees you as competition. Also, if you want to pet the roo, try turning your hand fingers pointed down to approach him. A hand with fingers up may look like raised neck feathers to a rooster which would translate as a challenge.
My hens make a LOT more noise than my roosters. My roosters are good protectors and especially the older one (he's 2yrs old).. He always lets the hens eat first. He's never been aggressive towards us but he is to strangers who have no business in the pen anyway. We love Henry. I've never handled him but having been very scratched up by a rooster when I was a kid I've always respected him. After two years he is finally actually friendly and I have to literally move him out of they way so I can walk past. I love rooster crows!
My three year old and four year old rosters are very sweet. Father and son. I can pick each of them up and carry them around like babies. Love your chick flicks. I always learn new ideas from them.
I have a young rooster. He sucks at protecting, but he's actually really sweet. We hatched him from the egg and handled him a ton the 1st 4 weeks. Now he's spoiled and will usually come to you for a snuggle if you squat down and open your arms. I have heard that if you pin a roosters body with one hand and pin its neck to the ground between your 2 fingers that it mimics what they do in the wild to establish dominance. You have to hold them there for a few minutes though.
I'm in love with my golden rooster Johnny 🥰 his personality between the hens and the ducks is very sweet. He's a bit of a jerk to his buddy Bruno, our other rooster. For the most part he keeps order in the coop and he doesn't do any real harm. Maybe some embarrassment and hurt feelings lol
I rooster wandered into our property and stayed. We have since built him a coop out of a storage shed and attached a run. We think he was pretty young due to the lack of tail feathers. Very sweet bird so far. We might get him some hens next year. Never had a chicken before. Lol His name is Blue Cheese
I have a white silkie roo and a beautiful Easter egger roo! So far they are both gentlemen but the easter egger is still young so fingers crossed he stays that way. For now they get along great. The silkie roo sticks with the silkie hens and the Easter egger stays with the other girls even though they live together in one giant coop and yard it’s almost like they’re 2 separate flocks
Our rooster is about 6 months old. We got him two months ago. He's been aloof around us, but he has bonded beautifully with the girls. I have done two things. One thing is I feed him from my hand so he can see we're not harming anyone. Second, I don't pick the girls up as often. Sometimes they flap and fluff when you set the chickens down, and that makes the rooster growl (who knows why). So I don't pick them up much because I don't want him thinking we're harming the girls. All is well so far. He never leaves their side, he shows them where to find food and even helps with finding a good nest box!
We will always have at least one roo in the flock. Right now we have 3, 2 barred plymouths and a kosher king. One's a bit aggressive, one's a bit of a scaredy cat, and the king is an old man who mostly keeps to himself. But all three are absolute badasses when hawks start threatening their girls. The local rodents don't even try their luck (though that might have something to do with our dogs too).
I have 3 Roos as well. My first rooster is small and light, maybe a pound and a half, he likes to be cuddled and hang out but also has a serious attitude streak. He’s my toughest boy and also one of my very first chickens so I’ve learned a lot from him. Even though he tries to get the best of me most days I’ve lost all my fear so I’m able to grab him every single time. For time out I put him on the ground using one hand to press his body into a laying position (cat loaf style) and the other hand to hold his neck down as well (sometimes it helps to put him in between your knees/thighs to help hold his wings in when he’s being real stubborn about getting away) and then use the hand that holds his neck down to pull on his main so he’s looking up at you. After he’s still and “malleable” you can let him go and he should be at least a little sorry. He still tries to get me so it’s not like he’s stopped completely but it definitely helps with handling him rather then letting him mow me over 💀 The other is silkie who has the random urge to peck your foot (hurts like hell when he does) but is otherwise well mannered. My third is actually my firsts’ son. He is that rooster who is worth his weight in gold. He’s amazing at leading and protecting. Stops arguments between the other two boys as well as stops his dad from trying to bully me too. He studies everything I do and mimics me. Rather than being on the smaller side like his dad he takes after his mom and is the largest chicken in my flock (he’s black too but still has his colorful rooster feathers so I doubt anyone is confusing him for a crow) I can’t believe I almost gave him up when he was still a tiny thing because I wasn’t sure I wanted/could handle another boy. He truly makes everything easier :D (My little silkie doesn’t have spurs but I use a heavy duty nail filer for the other two. We have spa days because I’m to squeamish about removing them)
We have 7 chickens. 5 Rhode Island Red hens, one Easter Egger hen and a Easter Egger rooster. The RIRs are a year and 8 months old and the EEs are 9 months old. Our chickens are all relatively friendly, the least friendly is our EE hen. The rooster is a gentle giant and a gentleman with the hens. We handled him a lot when he was a chick and he loved to perch on my arm or shoulder and be carried around when he was little. He went through a phase when he was coming into his adulthood where he tried to square up with my husband but that was only for a few days. He is my husband and my favourite chicken and very entertaining. He's also always gifting the hens with bugs and food he finds around the yard. 😄
I ended up keeping one of my chicks who ended up being a rooster, he doesn't like being handled, and is very protective of the flock, but is so gentle with humans. He'll pick out treats from your hand very gently (and usually just give it straight to one of the hens). I do use a rooster collar because I'm not really supposed to have a rooster, so it's either that or getting rid of him, and it certainly doesn't stop him from crowing (he does, a lot) but it reduces the volume. How much pretty much depends how tightly it's put on. I'm very careful so it's not as quiet as it could be, but I don't want to risk the choking problems I've read about. Been a year now and haven't had any problems. I think one thing missed from this video is needing enough hens per rooster and possible de-feathering issues from mating with certain hens too much.
Hello oak abode… I agree with your videos love them all.. I actually live just a couple of miles away from the the egg and I road and I know you really love that book😊… I have silver laced Wyandotte roosters a very large breed also, so just adding that large breed roosters because of their large weight and size can be hard on hens if roosters are constantly jumping them…so it’s good to monitor this… to prevent back injuries on your hens….
I have 6 roosters and they are all really sweet I feel it’s just there nature, we calm them down by holding them to keep them calm by gently petting them let them know you’re not an aggressor towards them
You can correct aggressive rooster behavior. It's a pretty simple thing. You just grab him by the back feathers and put downward pressure on his back, pushing him to the ground and immobilizing him. Then you gently push his face into the ground by the back of the head (not so that he can't breathe, but that he's in a completely undignified position). Talk firmly to him for 30 seconds or so, and then let him go. This establishes dominance. Rinse and repeat as necessary. I was ready to cook our leghorn rooster as he injured me several times and showed no signs of letting up. This bothered me because he takes great care of his flock. The hens and babies always eat first, he breaks up fights between the chickens, and he's the last to roost. Tried this technique and he and I have been on great terms since. He'll do a run at me as I close the door (when he knows he can't get me and I can't get him, so this is just to save face with the hens...almost like a little game at this point). If he slips and makes a serious move on me, I'll just do this again to re-establish my place.
We have a barred rock rooster. He was kind for a while then, like you said, a switch flipped and he was super aggressive. It’s hard to take care of the other animals with him around charging us. He needs to be go in the freezer soon.
I have not had a whole lot of experience with roosters because we are not allowed to keep them in the city. The 1 Buff Orpington rooster we raised out of a bin of pullets, I took to my mother's farm when he got too big. He was very gentle and a good protector. Unfortunately, he died protecting his flock from a raccoon. We also raised a splash Wyandotte that we did not handle as much. He was gentle enough, but skittish. He crowed loudly, so he had to go to freezer camp. I have read, and this is what we did with the buff, we handled him a lot and also made sure to hand feed him special treats. That way, he looks at the provider as the head rooster. Then he will respect your dominance over him unless he gets to the point he wants to challenge you. Then again, there is probably no way to prevent that if that's what nature tells him to do. We currently have a blue Wheaton Ameraucana that I believe is a rooster. He is only slightly skittish but will let us hold him, take food out of our hands, is very quiet, gentle, and loving. When our extremely gentle head hen ISA Brown had sour crop and was laying around a lot after treatment, the rooster laid beside her and cuddled with her. We plan on keeping him as long as he doesn't start crowing loudly because he is beautiful, so mild mannered, and quiet. We are also hopeful that we will get some Olive eggers and light green egg layers out of him mixed with our other breeds, which lay everything from light cream to dark brown eggs.
I have an Austrolorp rooster that I handled frequently during brooding, he is a very good Roo. He take his job very seriously. I do occasionally try to grab Randall & hold him, which he will run from me but when I have him, he is very tolerant. Yes I just had a hen hatch 2 eggs in last week!!
Our rooster went through a phase of being aggressive toward us (especially when our backs were turned toward him), but it stopped after I made a point of chasing him around and grabbing him enough times.
Crow collars worn over long periods of time cause rooster's neck to deteriorate and feathers to grow improperely. Ben from Urban Rescue Ranch had a rooster literally wither away after crow collar was taken off due to some weird form of muscle atrophy.
I have three roosters in my flock of about 100 chickens. Cogburn, Foghorn and Leghorn. The crowing never stops but my nearest neighbor is over a mile away so no problem there. I love the sound.
We were given a rooster a few months ago. We think he is an easter egger as he has the fluffy cheeks and the most beautiful array of colors. He's pretty friendly and has been great around our kids, but I think he's just a more passive rooster, as some of the hens will chase him around and peck him a bit. He's been great and I'm hoping we'll get to hatch out some chicks next spring.
Kathleen, I told you about Winchester. He was great. I understood where he was coming from. He would get his ladies in the coop and then I had the nerve to come out with my little white bucket. As soon as the girls saw that they would run right to the house. But if he ever attacked me I would just grab him, put him under my arm and slowly walk around the yard for a good 30 minutes. Looking at the berry brush and the flowers. I might sit on the deck and talk to him about politics or the economy. Then I would take him back down to the coop and gently place him back into the fence. That would work for maybe two months before I would have to do that again. Winter was a little tougher but I would also have a little ziplock bag of live meal worms that I would get from the house for such a occasion. I’m looking for a new rooster now. Winchester was a Black Copper Maran but I was thinking about getting a Jersey Giant. Funny huh? Great video. Hope to hear from you soon.
We have had the same experience with our roosters. The ones that are handled a lot are meaner. And the ones that are rarely handled growing up are better with the kids.
