“This is so disappointing,” I told my husband one evening as we were out feeding our chicken flocks. We were standing with a feed bucket beside us and staring at a big, aggressive rooster in one of our free range pens. The rooster’s name was ‘Quintus’ and he’d been out freely roaming with one of our hens for over a year. Then one day the rooster decided to attack me. Next he tried to attack our tiny son. Then it was his main care-taker, my husband. We put him in a free range tractor and moved his pen daily so he could enjoy life without being a danger to us. But he’d tried to attack our little son through the fence recently and my momma-bear instincts were on high alert. Aggressive roosters or any dangerous farm animal is a liability and a threat to the family.
If this story is starting to sound familiar or even just relatable, you’re in the right place. My goal with this post is to help you prevent injury and fears when caring for your flocks. Various rooster breeds are known for having aggressive traits, and many are known to be docile so this can help when you’re making a decision about the breed you’ll raise. But in each breed an aggressive rooster can randomly show up just as a docile rooster as wonderful as a lap dog. Roosters range the full spectrum from wonderful to terrible. The University of Maine lists sites for chicken keeping and breeds here that’s helpful if you’re researching. We have details on the three breeds we raise and sell at our hatchery.
Three Practices
If you are happy with your flock dynamics or don’t plan on handling your chickens, you might not have a problem with an aggressive rooster. For us, we deal with roosters a lot between our breeding program and the hatchery so I’m sharing our observations on each method we’ve tested thus far. I don’t claim to be an expert on every matter concerning animal training or care, and I’m going to only share options we’ve tried as chicken breeders to handle aggressive roosters. You are responsible for your own safety so be careful with any aggressive roosters. I’ve been injured by a fair number and it’s not fun.
Before we raise and/or train any animal, big or small, we research. Here are my three practices to improve safety for myself and the animal, and to increase favorable outcomes with training.
- Study. Always read up on the general history so a particular breed’s historical purpose, general characteristics and traits, and best practices for care are top of mind.
- Observe. Watch for the specific animal’s overall nature, their personality with others, and observe what motivates them.
- Remember. All animals can be dangerous. They’ve got teeth, claws/hooves, and powerful muscles even at a small size. A bantam won’t kill you, but it could blind you in the right circumstance. Remembering that animals can be dangerous is essential to safety.
Rooster Nature
Roosters are male chickens, whose purpose is to father chicks and to protect flocks. In addition to the above, their job historically when owned by humans was to provide meat for families, and sport – namely, cock fighting. Not every chicken breed was used in the cock fighting. It’s illegal here though still done in other countries.
All the above knowledge is vital when understanding a rooster.
When Roosters attack each other up they use feet, claws, beaks, wings, and muscle power. When a rooster wins a fight, he’s either killed the other bird, it ran from him to show submission, or the rooster has pinned the other bird’s head to the ground and thereby demanded submissive behavior.
Roosters also love challenging each other every day or at least every week or so. You know, just to see if anything has changed since the last fight. Roosters who grow up together are less likely to kill each other as long as there’s a fair amount of females for each, though they will challenge each other to figure out their pecking order.
Options for Handling the Aggressive Rooster
Method 1 – Training Against Aggression
Chickens are trainable. We know that because we can train them to come running over to us when we call and stand calm in a show pen, as just two examples. It stands to reason that if you train a rooster that you are the alpha he won’t attack. We catch an aggressive rooster while he’s attacking or even simply catch him before he attacks, pin his body and head down to the ground, let him go, and he understands who is alpha. That’s how they do it in the flock. Or we feed him treats every day, catch him and hold him, and force our love upon him.
Here’s what we’ve found:
Pros
This method can work on young cockerels who’ve never attacked before, or mildly aggressive birds who only fence-stalk
Training technique such as this are generally a calm, harmless activity to the bird
Cons
You or your kids can get hurt, and likely will if it’s a mature rooster, long before you catch them
Anyone who goes into the pen or is around the rooster must perform this same training
Roosters will test you often; you can never run or you relinquish your status
Head-pinning subtly makes you a flock member by participating in a rooster pecking order/flock dynamic
Method 2 – The Rod
We’ve debated about putting this one first only because when a rooster attacks, we need something to defend ourselves and a stick/board is generally what gets grabbed first. Depending on the rooster, you’ll whack them away and they’ll still return for more. When you think about rooster nature and the fact that the rod won’t pin the rooster to the ground unless you’re pretty talented, that makes this the worst tool for training. The stick might eventually hurt him enough to consider submission, but he’ll be back to test it.
Pros
You’re less likely to get hurt
Once the rooster submits he’s less likely to attack…that stick
Cons
If you don’t carry a stick, you’re likely to get hurt
Most roosters have be hit hard to submit and respect the stick
The message sent is that the stick is alpha, not you
Method 3 – Rehoming Aggressive Birds
When we get tired of method 1 or 2, we consider rehoming. Maybe someone else wants him? And then we thought that through.
Pros
You don’t have to deal with that dangerous rooster any more
Cons
Someone else gets hurt
Someone else has to put him down (this might be a plus)
He gets used for something illegal (cock fighting is illegal)
Method 4 – The Stew Pot
This is the method throughout history that’s been the safest. Either the ax or the knife and cone come out, and we sneak the rooster from the chicken flock by night. You can call a vet or a butcher shop as other options.
Pros
You don’t have to deal with that rooster any more
Coq au vin or broth recipes can nourish your family even with an older rooster
Cons
You have to put him down, which can be emotionally taxing and just plain sad
You spent a lot of time, money, and emotions raising the bird – probably from chick to adult
The hens will be stressed out when the rooster disappears
What We Do at Chisel’d Creek Farm
Time, quality care, and love are put in for all the birds we raise but especially our roosters because they have an important job here. Our roosters are going to be daddies, protect their flock, and possibly go to shows. Our roosters are also going to be handled often by us and cannot be an extreme danger to anyone on the premises. At our farm we have tried all the above methods. So far the only safe method is putting an overly aggressive rooster down. Mild aggression (like fence stalking) can be permissible, but the moment we step into the pen, the bird must respect those who feed and care for it.
Breeders argue about whether or not aggression is hereditary. Science hasn’t proved anything either way, but I am of the opinion that it is hereditary. That game bird two generations back who accidentally got in that coop – he might be the reason for the aggression. Or that meek little hen who turned into a broody monster was actually the aggression gene carrier. Whatever the case may be, we won’t breed aggressive roosters on the farm and keep an eye out for unusual aggressive traits showing up.
If you’re wondering what happened to Quintus, he had a fantastic life for a rooster. We offered him every opportunity to shape up regarding his aggression. With or without hens, he was a danger to us and a detriment to the farm with his misplaced protective instincts. Finally, we put him down after the last attempt he made to attack my son. I was sad and sorry when we made the final decision, but caging him alone forever wouldn’t be a life for him either.
Our advice to anyone dealing with aggressive roosters: life is valuable and important, and so is the your safety and that of your family.
Cheers!
Mary & the Chisel’d Creek Farm Family