We use a No Crow Collar and love it. It doesn't restrict their breathing but it's a different process when crowing. They can still talk, eat, breath, and crow... everything at normal levels except the crowing which knocks down their sound to being on par with the girls Egg Song. We got lucky that our Roo didn't take long to adjust to the collar (maybe 3 minutes the first time, and then instantly every time after the first). First thing he did after having it put on was do his mating dance for his girls, so he really didn't skip a beat. He has kind of turned into a jerk (he's still under 6 months) and was handled a lot when young so you might be on to something there.
I originally started my flock with all Jersey giants. They are absolutely amazing. Out of the 12 I purchased 3 were roosters. I rehomed 2 that seemed more aggressive than the one I kept. I have handled all of my chickens from the very beginning. RooRoo is such a gentleman and protects his girls with instinct. I'm the only one that can pick him up. He is aggressive towards my little girl. I think because he sees her as a threat. She runs through the yard making animal noises(not a good idea) so he gets feisty. Two techniques I use, even my 4 year old, and they seem to work. Very well. Stop the rooster in his tracks, hold your arms out like wings and make yourself look big. You don't have to tell or move. Just stare in his eye and wait for him to turn and walk away first. My boyfriend reacts to him with aggression and RooRoo jumped at him. Not a good idea. I have also carried him around for a few minutes showing I'm the boss.
One more thing, I haven't owned chickens very long. And so far these techniques have worked. My rooroo eats clovers from my handle and is very gentle. Chickens were wild animals before they were domesticated. They act based on instinct. We developed a mutual respect with one another.
Both my roosters are sweeties, they try to assert dominance once in a while, but i just hold them down until theyre submissive. I spent a lot of time with them growing up, and they sleep in the basement in a pen at night so I handle them daily. They have an established order among the two of them.
Our rooster is a barred rock named Elvis. He is huge! And quite the character. His comb flops over like a pompadour. I’ve seen him eyeing upwards toward the sky when a turkey vulture was overhead. So I believe it when you say they might alert the flock to a flying predator. So far he is a gentleman- we’ve only had him for three months. We love him except at 4:00 in the morning 😂 I enjoyed your share and the opportunity to see other comments.
Earle is our barred Plymouth Rock rooster. He is 90% super well behaved but gets aggressive when we have company, especially people he isn’t used to. Picking him up while he is in “attack mode” works for us! We also hand feed treats and if our company wants to they can and he seems to settle knowing he is getting fed. As a cockerel he let us pet him occasionally but as soon as the girls started laying he changed and now no way!! Lol Thanks for your channel and videos! ❤️🐓
Thank you for the video & info. So we’ve been lucky with our latest roosters. We have 2 roosters. A Partridge Rock & a Lavender Orpington. Both are pretty gentle. They are both large. The Partridge Rock seems to be a little more aggressive with potential predators . Both are fairly gentle with their hens. Both breed’s hens are gentle & definitely broody. The Partridge Rock has already driven off a large hawk that was attempting to go after his hens.
Hi thanks for the info I have two month old Cockrell, right now no problem but their all in brooder. Any dominance more than chicken, and it's to freezer camp. I'm trying to keep as many , as I have A. Bresse
An important point for chicken owners that have or wanting to have a rooster is maintaining a balanced flock. Recommended 1 rooster per 10 hens to prevent fighting and over breeding (which can stress out hens and cause physical damage).
I have beautiful Cochin rooster. And 3 welsummer hens. We named him Big Earl lol he is so good to his girls. He even stands back to let them get treats first. He's quite the gentleman 🥰 Their group name is " Handsome and the Cluckerrellas ' lol
You can also use a pair of pliers and twist the keratin on the spurs off. Then they will be soft but will harden again. After that, twist them off again and each time you do this they will get smaller and smaller. I hope I typed that where it makes sense.
Unfortunately we had to rehome our rooster. He was so nice as a baby but when those hormones kicked in he became un-manageable. He did his job a little too well most days and he became a little dangerous to handle and be around. I love roosters though. Great tips! Maybe I'll try again one day!
We get our birds as chicks and we handle them all. Some of our roosters have just been nasty no matter how much you handle them and some jump in our laps and want pets. We have 2 criteria that roosters must meet in order to stay out of the freezer: be good to the girls and be good to the kids. Never feed a rooster hot dogs. We had a great rooster, good people skills, amazing flock master. My husband fed him a hot dog on the 4th of july and he started going after fingers. We couldn't train him out of it.
I had 1 rooster who met the crockpot. He was replaced with a black copper maran, they can be a little terror as puberty sets in but with worm most can be trained to realize the hens may be his but you are the one in charge
Well I'm not sure if this might be similar but I believe you are correct in the handle them less so they fear/respect you more. That's the case with sheep for the most part. It's why very few people that raise sheep will want a bottle baby ram.
I also have a jersey gaint, he is 9 months old. He has good manners and let's us pet him. Also I didn't handle him much. Yes he mounts the hens but he isn't hurting them.
This was good to see, thank you. Our rooster was a surprise, hence his name Butterfly. So far he has been good towards us and his girls but they are just about to switch over into "adults". I hope Butterfly stays a gentleman...otherwise rooster stew. Do you know if you should pair a rooster off with a couple hens and see if they go broody if you want eggs or just let them all go and stay on top of egg collection until you have a broody hen? Not sure I'm ready for new chicks but just wondering. Butterfly is black with gold flakes. Also how do you tell what kind you have? I ordered from Murray McMurray "mix of brown egg layers"...with one surprise. I thought they would send me a list of what I got but didn't see anything. Thanks hun, you're awesome, keep up the good work and good luck with everything Edit: not if you want eggs...they give eggs anyways. I meant chicks
I have an accidental Jersey Giant roo!! So far he has been very good. We were sad he was actually a he because I have heard Jersey Giants lay magnificent eggs!! Regardless I am glad we have him. He also has a buddy that is a silkie roo! They are both the same age and they play very well with each other and with the ladies! They are still fairly young (under a year) and I am just keeping my eye out for any signs of aggression.
my heart is breaking. a lot of the stuff in this video is so inaccurate. please don’t spread misinformation like some roosters just decide to be mean. people will hear that and think they are justified in killing them when it’s the human misunderstanding chicken behavior and handling situations poorly. they don’t decide to be mean. they think their flock is at risk and they’re trying to protect their family. we need to adjust to them and patiently teach them that we’re safe and that we won’t hurt them.
Love your videos. I’m Michael from Sydney Australia. At any given time, I have roughly 55 hens and 4-5 roosters. To make sure I don’t get an aggressive rooster, I man handle the dominant rooster when he approaches 4 months old. I carry him and hold his head to the ground for about 30 sec. I do this about 3-4 times and that shows him I’m the dominant one and the message seems to go out to the rest. So I never seem to get an aggressive rooster. I hope this helps.
We now have a rooster when we thought it was 13 hens at 12 weeks old, raised since chicks. How do I feed these? Can I mixed layer feed and a high protein for the rooster and have a bowl of calcium for the hens. Debating on putting him on the dinner plate or in a couple months getting another rooster so I have 2 for the flock.
Obviously there's always that one rooster, but I think if you really dedicate your time to them as chicks, while they're growing and even after, they really docile out and enjoy your company
We have a bantam rooster. We did have two but one died in an Arial attack protecting his girls. But the one remaining is just now coming into his rooster technique...FYI just started to crow and show food to the girls. We have both bantams and Rhode island reds. He seems to be less aggressive toward me. But then I brought him up since he was born. Not sire if that makes a difference but he does stand between me and hens sometimes. Other times he hides beneath the reds. Lol. I love your chicken videos. That is how I knew to get chickens and raise them from chicks. We also built your roost and made some modifications to it for our part of Ohio.
I have a rooster, but typically I let him out and then close the door before I go in. However recently I’ve had to change the way we do that so now I carry a big stick, but so far I haven’t had to use it. I’m trying to give him up enough space to not feel threatened and so far all he does is watch me to make sure I’m not hurting one of his hens. In fact he’ll come out of the coop walk around the side if he sees me out there, but he hasn’t come close to acted threatening. So, so far so good.
I have been really lucky, I had an issue with a couple of my boys when they hit their teenage phase but just picked them up calmly and carried them around petting them and they grew out of it. My polish almost broke my nose because I bent to pick him up one morning in his blind spot and scared him so he shot straight up and smashed me in the face haha. My japanese bantam is a sooky sweetheart to me but chases my daughter but I honestly think it amuses him how she reacts. He tried it with me once and I didn't react, just picked him up but she squeels and acts a fool and he seems to think its fun. She is the only one he does it to and if she calmly just picks him up he stops. All my boys were spoiled from hatch day but most were not cuddly, and the ones I rehomed I have heard no complaints about. It really depends on the roo no matter how he is raised or bred I think.
We had 2 roos in our first flock and when they got older, there was an obvious dominant roo and the other would just stay up on the roosting bar, so we had no choice but to let it out to be a yard chicken. After a little time, yard roo became super aggressive and with 2 younger kids who became scared to go outside, I got my first experience plucking a chicken 🤷🏼♀️ Our next batch we hatched in the incubator has at least 3-4 roos, so this will be interesting 😅
Rachelle Lee 0 seconds ago We have a Plymouth Barred Rock rooster who is very non-aggressive towards humans. Almost on the friendly side. However, we have a mixed flock, and he only looks after the barred rock hens. He’s actually a pretty big jerk to the other breeds! We have definitely noticed chickens tend to stick with their own breeds, pretty interesting.
I hatched out two boys and one girl and the boys are very nice if not a little skittish sometimes. I interacted with and handled them every day and they've gone up to be perfect gentlemen. Not aggressive to humans or other chickens at all
Hi. I’m in sunny Sydney Australia. I have 6 roosters. 3x ISA brown and 3X Australorps. They were never handled as chicks and they’re gentlemen. They’re approximately 6 months old.
A note about crowing: They crow all. the. time. Not 5am. Not 6am. (Which is what I thought, that they just crowed very early in the morning or at first light) They crow at 2am, 2pm, 10am, 10pm. Just all the time. In case you're an extremely light sleeper like I am.
Crowing is the rooster's way of alerting the flock to potential danger. A hawk in the area, a dog, a stranger -- all are potential dangers and earn a crow!
I don't have aggressive roosters. I own 65 chickens of a mixed breed flock. About 20 are roosters ranging in age from 2 years to 5 months. I don't know what I'm doing that's working, but here are some factors: - they free range my property, so in the rare event that a lesser roo challenges a leader, there is plenty of space for him to give up and hide - 80% of the hens have clipped wings and stay in their 2000 sq. ft. run. The roos can fly and this ensures all lesser roos give the leaders and their hens plenty of space. - My region is riddled with hawks, so roos who are outside the chicken run spend most their time watching for real threats and locating food. Idle hands are the devils playground they say - my pack has a VERY established pecking order. Skirmishes usually only break out when I put fresh food out. And it is actually the alpha hens who get mad at the lesser roos and spar with them. One small sebright rooster has recently taken to attacking me if I'm multiple hours late for feeding time. He is the only one to ever dare attack me. I think he's just very mad at me for neglecting his breakfast.
My breeds: sebrights bantam pheonix Brahma Bellefielder Wyandottes Comets And one Easter Egger. He is the only one who went through a hyper aggressive phase 1.5 years back. All the hens picked out his feathers because they were tired of his ********. I've also owned Americauna in the past and they tried to kill each other. So I recommend staying away from colored egg layers EXCEPT whitings. My whiting rooster identifies as a hen. I call her queen Jasna Kolin.
I have 10 chickens total. Two are roosters. I started with three roosters and seven hens. I traded two of my roosters with a chicken keeper for supposedly two hens. One of them ended up being a rooster. Both my boys are not only handsome but gentlemen so far. One is older by about 2 months since the one I got with the trade was much younger. They are both Wyandotte. Richard is the older one and Sergeant Pecker is the younger one. The younger one would peck everyone and everything when he first arrived. But I would talk sweetly to him and approach him gently and now he is sweet as Richard. Richard does like his space. Every evening when I put my chickens to bed I would pet them as they went into the coop. Richard would try to avoid me at all costs because of this. I stopped petting Richard and gave him some space. He went back to being his sweet self. All of my chickens are less than a year old so we will see how things go as the boys get older. They seem to divide up the duties between the boys. The younger one is the first chicken out in the morning and he checks the whole run and then crows. The older one stays in the coop till all the hens are out and then he comes out. They seem to have an arrangement so they both are looking after all the hens but each one has their own girls they like.
So I gathered from the video is that you do not personally have a broad or in-depth background in working with roosters, and are just trying to distribute general agreed upon information. I am sure you wouldn’t put the video out if you felt that anything in it was incorrect. Unfortunately, when it comes to roosters much of the “traditional knowledge” is grossly inappropriate and taken out of context. It is rarely rooted in behavioral science or a true understanding of the species. That makes sense, we didn’t always have the information we have now, but much of what you shared in the video about behavior is not at all accurate. These days, quite a few studies have been done that demonstrate roosters are highly intelligent (on par with a 7 year old human) and very capable of self-control/restraint, empathy, learning new behaviors, and forming strong emotional bonds. Plenty of rooster keepers have developed a strong friendship with their boys, and it is never by the traditional means of behavior management (i.e. dominance training, intimidation, etc). Our roosters are loving and nice, not because we have rare “good eggs”, but because we worked with them correctly (with empathy and understanding). One of our boys in particular is naturally prone to over-reactions and attacks on things that make him anxious, but has grown incredibly bonded and affectionate just with the proper support. It is absolutely untrue that some roosters cannot be “fixed”, this is an excuse that gets thrown around by those who either weren’t educated or motivated enough to work through the issue. As for roosters being naturally aggressive, while there is certainly truth to that idea it is represented out of context here. That “switch” you mentioned is puberty, and is an entirely predictable and normal phase of hormone-driven reactivity they all go through, much like human teens. Roosters are prey animals tasked with ensuring their flock’s survival. They are prone to attack or confront because their lives may depend on it, not because they are “mean.” This is a crucial distinction, because it tells us what drives them to attack. It is not malice or some defect, but rather natural (and healthy) fear, distrust, and insecurity. That defensiveness being directed at the keeper makes perfect sense in many cases, we are essentially massive kidnappers, holding them in an unnatural setting against their will. They cannot be expected to understand our intentions unless we make them clear. When a rooster attacks a human it is not irrational, it’s a perfectly understandable and appropriate reaction when seen from their side, and roosters never attack for "no reason." A rooster is not going to just assume we are safe, it is on us to demonstrate this to them in a way they will understand and this is where a great many keepers fail. Many keepers react to defensiveness by attacking back (or dominating), which only confirms to the rooster that we are not on their side. The rooster predictably continues his defensive responses, and the keeper (who should at this point recognize their role in digging the pit) writes them off as just “bad”. Nobody seems to consider that the strategy was the real problem. Once again, I understand that you may not know much on this subject, but as someone who does I cannot help but feel concern for the 111k individuals you are spreading this bad information to. There is a level of responsibility that comes with the visibility this platform affords, and it is important to ensure that what is put out does not cause undue harm. The last thing the community needs is careless perpetuation of myths that result in birds being culled, dumped, or abused needlessly. What is needed is better information and better methodology, something that those of us with more background can offer. On a side note, it is highly unlikely that your neighbor’s silkies are just mean. There are many causes for rooster misbehavior, and none are hard to address. If you or your neighbor are interested in getting help working with them, we operate a support group for rooster keepers on Facebook called Rooster Allies. We are happy to assist anyone who is struggling with their boys over there or through our channel email. ❤
Hey this is a really great breakdown, thank you for sharing! We are all certainly limited to our own experience, and based on the videos on your channel, it looks like you have a lot of experience with roos. I can definitely agree that there are so many myths perpetuated in the homesteading community around animal training -- my own particular grievances usually have to do with the myths around certain dogs being "untrainable" around chickens. Would you be willing to make a video on how you train roos with aggression issues stemming from various causes? We would love to promote a solid video on this topic -- maybe we could pin it in the comments here so people can reference it. Like I mentioned multiple times in this video, I'm still seeking "tried and true" methods of training -- and as I'm sure you noticed in the other comments -- most people tend to echo the same techniques, which haven't been effective in our own experience. Thanks again for your insight!
I'm in the midst of watching my two little boys become a little aggressive, but now I'm trying to be reasonable and not reactive. It helps so much to try to put myself into their shoes and see from their point of view. Thank you. ❤️
@@OakAbode Thank you so much for the reply, and for your interest in promoting solutions for rooster keepers dealing with these kinds of issues. It breaks our hearts to see so many struggling with this, and we actually had planned to do a video on the subject. Admittedly, that had been being delayed while we tried to settle on the best presentation, there is just so much that could be discussed. After reading your reply we decided to jump on it and at least get something out there sooner than later. Filming is done and we are in the editing stages now, so that will be available very soon. The video will be focused mostly on the universal guidelines for addressing any behavioral concern, and breaking down why the more common methods so often fail. It really all comes down to getting in their heads and understanding what is driving these types of problems, so we wanted to start there and provide that critical framework to build on. Although different things can bring about aggression, the solution is largely the same, they need to be made to feel safe and secure again. So we have essentially detailed the recommended starting point, regardless of the initial cause. The video would run far too long if we attempted to cover every modification that might need to be made from there. Since every rooster is an individual, and every situation is slightly different, a bit of fine-tuning is sometimes needed. One thing we do in our free time is troubleshoot directly with other keepers who need help. Our contact information will be provided for anyone who finds themselves needing more detailed advice from there. We also plan to put out a short series that will cover topics like preventing aggression, navigating puberty, and general bonding tips. We will let you know just as soon as that is available, and hope it can fill that information gap for any of your viewers who are currently struggling. ❤
@@roovolution Wonderful! Thank you! Would you be willing to email it to me when it's available so I don't miss it? I'm horrible at reading comments (just circled back to check on this now) and I don't want this to fall off the radar. Thank you for all your hard work! oakabode@gmail.com
I have an Australorp roo I bought at 5 months for my hens. Previous owner handled him a lot and could carry him around. I didn't handle him and at 7 months now I haven't had an issue with him. He is a great protector but when it comes time to go in the coop or eat, he's more of an every man/hen for himself type bird. I also have two silkie roos, one white I raised by hand and spoiled, the other black, I got from my daughter who handled him a lot. Again, the black one I didn't handle and I have had no issues with. The white one I handled and spoiled and he has attacked me, before he started getting spurs. When he came at me from behind I kicked him, top of my boot, just to jar the air from him. Second run at me, he fled quickly so I chased him down and threw a stick at him (and missed). Now if I see him take a cocky stance when I'm around I run at him like the other roosters do to each other. He flees fast and stands down, most days he gives me a wide berth. Right now, with three roosters and 14 hens, the pecking order is volatile, one roo will be on top today and is being chased by the bottom roo the next day. I'm thinking it's because they aren't a year old yet and things will settle out. Until it's settled the roos and hens see me as the top rooster and most of the hens squat in submission to me. It's only a matter of time before I'm challenged too. I am hoping the white silkie comes around. He is the last one in the coop at night and if he doesn't go in, I know I have a hen out somewhere. He is so protective of the girls and feeds them first, the perfect rooster in every other way.
I truly love my silkie roos, most have been the most "affectionate" as far as chickens go. I have 4 silike roo's that are complete love muffins (all in separate runs with girlfriends. They know that I'm their boss, the come to me for attention, and never attack me...however they go after everybody else. I have had some that have been sent to heavenly pastures for their aggression toward people and their hens.
Chickens that were being over handled when young tend to be the jerks = yup. My husband thought by being hands on with the chicks would make them nicer when they grew up. Not so. After owning 6 hens for 3 months, he ordered 6 Marans chicks from local breeder (1. because he wanted the dark copper brown eggs, 2. because we heard they're gentle breed and 3. dual-purpose chickens). 2 weeks later we got shipment of 22 more chicks of 4 diff 'patterns': ameraucanas, blue laced wyandottes, golden laced wyandottes and silver laced wyandottes - that was my fault because before we had chickens I mentioned to him I liked wyandotte feather patterns, but when we got the very first 6 hens from a neighbor who moved out of state, the wyandottes were snobbish and mean toward austrolorps. Anyway, husband babied the Marans but not so much with the 22 chicks because of their numbers. From 6 Marans we get 4 roosters and 2 hens. I picked the best looking one for breeder, I called him King Edward because when young he looked the most handsome and regal of the 4 with his coppery reddish mane and the comb is the biggest and looks like crown. Well, he turns to be a big jerk. And a coward. He stalks us and when we turn our backs, he slams us from behind. It does not matter how many times we subdued him (pinned him down for a few mins until his heart rate slowed/calmed down), he does not learn the lesson. He is not a good gentleman either to his flock. He only sort of protects his 2 'sisters-wives' but doesn't bother with the other hens and he hogs all the foods and treats. On the other hand, there was a rooster that came out from the 22 chicks, who was beaten up/pecked on by other chickens when they're little that we had to separate him with 3 other chicks. He's a blue laced wyandotte. He has the most beautiful blue and brown scallopy feathers with golden neck feathers and ruffled comb typical of wyandottes. Husband named him Alpha Spid. Now Spid is the perfect gentleman. He stands guard while his ladies are foraging. He finds them foods or when I give treats, he will either stand back or get the treat and drop it for the ladies. He will chase other roosters who bother his ladies and cause them to scream. He never attacks us either. Too bad that King Edward is bigger in size so Spid usually cannot do much when one of his ladies gets clobbered by King Edward who does not try to mount her, he just does not like/socialize with Spid's tribe.
That agressive behavior towards my grand daughter really ticked me off. It was a very small breed game banti and I grabbed a club and I chased him around our huge back yard 3 or 4 times with every intention of ending his life, but our total physical exhaustion occurred simultaneously. I sat on the ground next to him caught my breath and he his and I decided to give him a reprieve. As far as I can remember he never attacked her again either.
Could use some advice please. Mama chicken showed up and had 3 chicks. One survived and is a rooster. Mom and this rooster had more chicks and we think we now have 5 roosters and 4 hens. They are free range birds at the moment, but we will be building a coop soon. I don't want to have many more chicks. Should we do separate coops for roosters and hens and fence them separately?
I've got half a dozen standard cochin (10lb-ish) roosters, and they're super mellow despite only having 4 or 5 hens for each of them. I do frequently pick up the ones that let me, but even the ones that aren't particularly cuddly are generally well behaved. I don't know if they're chill because they're cochins or because they're all brothers. Probably a bit of both.
I have a few roosters now, never any problems with them. We hold them a lot till they are about mature age and then leave them to do their job Or give them to other people for their flock. They are all sweet guy’s. They are Wyandotte’s.
Roovolution recently made an awesome video on tried-and-true methods for taming roosters (and they're certainly not the typical ones we see so often!) -- check it out here! ruclips.net/video/4TPsh44AIak/видео.html We can't wait to apply this psychology with our boys, too.
I love my 2 roos. I sit down on a lawn chair and they hop up on my lap for their petting time. Can last for up to ten mins then they wander off and look after the hens. They are 6 months old. I have a chicken cam in the coop to keep an eye on everything. Every day then hen goes in to lay her egg, her roo will stand by and help her make the nest and just stands there for about 15 mins while she lays. It's the most adorable thing. Then walks her out and the day proceeds. Crazy right? I'm in love with my chickens.
My brother’s friend raised a rooster from when he hatched until now, and I can honestly say it is the nicest rooster I have ever seen or met in my life! She raised it by itself, as the other eggs they incubated did not hatch anything out, so he was all alone. She had hoped he was a hen, as her family had only kept hens and processed the roosters, but he ended up being a rooster and she was terrified for him. Luckily for her, and the rooster😅, her family fell in love with him as well, and he is literally like her little feathered dog; he follows her wherever she goes around the farm, and he has never pecked/spurred anyone ever! He doesn’t strip the hens of their back feathers, and he has saved some of their hens from hawk attacks as well. What makes this little guy even more fascinating is that he is a Rhode Island Red, and, nothing against them (I have a hen myself who is SUPER smart and friendly), the breed isn’t known for always being the friendliest in terms of roosters. She spent every moment of every day she could with him since he hatched, so he probably imprinted on her which helped strengthen their bond; she even used to study with him by reading through her study guides with him wrapped in a blanket on her lap until he fell asleep😂.
Wow nice, Almost the same story. All my hens in profile pic are my super lovely 😍 pets They came out from Incubator and I love them so much. I raised them from day one 🐣🐤
I have 1 rooster, he's a white silkie and he hasn't reached maturity yet. He became aggressive at the beginning of his teen months? but now he loves being picked up and he's just my adorable spoiled boy. I don't know anything about training roosters or chickens since I am new to this whole chicken world, but I'm learning little by little with your help and other kind people on RUclips who take valuable time from their lives to inform us and teach us about these wonderful animals.
Thank you so much for your wonderful videos, love them!!
Yes They can Be super friendly and lovely pets, I have few hens and roosters which are now so grown up, I am raising them from the day first and they hatched in my Incubator 🐣🐤
i just lost my buddy named Rocky. his temperament was day by day. sometimes he'd sit on my knee and watch the Saints with me and most of the time he was hanging with the girls. He went out protecting them from a coon. Thank you for your tips and discussions. Watching your videos has helped me out a lot. Bless y'all.
We love our rooster. He can be aggressive at times. My husband has been training him and this last time seemed to stick (it took several). My husband will catch him and pin him to the ground briefly, them pick him up and walk around the yard with him tucked under his arm for various lengths of time. The last training was a couple weeks ago, I think, and had finally stuck. We love the sounds he makes and luckily we live close to a highway so his crows are pretty much drowned out. I’m with you about much rather hearing the crowing than dogs barking.
my buff cochin roo was a sweetheart until the day he wasn't. He used to sit on my lap and watch Monday night football. Now he's a big beautiful 13 lb rooster. At about 1 year, a switch got tripped and he became aggressive when I would walk into the coop to do chores. I thought if I showed him I'm the alpha, he would chill out. I learned the battle of wills doesn't apply. It took time to make some connections but I did learn a few things. Not sure if this is the case with all roos, but it was with mine and might work for others who have an aggressive rooster. I took note of what I was doing before he attacked, where his eyes were and what part of my body he was actually going after. I noticed he was looking at and attacking my shoes only..never my legs. Then a light bulb went off... It completely mattered what footwear I had on as the determining factor of whether he attacked or not. If I had the barn boots on he was accustomed to seeing, he was fine. My wife has barn boots with little chicken prints on it and he would attack her every time. If she wears mine, he never goes after her. If I wear crocks he stares at them and gets all worked up and sometimes attacks. If I wear sneakers into the coop, he goes ape shit. It's as though he doesn't realize my footwear is attached to me. As an experiment one day I wore my boots but carried my sneakers into the coop and set them down in the corner. He went after them like they were the enemy of all things chicken. So I think that confirmed my theory. Now I only wear my boots and there are no problems. I've seen several vids too and most of those "techniques" are just cruel and at best, make their rooster fear and hate their owners. I don't agree with mistreating any animal. We all need to have a basic understanding of rooster psychology if we're going to have one. When we enter the run/coop, we are barging into his domain. Roosters, like Tom turkeys, actually have egos and they have a strong drive to impress the hens and always be the alpha. When we enter the coop, we are viewed as a threat and challenging them for supremacy. They take this very personally because it directly impacts the flock dynamics. If they lose the respect of the hens, they won't want to mate with him and that's literally all that matters in nature. There is validity to this across all species. With this in mind, I have found that when I go in to feed them, I will first bring greens, raisins or a handful of something they like. I always offer the treats to him and him only. It matters. When we hand them out to the girls, we are in reality usurping his role yet again and making him irrelevant. I noticed that when I give the treats to him alone, he will distribute them to the girls and everything is hunky dory. In fact he will actually feel quite pleased with himself and his mood is completely happy. I can then go about filling waterers and feeders without any issues. When he first started attacking I would catch him and pick him up and stroke his feathers until he calms down. I noticed that his poor heart was racing so there's definitely something physiological going on. After I would put him down, he would actually walk away and act depressed. Most importantly, the girls actually behaved differently toward him afterward too and would avoid him. So I think I unwittingly humiliated him in front of the hens which is all that matters in his world. Once I figured this out and began treating him with the dignity he deserves, everything changed. He hasn't taken a run at me in well over a year and he actually lets me scratch his belly without pecking me. The girls come running to him when everhe clucks, they follow and hang around him and often initiate the mating. There really is a chain of command and if we respect that, we get a happy flock. He is a noble boy and great protector who will sacrifice himself without hesitation if the need arises. He deserves our respect.
We have a rooster named Johnny. He is still young, not even a year old yet. He has gotten huge (he is an EE mixed with I think a Jersey Giant or some sort of big black chicken). I currently have a love/hate relationship with him. He is a great protector and provider of the hens, but sometimes he gets too big for his britches, and decides to test my authority, and will try to run at me and attack me, especially in the mornings. Food distraction really helps most of the time. If I give him something that he can give the ladies, he normally leaves me alone. I will say, as much as you want to, running away from them when they are being aggressive is NOT the answer! I have had to physically keep him away from me by wacking him or at least at him with what I have in my hand or putting my foot up towards him. As silly as it sounds, what I have found that works the best when he is agitated is mimicking his behavior towards the hens when he is correcting them: I will flap my arms and stomp my feet towards him, and normally, he will pretty quickly back down after that, because he then respects my authority. But before it gets to that, I try to talk to him, feed him extra food, and make him feel special. I am praying that as he gets older, he will calm down, because other than that, he is a good rooster, and he is beautiful.
I carry a tennis racket into the coop with me not to whack my rooster with but to use as a shield and push him away from me.
Yes Roosters are Really Angry and Aggressive sometimes and Its also depends on their breed too some type of roosters are calm and some are really Aggressive, Specially at morning time when they really wanna eat something 😂
I have a similar situation with one of my cockerels, our head honcho. He was my favorite chick so I'm thinking it's partly because I handled him quite a bit. Anyhoo, he is wonderful with the flock and is a devoted guardian, but he behaves very similarly towards me. It is getting less frequent, last time he tried to jump at me I caught him by the tail feathers and held him upside down. I like your idea of behaving like a rooster correcting his ladies. I didn't know they did that. Hope his manners continue to improve because I really love him. That said, he's an olive egger and I do still have to consider if he adds any value to the flock other than protection. I haven't really seen our other cockerels behave like him, good or bad, but that could be because they are lower in the hierarchy. I do have one wimpy wyandotte who is almost twice his size😆
We have a buff orpington rooster and 20 hens. They came with the house when we bought it. Not sure of his age but he seems to be maybe a few years old. We knew NOTHING about raising chickens so the learning process has been fun and interesting. He is an absolute sweetheart!! He loves his girls and keeps one eye on the ladies and one eye on the sky. Great protector and is diligent about keeping the girls feeling safe by alerting them when he senses danger (Alot of hawks around) We love the little noises he uses to alert the girls when he finds tasty treats lol. We have a lot of fruit trees so when he finds a fallen fruit he lets them have it all. They follow him around and seem to absolutely adore him. It's such a beautiful thing to watch. He is tame with us. We have never picked him up or handled him. He respects us and we respect him. Loving the chicken life and we love your videos!
Thnx for including the explanation of Cockrells and poullets. Most channels seem to assume everyone know that. I know its simple but still
Our boy Lincoln is a real pill! We adopted him last year after 3 overhead attacks to our flock! He’s very effective though; haven’t lost a hen this year and gained a chick too! He charges at us and pecks the hands who feed him so we always carry a water spray bottle to fight him off! He’s a real character…
I have 4 roosters. I worked everyday with them. When they start the aggressive phase. I go in the run and pick him up when he attacks me. I keep doing that until he stops. It’s worked with them all. They are all different breads.
Do what the rooster does to the hens. Force him down and pull up and back on his comb while standing over him. Don't let him up till he stops resisting. It works I assure you. The problem you will have is when you do it the other roosters may attack him while you pin him. That will likely mellow the problem rooster out for a couple of months.
Please explain how to pick up a rooster without getting hurt in the process. Mine runs at me (not all the time, he's mostly good but he has his moments) and I don't know how to get around that and pick him up without getting hurt.
@@writingfriend7765 probably should wear thick gloves, long boots and goggles
In my experience thus far with seven different roosters once you pin them give it a moment they’ll stop moving once you keep their wings in place they’ll stay immobile
In my experience thus far with seven different roosters once you pin them give it a moment they’ll stop moving once you keep their wings in place they’ll stay immobile
I enjoyed your rooster video and just wanted to comment on my rooster experience. I originally got 6 chicks from a local farmer, 1 was a Cochin, and 5 were Silkies. I didn’t know it at the time, but 5 turned out to be roosters and only 1 was a hen! Against ALL advice I raised them all together, and as luck would have it they all got along pretty well! After they grew up, 2 of the roosters would fight with me every time I walked near them! They are all pretty small so they didn’t present too much danger… but it was getting exhausting fighting with them all the time. I ended up giving them away 😢. Then along came 4 more babies that my sweet broody hen raised… and they turned out to be 2 hens and 2 more roosters. Then 2 more babies came, jury is still out on them, but I think they may also be roosters! (These last 2 babies must have been fathered by the Cochin because they look like him and have his personality!) Soooo, I now have 10 chickens, only 3 are hens! The pecking order has changed over time, but they all get along except for some squabbling every now and then. They are my pets, all of them are named, and I’ve spoiled them so they come up on my porch looking for treats all the time. My original Cochin rooster will hop up on my lap and just hang out with me!
First year owning a flock of 6 and one of my chicks turned out to be a roo. They are almost 8 months old now and he is turning out to be a good protector. He can definitely be aggressive at times, especially if he feels I’m stressing out his hens too much. When he gets ridiculous I hold him down or pick him up and he seems to chill for a bit but it doesn’t last for longer than a few days. Being out in the country I don’t overly mind because I do feel better knowing he’s keeping an eye on the girls when I can’t always be out there. (They aren’t free range but they do have a somewhat open area with bird netting). He’ll signal and they all scurry for the coop.
Please explain the procedure for picking up a rooster without getting hurt by his beak or spurs. :) Thanks!
Along with my roo, I have a 10 month old Jersey Giant hen and a blue australorp hen about 4 months old. My chickens are pets. I rescued a porcelain D'uccle that was supposed to be a female, 2 months old. He was kicked out of two homes because they picked on him. He kept trying to get in the house. He is my snuggle buddy. He doesn't Crow that much so I haven't gotten rid of him and now he's a house roo. I have a diaper for him. He's afraid of his own shadow. He loves to be held. I lay on the bed in front of the open window and he loves to sit with me in the sun on the bed as I take a nap or work on my tablet. He just likes to hang out. I have a no crow collar for him that I put on more as a deterrent if he crows and then take it off after a bit or he gets it off himself because I put it on a little loose. I'll spray him with water if he crows which scares him and so he stops. Also stops if I pick him up he stops. He's a love bug. He is close to 6 months old now. The only aggressive thing I have seen him do is to poke my Jersey Giant in the butt. lol He does it and then he runs! It's hilarious to watch. She's always so calm and patient with them. I get almost an egg a day from my Jersey Giant! They go outside during the day but they come inside to sleep at night and I have diapers for them when they're inside. The diapers have a v-shaped pouch that the poop falls into so it never touches them or their feathers and it's plastic lines so you just wipe it off and dump it in the toilet, so easy. They sleep in a big 7 ft tall old ferret cage. I have the big ropes for the big birds higher up in the cage and that's where they sleep. I have the food hanging on the side of the cage so in the middle of the night if they want to eat they can. I have little magnetic motion lights that will come on if they move in the cage. They are Rechargeable. All three will sit and snuggle with me as I drink my morning coffee. My hens aren't necessarily touchy-feely but they like to sit with me. I do make sure I snuggle each love to have their waddles rubbed. My australorp will sit on my desk as I work from home. When I snuggle with my Jersey Giant she will actually purr like a cat. I put the rule out when I'm home so I can hurry and get him if he crows. I don't live in a neighborhood where they're allowed so I'm hiding them all. My roo really doesn't crow that often. I have their food next to the dog food in a normal chicken feeder that sits in a boot tray so it doesn't get everywhere.
In my limited experience with Roosters, they are also good at keeping the peace between squabbling hens and also alert the hens when they find food or treats while free ranging. I have a really good boy who always puts his girls first ❤
Great video! We have 4 roosters, a Buff, 2 Barred Rocks, and a Starlight Green Egger (he was in the Pullet bin by mistake, but ended up being a beautiful and sweet guy) I think, like you said, they are all so different, and sometimes are just jerks. We handle one of ours a lot, and he is the sweetest, and two of them are amazing protectors and respect us but definitely do not want to be picked up. We give lots of treats, literally keep them in my pocket, so all the chickens look forward to me coming. We also make lots of eye contact and use very calm voices while hand feeding.
Yes! The more we handle them, the meaner they are, it seems.
Catch him and hold head/body down non aggressively for 30 seconds. We did that about 3 weeks ago to remind him who is in charge. He still keeps one eye on me and I never turn my back to him now but he hasn’t been aggressive or attacked me since. You may have to do this a few times I’ve heard but so far so good!
I found that offering the food and treats to the rooster instead of the hens goes a long way to befriending a rooster. Otherwise, he sees you as competition.
Also, if you want to pet the roo, try turning your hand fingers pointed down to approach him. A hand with fingers up may look like raised neck feathers to a rooster which would translate as a challenge.
Interesting, thanks!
Love my rooster. He follows the girls all day and stands guard.
My hens make a LOT more noise than my roosters. My roosters are good protectors and especially the older one (he's 2yrs old).. He always lets the hens eat first. He's never been aggressive towards us but he is to strangers who have no business in the pen anyway. We love Henry. I've never handled him but having been very scratched up by a rooster when I was a kid I've always respected him. After two years he is finally actually friendly and I have to literally move him out of they way so I can walk past. I love rooster crows!
My three year old and four year old rosters are very sweet. Father and son. I can pick each of them up and carry them around like babies. Love your chick flicks. I always learn new ideas from them.
I have a young rooster. He sucks at protecting, but he's actually really sweet. We hatched him from the egg and handled him a ton the 1st 4 weeks. Now he's spoiled and will usually come to you for a snuggle if you squat down and open your arms. I have heard that if you pin a roosters body with one hand and pin its neck to the ground between your 2 fingers that it mimics what they do in the wild to establish dominance. You have to hold them there for a few minutes though.
I'm in love with my golden rooster Johnny 🥰 his personality between the hens and the ducks is very sweet. He's a bit of a jerk to his buddy Bruno, our other rooster. For the most part he keeps order in the coop and he doesn't do any real harm. Maybe some embarrassment and hurt feelings lol
I rooster wandered into our property and stayed. We have since built him a coop out of a storage shed and attached a run. We think he was pretty young due to the lack of tail feathers.
Very sweet bird so far. We might get him some hens next year.
Never had a chicken before. Lol
His name is Blue Cheese
That’s so sweet
I have a white silkie roo and a beautiful Easter egger roo! So far they are both gentlemen but the easter egger is still young so fingers crossed he stays that way. For now they get along great. The silkie roo sticks with the silkie hens and the Easter egger stays with the other girls even though they live together in one giant coop and yard it’s almost like they’re 2 separate flocks
Great points! Also always love your videos you were a big part of inspiring us to backyard chickenz
Your silkies are friken GORGOUS!!
Our rooster is about 6 months old. We got him two months ago. He's been aloof around us, but he has bonded beautifully with the girls. I have done two things. One thing is I feed him from my hand so he can see we're not harming anyone. Second, I don't pick the girls up as often. Sometimes they flap and fluff when you set the chickens down, and that makes the rooster growl (who knows why). So I don't pick them up much because I don't want him thinking we're harming the girls. All is well so far. He never leaves their side, he shows them where to find food and even helps with finding a good nest box!
We will always have at least one roo in the flock. Right now we have 3, 2 barred plymouths and a kosher king. One's a bit aggressive, one's a bit of a scaredy cat, and the king is an old man who mostly keeps to himself. But all three are absolute badasses when hawks start threatening their girls. The local rodents don't even try their luck (though that might have something to do with our dogs too).
I have 3 Roos as well. My first rooster is small and light, maybe a pound and a half, he likes to be cuddled and hang out but also has a serious attitude streak. He’s my toughest boy and also one of my very first chickens so I’ve learned a lot from him. Even though he tries to get the best of me most days I’ve lost all my fear so I’m able to grab him every single time. For time out I put him on the ground using one hand to press his body into a laying position (cat loaf style) and the other hand to hold his neck down as well (sometimes it helps to put him in between your knees/thighs to help hold his wings in when he’s being real stubborn about getting away) and then use the hand that holds his neck down to pull on his main so he’s looking up at you. After he’s still and “malleable” you can let him go and he should be at least a little sorry. He still tries to get me so it’s not like he’s stopped completely but it definitely helps with handling him rather then letting him mow me over 💀
The other is silkie who has the random urge to peck your foot (hurts like hell when he does) but is otherwise well mannered.
My third is actually my firsts’ son. He is that rooster who is worth his weight in gold. He’s amazing at leading and protecting. Stops arguments between the other two boys as well as stops his dad from trying to bully me too. He studies everything I do and mimics me. Rather than being on the smaller side like his dad he takes after his mom and is the largest chicken in my flock (he’s black too but still has his colorful rooster feathers so I doubt anyone is confusing him for a crow) I can’t believe I almost gave him up when he was still a tiny thing because I wasn’t sure I wanted/could handle another boy. He truly makes everything easier :D
(My little silkie doesn’t have spurs but I use a heavy duty nail filer for the other two. We have spa days because I’m to squeamish about removing them)
I had a Rhode Island Red rooster for 10 years, he was the perfect gentleman. Thank you for the information ❤️❤️❤️❤️
We have 7 chickens. 5 Rhode Island Red hens, one Easter Egger hen and a Easter Egger rooster. The RIRs are a year and 8 months old and the EEs are 9 months old. Our chickens are all relatively friendly, the least friendly is our EE hen. The rooster is a gentle giant and a gentleman with the hens. We handled him a lot when he was a chick and he loved to perch on my arm or shoulder and be carried around when he was little. He went through a phase when he was coming into his adulthood where he tried to square up with my husband but that was only for a few days. He is my husband and my favourite chicken and very entertaining. He's also always gifting the hens with bugs and food he finds around the yard. 😄
I ended up keeping one of my chicks who ended up being a rooster, he doesn't like being handled, and is very protective of the flock, but is so gentle with humans. He'll pick out treats from your hand very gently (and usually just give it straight to one of the hens).
I do use a rooster collar because I'm not really supposed to have a rooster, so it's either that or getting rid of him, and it certainly doesn't stop him from crowing (he does, a lot) but it reduces the volume. How much pretty much depends how tightly it's put on. I'm very careful so it's not as quiet as it could be, but I don't want to risk the choking problems I've read about. Been a year now and haven't had any problems.
I think one thing missed from this video is needing enough hens per rooster and possible de-feathering issues from mating with certain hens too much.
Hello oak abode… I agree with your videos love them all.. I actually live just a couple of miles away from the the egg and I road and I know you really love that book😊… I have silver laced Wyandotte roosters a very large breed also, so just adding that large breed roosters because of their large weight and size can be hard on hens if roosters are constantly jumping them…so it’s good to monitor this… to prevent back injuries on your hens….
I have 6 roosters and they are all really sweet I feel it’s just there nature, we calm them down by holding them to keep them calm by gently petting them let them know you’re not an aggressor towards them
You can correct aggressive rooster behavior. It's a pretty simple thing. You just grab him by the back feathers and put downward pressure on his back, pushing him to the ground and immobilizing him. Then you gently push his face into the ground by the back of the head (not so that he can't breathe, but that he's in a completely undignified position). Talk firmly to him for 30 seconds or so, and then let him go. This establishes dominance. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
I was ready to cook our leghorn rooster as he injured me several times and showed no signs of letting up. This bothered me because he takes great care of his flock. The hens and babies always eat first, he breaks up fights between the chickens, and he's the last to roost. Tried this technique and he and I have been on great terms since. He'll do a run at me as I close the door (when he knows he can't get me and I can't get him, so this is just to save face with the hens...almost like a little game at this point). If he slips and makes a serious move on me, I'll just do this again to re-establish my place.
We have a barred rock rooster. He was kind for a while then, like you said, a switch flipped and he was super aggressive. It’s hard to take care of the other animals with him around charging us. He needs to be go in the freezer soon.
I have not had a whole lot of experience with roosters because we are not allowed to keep them in the city. The 1 Buff Orpington rooster we raised out of a bin of pullets, I took to my mother's farm when he got too big. He was very gentle and a good protector. Unfortunately, he died protecting his flock from a raccoon. We also raised a splash Wyandotte that we did not handle as much. He was gentle enough, but skittish. He crowed loudly, so he had to go to freezer camp. I have read, and this is what we did with the buff, we handled him a lot and also made sure to hand feed him special treats. That way, he looks at the provider as the head rooster. Then he will respect your dominance over him unless he gets to the point he wants to challenge you. Then again, there is probably no way to prevent that if that's what nature tells him to do. We currently have a blue Wheaton Ameraucana that I believe is a rooster. He is only slightly skittish but will let us hold him, take food out of our hands, is very quiet, gentle, and loving. When our extremely gentle head hen ISA Brown had sour crop and was laying around a lot after treatment, the rooster laid beside her and cuddled with her. We plan on keeping him as long as he doesn't start crowing loudly because he is beautiful, so mild mannered, and quiet. We are also hopeful that we will get some Olive eggers and light green egg layers out of him mixed with our other breeds, which lay everything from light cream to dark brown eggs.
I have an Austrolorp rooster that I handled frequently during brooding, he is a very good Roo. He take his job very seriously. I do occasionally try to grab Randall & hold him, which he will run from me but when I have him, he is very tolerant. Yes I just had a hen hatch 2 eggs in last week!!
Our rooster went through a phase of being aggressive toward us (especially when our backs were turned toward him), but it stopped after I made a point of chasing him around and grabbing him enough times.
Crow collars worn over long periods of time cause rooster's neck to deteriorate and feathers to grow improperely. Ben from Urban Rescue Ranch had a rooster literally wither away after crow collar was taken off due to some weird form of muscle atrophy.
I have three roosters in my flock of about 100 chickens. Cogburn, Foghorn and Leghorn. The crowing never stops but my nearest neighbor is over a mile away so no problem there. I love the sound.
We were given a rooster a few months ago. We think he is an easter egger as he has the fluffy cheeks and the most beautiful array of colors. He's pretty friendly and has been great around our kids, but I think he's just a more passive rooster, as some of the hens will chase him around and peck him a bit. He's been great and I'm hoping we'll get to hatch out some chicks next spring.
Kathleen, I told you about Winchester. He was great. I understood where he was coming from. He would get his ladies in the coop and then I had the nerve to come out with my little white bucket. As soon as the girls saw that they would run right to the house. But if he ever attacked me I would just grab him, put him under my arm and slowly walk around the yard for a good 30 minutes. Looking at the berry brush and the flowers. I might sit on the deck and talk to him about politics or the economy. Then I would take him back down to the coop and gently place him back into the fence. That would work for maybe two months before I would have to do that again. Winter was a little tougher but I would also have a little ziplock bag of live meal worms that I would get from the house for such a occasion. I’m looking for a new rooster now. Winchester was a Black Copper Maran but I was thinking about getting a Jersey Giant. Funny huh? Great video. Hope to hear from you soon.
I love my roosters. Only have one that is a rooster and 3 cockerels but they are all sweet.
We have had the same experience with our roosters. The ones that are handled a lot are meaner. And the ones that are rarely handled growing up are better with the kids.
We use a No Crow Collar and love it. It doesn't restrict their breathing but it's a different process when crowing. They can still talk, eat, breath, and crow... everything at normal levels except the crowing which knocks down their sound to being on par with the girls Egg Song. We got lucky that our Roo didn't take long to adjust to the collar (maybe 3 minutes the first time, and then instantly every time after the first). First thing he did after having it put on was do his mating dance for his girls, so he really didn't skip a beat. He has kind of turned into a jerk (he's still under 6 months) and was handled a lot when young so you might be on to something there.
I originally started my flock with all Jersey giants. They are absolutely amazing. Out of the 12 I purchased 3 were roosters. I rehomed 2 that seemed more aggressive than the one I kept. I have handled all of my chickens from the very beginning. RooRoo is such a gentleman and protects his girls with instinct. I'm the only one that can pick him up. He is aggressive towards my little girl. I think because he sees her as a threat. She runs through the yard making animal noises(not a good idea) so he gets feisty. Two techniques I use, even my 4 year old, and they seem to work. Very well. Stop the rooster in his tracks, hold your arms out like wings and make yourself look big. You don't have to tell or move. Just stare in his eye and wait for him to turn and walk away first. My boyfriend reacts to him with aggression and RooRoo jumped at him. Not a good idea. I have also carried him around for a few minutes showing I'm the boss.
One more thing, I haven't owned chickens very long. And so far these techniques have worked. My rooroo eats clovers from my handle and is very gentle. Chickens were wild animals before they were domesticated. They act based on instinct. We developed a mutual respect with one another.
Beautyful and cute 😊😊😊 thanx for sharing 😊😊😊
Both my roosters are sweeties, they try to assert dominance once in a while, but i just hold them down until theyre submissive. I spent a lot of time with them growing up, and they sleep in the basement in a pen at night so I handle them daily. They have an established order among the two of them.
Our rooster is a barred rock named Elvis. He is huge! And quite the character. His comb flops over like a pompadour. I’ve seen him eyeing upwards toward the sky when a turkey vulture was overhead. So I believe it when you say they might alert the flock to a flying predator. So far he is a gentleman- we’ve only had him for three months. We love him except at 4:00 in the morning 😂 I enjoyed your share and the opportunity to see other comments.
Earle is our barred Plymouth Rock rooster. He is 90% super well behaved but gets aggressive when we have company, especially people he isn’t used to. Picking him up while he is in “attack mode” works for us! We also hand feed treats and if our company wants to they can and he seems to settle knowing he is getting fed.
As a cockerel he let us pet him occasionally but as soon as the girls started laying he changed and now no way!! Lol
Thanks for your channel and videos! ❤️🐓
love the white silky chicken!!!
Thank you for the video & info. So we’ve been lucky with our latest roosters. We have 2 roosters. A Partridge Rock & a Lavender Orpington. Both are pretty gentle. They are both large. The Partridge Rock seems to be a little more aggressive with potential predators . Both are fairly gentle with their hens. Both breed’s hens are gentle & definitely broody. The Partridge Rock has already driven off a large hawk that was attempting to go after his hens.
Hi thanks for the info
I have two month old Cockrell, right now no problem but their all in brooder. Any dominance more than chicken, and it's to freezer camp. I'm trying to keep as many , as I have A. Bresse
my roo Tyrone is an Ayam Cemani - he's a good boy so far. Approximately 22 weeks old and loves his crow. He's way bigger than they AC hens.
An important point for chicken owners that have or wanting to have a rooster is maintaining a balanced flock. Recommended 1 rooster per 10 hens to prevent fighting and over breeding (which can stress out hens and cause physical damage).
I have beautiful Cochin rooster. And 3 welsummer hens. We named him Big Earl lol he is so good to his girls. He even stands back to let them get treats first. He's quite the gentleman 🥰
Their group name is " Handsome and the Cluckerrellas ' lol
My buff orpington 🐓 Nugget is hilarious. He is up to antics all day. But he very protective over his girls.
The theory that you spoke of about handling them less makes them nicer has proven true with us with at least 6 roosters.
You can also use a pair of pliers and twist the keratin on the spurs off. Then they will be soft but will harden again. After that, twist them off again and each time you do this they will get smaller and smaller.
I hope I typed that where it makes sense.
Unfortunately we had to rehome our rooster. He was so nice as a baby but when those hormones kicked in he became un-manageable. He did his job a little too well most days and he became a little dangerous to handle and be around. I love roosters though. Great tips! Maybe I'll try again one day!
We get our birds as chicks and we handle them all. Some of our roosters have just been nasty no matter how much you handle them and some jump in our laps and want pets. We have 2 criteria that roosters must meet in order to stay out of the freezer: be good to the girls and be good to the kids. Never feed a rooster hot dogs. We had a great rooster, good people skills, amazing flock master. My husband fed him a hot dog on the 4th of july and he started going after fingers. We couldn't train him out of it.
I had 1 rooster who met the crockpot. He was replaced with a black copper maran, they can be a little terror as puberty sets in but with worm most can be trained to realize the hens may be his but you are the one in charge
Well I'm not sure if this might be similar but I believe you are correct in the handle them less so they fear/respect you more. That's the case with sheep for the most part. It's why very few people that raise sheep will want a bottle baby ram.
I also have a jersey gaint, he is 9 months old. He has good manners and let's us pet him. Also I didn't handle him much. Yes he mounts the hens but he isn't hurting them.
Great job
This was good to see, thank you. Our rooster was a surprise, hence his name Butterfly. So far he has been good towards us and his girls but they are just about to switch over into "adults". I hope Butterfly stays a gentleman...otherwise rooster stew.
Do you know if you should pair a rooster off with a couple hens and see if they go broody if you want eggs or just let them all go and stay on top of egg collection until you have a broody hen? Not sure I'm ready for new chicks but just wondering. Butterfly is black with gold flakes. Also how do you tell what kind you have? I ordered from Murray McMurray "mix of brown egg layers"...with one surprise. I thought they would send me a list of what I got but didn't see anything. Thanks hun, you're awesome, keep up the good work and good luck with everything
Edit: not if you want eggs...they give eggs anyways. I meant chicks
I have an accidental Jersey Giant roo!! So far he has been very good. We were sad he was actually a he because I have heard Jersey Giants lay magnificent eggs!! Regardless I am glad we have him. He also has a buddy that is a silkie roo! They are both the same age and they play very well with each other and with the ladies! They are still fairly young (under a year) and I am just keeping my eye out for any signs of aggression.
my heart is breaking. a lot of the stuff in this video is so inaccurate. please don’t spread misinformation like some roosters just decide to be mean. people will hear that and think they are justified in killing them when it’s the human misunderstanding chicken behavior and handling situations poorly. they don’t decide to be mean. they think their flock is at risk and they’re trying to protect their family. we need to adjust to them and patiently teach them that we’re safe and that we won’t hurt them.
Love your videos. I’m Michael from Sydney Australia. At any given time, I have roughly 55 hens and 4-5 roosters. To make sure I don’t get an aggressive rooster, I man handle the dominant rooster when he approaches 4 months old. I carry him and hold his head to the ground for about 30 sec. I do this about 3-4 times and that shows him I’m the dominant one and the message seems to go out to the rest. So I never seem to get an aggressive rooster. I hope this helps.
We now have a rooster when we thought it was 13 hens at 12 weeks old, raised since chicks. How do I feed these? Can I mixed layer feed and a high protein for the rooster and have a bowl of calcium for the hens. Debating on putting him on the dinner plate or in a couple months getting another rooster so I have 2 for the flock.
Obviously there's always that one rooster, but I think if you really dedicate your time to them as chicks, while they're growing and even after, they really docile out and enjoy your company
Not always
We have a bantam rooster. We did have two but one died in an Arial attack protecting his girls. But the one remaining is just now coming into his rooster technique...FYI just started to crow and show food to the girls. We have both bantams and Rhode island reds. He seems to be less aggressive toward me. But then I brought him up since he was born. Not sire if that makes a difference but he does stand between me and hens sometimes. Other times he hides beneath the reds. Lol. I love your chicken videos. That is how I knew to get chickens and raise them from chicks. We also built your roost and made some modifications to it for our part of Ohio.
I have a rooster, but typically I let him out and then close the door before I go in. However recently I’ve had to change the way we do that so now I carry a big stick, but so far I haven’t had to use it. I’m trying to give him up enough space to not feel threatened and so far all he does is watch me to make sure I’m not hurting one of his hens. In fact he’ll come out of the coop walk around the side if he sees me out there, but he hasn’t come close to acted threatening. So, so far so good.
We live in town, have 1 rooster and 11 hens. He does come at me sometimes but overall he's a good rooster.
I have been really lucky, I had an issue with a couple of my boys when they hit their teenage phase but just picked them up calmly and carried them around petting them and they grew out of it. My polish almost broke my nose because I bent to pick him up one morning in his blind spot and scared him so he shot straight up and smashed me in the face haha. My japanese bantam is a sooky sweetheart to me but chases my daughter but I honestly think it amuses him how she reacts. He tried it with me once and I didn't react, just picked him up but she squeels and acts a fool and he seems to think its fun. She is the only one he does it to and if she calmly just picks him up he stops. All my boys were spoiled from hatch day but most were not cuddly, and the ones I rehomed I have heard no complaints about. It really depends on the roo no matter how he is raised or bred I think.
We had 2 roos in our first flock and when they got older, there was an obvious dominant roo and the other would just stay up on the roosting bar, so we had no choice but to let it out to be a yard chicken. After a little time, yard roo became super aggressive and with 2 younger kids who became scared to go outside, I got my first experience plucking a chicken 🤷🏼♀️ Our next batch we hatched in the incubator has at least 3-4 roos, so this will be interesting 😅
Rachelle Lee
0 seconds ago
We have a Plymouth Barred Rock rooster who is very non-aggressive towards humans. Almost on the friendly side. However, we have a mixed flock, and he only looks after the barred rock hens. He’s actually a pretty big jerk to the other breeds!
We have definitely noticed chickens tend to stick with their own breeds, pretty interesting.
I hatched out two boys and one girl and the boys are very nice if not a little skittish sometimes. I interacted with and handled them every day and they've gone up to be perfect gentlemen. Not aggressive to humans or other chickens at all
I think you and Bock Bock Bouquet are the best 2 channels for chicken talk . You 2 should do a video together.
Hi. I’m in sunny Sydney Australia. I have 6 roosters. 3x ISA brown and 3X Australorps. They were never handled as chicks and they’re gentlemen. They’re approximately 6 months old.
A note about crowing: They crow all. the. time. Not 5am. Not 6am. (Which is what I thought, that they just crowed very early in the morning or at first light)
They crow at 2am, 2pm, 10am, 10pm. Just all the time. In case you're an extremely light sleeper like I am.
i work nights so i sleep during the day they are out, so far it hasent been an issue with ether of my roosters :)
Crowing is the rooster's way of alerting the flock to potential danger. A hawk in the area, a dog, a stranger -- all are potential dangers and earn a crow!
I don't have aggressive roosters. I own 65 chickens of a mixed breed flock. About 20 are roosters ranging in age from 2 years to 5 months. I don't know what I'm doing that's working, but here are some factors:
- they free range my property, so in the rare event that a lesser roo challenges a leader, there is plenty of space for him to give up and hide
- 80% of the hens have clipped wings and stay in their 2000 sq. ft. run. The roos can fly and this ensures all lesser roos give the leaders and their hens plenty of space.
- My region is riddled with hawks, so roos who are outside the chicken run spend most their time watching for real threats and locating food. Idle hands are the devils playground they say
- my pack has a VERY established pecking order. Skirmishes usually only break out when I put fresh food out. And it is actually the alpha hens who get mad at the lesser roos and spar with them.
One small sebright rooster has recently taken to attacking me if I'm multiple hours late for feeding time. He is the only one to ever dare attack me. I think he's just very mad at me for neglecting his breakfast.
My breeds:
sebrights
bantam pheonix
Brahma
Bellefielder
Wyandottes
Comets
And one Easter Egger. He is the only one who went through a hyper aggressive phase 1.5 years back. All the hens picked out his feathers because they were tired of his ********. I've also owned Americauna in the past and they tried to kill each other. So I recommend staying away from colored egg layers EXCEPT whitings. My whiting rooster identifies as a hen. I call her queen Jasna Kolin.
Chickens can Be really Good pets 🐣🐤
I have 10 chickens total. Two are roosters. I started with three roosters and seven hens. I traded two of my roosters with a chicken keeper for supposedly two hens. One of them ended up being a rooster. Both my boys are not only handsome but gentlemen so far. One is older by about 2 months since the one I got with the trade was much younger. They are both Wyandotte. Richard is the older one and Sergeant Pecker is the younger one. The younger one would peck everyone and everything when he first arrived. But I would talk sweetly to him and approach him gently and now he is sweet as Richard. Richard does like his space. Every evening when I put my chickens to bed I would pet them as they went into the coop. Richard would try to avoid me at all costs because of this. I stopped petting Richard and gave him some space. He went back to being his sweet self. All of my chickens are less than a year old so we will see how things go as the boys get older. They seem to divide up the duties between the boys. The younger one is the first chicken out in the morning and he checks the whole run and then crows. The older one stays in the coop till all the hens are out and then he comes out. They seem to have an arrangement so they both are looking after all the hens but each one has their own girls they like.
So I gathered from the video is that you do not personally have a broad or in-depth background in working with roosters, and are just trying to distribute general agreed upon information. I am sure you wouldn’t put the video out if you felt that anything in it was incorrect. Unfortunately, when it comes to roosters much of the “traditional knowledge” is grossly inappropriate and taken out of context. It is rarely rooted in behavioral science or a true understanding of the species. That makes sense, we didn’t always have the information we have now, but much of what you shared in the video about behavior is not at all accurate. These days, quite a few studies have been done that demonstrate roosters are highly intelligent (on par with a 7 year old human) and very capable of self-control/restraint, empathy, learning new behaviors, and forming strong emotional bonds. Plenty of rooster keepers have developed a strong friendship with their boys, and it is never by the traditional means of behavior management (i.e. dominance training, intimidation, etc). Our roosters are loving and nice, not because we have rare “good eggs”, but because we worked with them correctly (with empathy and understanding). One of our boys in particular is naturally prone to over-reactions and attacks on things that make him anxious, but has grown incredibly bonded and affectionate just with the proper support. It is absolutely untrue that some roosters cannot be “fixed”, this is an excuse that gets thrown around by those who either weren’t educated or motivated enough to work through the issue.
As for roosters being naturally aggressive, while there is certainly truth to that idea it is represented out of context here. That “switch” you mentioned is puberty, and is an entirely predictable and normal phase of hormone-driven reactivity they all go through, much like human teens. Roosters are prey animals tasked with ensuring their flock’s survival. They are prone to attack or confront because their lives may depend on it, not because they are “mean.” This is a crucial distinction, because it tells us what drives them to attack. It is not malice or some defect, but rather natural (and healthy) fear, distrust, and insecurity. That defensiveness being directed at the keeper makes perfect sense in many cases, we are essentially massive kidnappers, holding them in an unnatural setting against their will. They cannot be expected to understand our intentions unless we make them clear. When a rooster attacks a human it is not irrational, it’s a perfectly understandable and appropriate reaction when seen from their side, and roosters never attack for "no reason." A rooster is not going to just assume we are safe, it is on us to demonstrate this to them in a way they will understand and this is where a great many keepers fail. Many keepers react to defensiveness by attacking back (or dominating), which only confirms to the rooster that we are not on their side. The rooster predictably continues his defensive responses, and the keeper (who should at this point recognize their role in digging the pit) writes them off as just “bad”. Nobody seems to consider that the strategy was the real problem.
Once again, I understand that you may not know much on this subject, but as someone who does I cannot help but feel concern for the 111k individuals you are spreading this bad information to. There is a level of responsibility that comes with the visibility this platform affords, and it is important to ensure that what is put out does not cause undue harm. The last thing the community needs is careless perpetuation of myths that result in birds being culled, dumped, or abused needlessly. What is needed is better information and better methodology, something that those of us with more background can offer. On a side note, it is highly unlikely that your neighbor’s silkies are just mean. There are many causes for rooster misbehavior, and none are hard to address. If you or your neighbor are interested in getting help working with them, we operate a support group for rooster keepers on Facebook called Rooster Allies. We are happy to assist anyone who is struggling with their boys over there or through our channel email. ❤
Very well said. Thank you for pointing all of this out.
Hey this is a really great breakdown, thank you for sharing! We are all certainly limited to our own experience, and based on the videos on your channel, it looks like you have a lot of experience with roos. I can definitely agree that there are so many myths perpetuated in the homesteading community around animal training -- my own particular grievances usually have to do with the myths around certain dogs being "untrainable" around chickens. Would you be willing to make a video on how you train roos with aggression issues stemming from various causes? We would love to promote a solid video on this topic -- maybe we could pin it in the comments here so people can reference it. Like I mentioned multiple times in this video, I'm still seeking "tried and true" methods of training -- and as I'm sure you noticed in the other comments -- most people tend to echo the same techniques, which haven't been effective in our own experience. Thanks again for your insight!
I'm in the midst of watching my two little boys become a little aggressive, but now I'm trying to be reasonable and not reactive. It helps so much to try to put myself into their shoes and see from their point of view. Thank you. ❤️
@@OakAbode Thank you so much for the reply, and for your interest in promoting solutions for rooster keepers dealing with these kinds of issues. It breaks our hearts to see so many struggling with this, and we actually had planned to do a video on the subject. Admittedly, that had been being delayed while we tried to settle on the best presentation, there is just so much that could be discussed. After reading your reply we decided to jump on it and at least get something out there sooner than later. Filming is done and we are in the editing stages now, so that will be available very soon. The video will be focused mostly on the universal guidelines for addressing any behavioral concern, and breaking down why the more common methods so often fail. It really all comes down to getting in their heads and understanding what is driving these types of problems, so we wanted to start there and provide that critical framework to build on. Although different things can bring about aggression, the solution is largely the same, they need to be made to feel safe and secure again. So we have essentially detailed the recommended starting point, regardless of the initial cause. The video would run far too long if we attempted to cover every modification that might need to be made from there. Since every rooster is an individual, and every situation is slightly different, a bit of fine-tuning is sometimes needed. One thing we do in our free time is troubleshoot directly with other keepers who need help. Our contact information will be provided for anyone who finds themselves needing more detailed advice from there. We also plan to put out a short series that will cover topics like preventing aggression, navigating puberty, and general bonding tips. We will let you know just as soon as that is available, and hope it can fill that information gap for any of your viewers who are currently struggling. ❤
@@roovolution Wonderful! Thank you! Would you be willing to email it to me when it's available so I don't miss it? I'm horrible at reading comments (just circled back to check on this now) and I don't want this to fall off the radar. Thank you for all your hard work! oakabode@gmail.com
2:13 That’s funny because I have two silkies rooster that are just about as docile as the silkies hens. 🤷🏽♂️
I have an Australorp roo I bought at 5 months for my hens. Previous owner handled him a lot and could carry him around. I didn't handle him and at 7 months now I haven't had an issue with him. He is a great protector but when it comes time to go in the coop or eat, he's more of an every man/hen for himself type bird. I also have two silkie roos, one white I raised by hand and spoiled, the other black, I got from my daughter who handled him a lot. Again, the black one I didn't handle and I have had no issues with. The white one I handled and spoiled and he has attacked me, before he started getting spurs. When he came at me from behind I kicked him, top of my boot, just to jar the air from him. Second run at me, he fled quickly so I chased him down and threw a stick at him (and missed). Now if I see him take a cocky stance when I'm around I run at him like the other roosters do to each other. He flees fast and stands down, most days he gives me a wide berth.
Right now, with three roosters and 14 hens, the pecking order is volatile, one roo will be on top today and is being chased by the bottom roo the next day. I'm thinking it's because they aren't a year old yet and things will settle out. Until it's settled the roos and hens see me as the top rooster and most of the hens squat in submission to me. It's only a matter of time before I'm challenged too. I am hoping the white silkie comes around. He is the last one in the coop at night and if he doesn't go in, I know I have a hen out somewhere. He is so protective of the girls and feeds them first, the perfect rooster in every other way.
I truly love my silkie roos, most have been the most "affectionate" as far as chickens go. I have 4 silike roo's that are complete love muffins (all in separate runs with girlfriends. They know that I'm their boss, the come to me for attention, and never attack me...however they go after everybody else. I have had some that have been sent to heavenly pastures for their aggression toward people and their hens.
Chickens that were being over handled when young tend to be the jerks = yup. My husband thought by being hands on with the chicks would make them nicer when they grew up. Not so. After owning 6 hens for 3 months, he ordered 6 Marans chicks from local breeder (1. because he wanted the dark copper brown eggs, 2. because we heard they're gentle breed and 3. dual-purpose chickens). 2 weeks later we got shipment of 22 more chicks of 4 diff 'patterns': ameraucanas, blue laced wyandottes, golden laced wyandottes and silver laced wyandottes - that was my fault because before we had chickens I mentioned to him I liked wyandotte feather patterns, but when we got the very first 6 hens from a neighbor who moved out of state, the wyandottes were snobbish and mean toward austrolorps. Anyway, husband babied the Marans but not so much with the 22 chicks because of their numbers. From 6 Marans we get 4 roosters and 2 hens. I picked the best looking one for breeder, I called him King Edward because when young he looked the most handsome and regal of the 4 with his coppery reddish mane and the comb is the biggest and looks like crown. Well, he turns to be a big jerk.
And a coward. He stalks us and when we turn our backs, he slams us from behind. It does not matter how many times we subdued him (pinned him down for a few mins until his heart rate slowed/calmed down), he does not learn the lesson. He is not a good gentleman either to his flock. He only sort of protects his 2 'sisters-wives' but doesn't bother with the other hens and he hogs all the foods and treats. On the other hand, there was a rooster that came out from the 22 chicks, who was beaten up/pecked on by other chickens when they're little that we had to separate him with 3 other chicks. He's a blue laced wyandotte. He has the most beautiful blue and brown scallopy feathers with golden neck feathers and ruffled comb typical of wyandottes. Husband named him Alpha Spid. Now Spid is the perfect gentleman. He stands guard while his ladies are foraging. He finds them foods or when I give treats, he will either stand back or get the treat and drop it for the ladies. He will chase other roosters who bother his ladies and cause them to scream. He never attacks us either. Too bad that King Edward is bigger in size so Spid usually cannot do much when one of his ladies gets clobbered by King Edward who does not try to mount her, he just does not like/socialize with Spid's tribe.
That agressive behavior towards my grand daughter really ticked me off. It was a very small breed game banti and I grabbed a club and I chased him around our huge back yard 3 or 4 times with every intention of ending his life, but our total physical exhaustion occurred simultaneously. I sat on the ground next to him caught my breath and he his and I decided to give him a reprieve. As far as I can remember he never attacked her again either.
We didn't want any roosters and we ended up with one and he's probably one of my favorites 😂
Could use some advice please. Mama chicken showed up and had 3 chicks. One survived and is a rooster. Mom and this rooster had more chicks and we think we now have 5 roosters and 4 hens. They are free range birds at the moment, but we will be building a coop soon. I don't want to have many more chicks. Should we do separate coops for roosters and hens and fence them separately?
Barded rock. Mean devil rooster. 😂😂
I've got half a dozen standard cochin (10lb-ish) roosters, and they're super mellow despite only having 4 or 5 hens for each of them.
I do frequently pick up the ones that let me, but even the ones that aren't particularly cuddly are generally well behaved.
I don't know if they're chill because they're cochins or because they're all brothers. Probably a bit of both.
I have a few roosters now, never any problems with them. We hold them a lot till they are about mature age and then leave them to do their job Or give them to other people for their flock. They are all sweet guy’s. They are Wyandotte’s.
My buff , Rocko is a beast .