What are the odds of a friendly rooster vs. an aggressive one?

I just experienced my 10 month old Light Brahma rooster going for me. Jumped at my leg and gave me a good peck. I'm so disappointed. He's not for breeding and I got him last year when I had no idea about keeping poultry. Hence I brought home what would become a 12lb rooster with a mixed flock of hens mostly 6 or 7lbs. I've had to keep him separated from the girls with a fence in between so he can't get at them (there are no other roosters) but he can see them and has lots of room to forage and watch them. Anyways, I'm just trying to take responsibility for my naive error last year in ordering him by hanging on to him but now he's going for me.

Okay, more info than necessary but what's come up is.........what are the chances of getting a friendly roo in general? I've got all these breeds I'm starting up this year (just a little overzealous) with the idea of keeping a rooster for each breed. Are friendly ones hard to come by? Will a rooster house help by keeping them away from the hens unless I want to breed them. What are the chances of them all getting along in a rooster house, aside from hopefully not attacking me? At what point does one decide what looks like a friendly rooster and which other ones to let go of when they're young?

Help, oh experienced rooster owners!

I'm not what I'd call an experienced rooster owner, but out of my own naivety I have ended u with five roosters. I have come to this conclusion - don't

baby them and treat the like pets when they are young. The one we did this with is terrible now. We can't turn our backs on him. The others who were

not handled much are a lot better. They seem to have a bit of fear of people in them just enough to make them think twice about taking you on.

Oh boy, you asked a hard question, ha ha. Well it is so hard to say, but first of all your rooster is probably feeling a bit boisterous, and can't get at those hens and is treating you like a threat, you can get in there he can't. I have heard to carry him around after the attack, like by the feet, hanging upside down, let him know who is the boss. I have only had one or two bad ones, and sorry to say, I have young grandchildren here that like to come out to the barn with me. The one that hit me in the face when I opened the pen only lived for a few seconds
I have all my spare roosters in with my turkeys and geese, there is always some sparring going on when they all meet, but soon there is a boss guy and they live quite happy.
I have heard the tamer they are the more likely they will be aggresive towards you, but not to sure in that theory.
If you have young children around, a bad rooster is not a good idea. Some of the most friendliest breeds will have a bad one once in awhile. So hard to give you a straight answer. At the end of the breeding season all my birds get to free range together, they seem to work it all out. I have a huge barn and lots of space outside for them to roam.
Hope this helps a bit, and love to hear what everyone else has to say.

We eat nasty roos around here. I have 3 small kids and the littlest was attacked so badly his bum was bleeding even though he had thick jeans on! And I have to agree with DCChick...the mean roos were the ones that we regularly handled when they were very young. They were friendly with us up until they matured...then LOOK OUT! All winter long I had 6 roos in with my 30+ hens and they were all gentle and fearful of us just as they should be. I had no problems with those ones that werent coddled as babies. Now in my experience Ameracauna roos seem to be much more aggressive with people and with hens. I dont like them at all actually.

Jaclyn

I'm working with a rooster to "rehab" him as he recently started attacking me. I catch him (sometimes after a bit of a chase around the coop) and pick him up. I hold him upside down in my arm. When that didn't stop things, I started also holding his wattle and talking sternly very close to him (holding wattles to prevent any pecking). That really slowed it down.

Then out of the blue he came at me again, but only charged me, didn't make contact. I grabbed him anyway, and held him by the legs and hung him upside down a while. I patted him firmly too, all over. Not hitting him, but firmly patting him and opening his wings and basically completely dominating him!! I've done that twice, and the "approaches" have diminished to almost none, that is I've had to do this twice and now he sees me and pecks the ground deliberately, or vacates the area. That's what I'm looking for.

I will continue this if he charges me again. If he choses to hit me, he's soup. I have 27 chicks in the brooder right now and I'm certain there will be a lovely Buff Orp roo or 5 in there to choose from, and in my experience, that has been the nicest rooster I've ever owned. I may replace this rooster anyway with two of my up-and-comers when the time comes. I will have plenty of hens to keep a couple or three roosters happy and busy.

Good luck. If you're able to do something similar, I'd say give him a chance or three. If he hurts you or someone else, it's your decision whether to continue or not, but if all he does after the initial lesson is charge you, I think he can be taught and just needs to learn that you are dominant.

I guess some of it is conditoning/raising but in my opinion there are way too many nice roosters to choose from to keep one that even "gives you the eye".

I don't care if he is the epitome of the Std of Perfection, I don't want that aggresion in my bloodlines...and thererfore won't keep him or even sell him to anyone, an aggrssive rooster looks good on a platter...

Thanks everyone. I have had one other nasty roo (an EE'er) that I tried my darnedest to dominate - hung him by the legs, pinned him to the ground, wrapped my hand around his throat, scaring the you-know-whats out of him. In the beginning that kept him at a distance for a week or more but as time passed and I continued this, he got worse and the attacks became more frequent. He is no longer with us. One breeder suggested trying just the opposite now, which is non-reaction - let him jump me 2 or 3 times and completely ignore him, so as not to pose as a threat that way. I will try that next time if I can remain calm and not reactive.

I rambled on a bit in my first post. My question(s) really was: are nice roosters hard to come by (with my 'big' plans of keeping one from each breed) and is a rooster house a good idea in that they won't be as apt to attack if there are no hens within their sight and bringing them together with their hens only for breeding is a good idea.

Oh and thanks for the suggestion to not handle them as chicks. I have many coming this year and will avoid doing that now. I did hear that cockerels that are early to mature and 'appear' friendly at a young age turn out nasty and to look for the more aloof ones.

This may sound funny, but interpreting roo behaviour can tell you the difference between a roo that is truly aggressive from one that is not.

My houdan roos are spirited and I have four of them. 3 which I raised as chicks and were handled from day 1. The 4th roo I got and as far as I know was not handled.

The roo that I got never handled has never thrown feet at me. He will move his hens away from me but will not act aggressive beyond that.

All three of the others have varying degrees of aggression. Instance one roo who also has hens will throw feet at me but he doesn't hit hard. He will then stand along side me and wait for me to pet his side before running off.
Compare him to my two other houdan roo who stay together with no hens. When they come out first thing in the morning, they will both attack me by throwing feet. But they also face each other and do the same thing. It goes on for a few minutes, neither roo hurting the other. Then they growl at each other and go running off, much in the same way you see two guys punching each other then go share a drink together. I think they throw their feet at me in this same manner, as if to say I'm part of their group, because I can pick them up handle them and they melt like butter.

Years ago when I had a Sultan roo, that was a bird who I feel was a truely aggressive roo. No matter how kind you would try to be towards him, with hens or without, he never took to being handled. He was a hard a$$. He would throw feet, dive at you, even aim at my head if he was up high enough. He was also an ex-hatchery bird so I'm sure he was not handled.

Great stuff to ponder. Thanks everyone.

I had my first experience with an aggressive roo this year too. It really surprised me because I've been keeping chickens off and on for 20 years now and have always had 2 or 3 roos around - never had a problem. This was an Orpington rooster too...and they are known for being calm and non agressive. So all I can think of is that he was frustrated with his little flock of 6 hens and could hear other roos crowing, but couldn't get to them. He started striking out at my leg when my back was turned. For a week straight I'd give him a kick and a wack when he did that, thinking he needed to learn the pecking order, but it didnt seem to help.

He's gone now. I didn't keep him, despite being a very big, good looking fellow. I just don't want a roo around behaving like that.

Yes, I think I've contributed to my Brahma's aggression by separating him from his hens by a wire fence only. He sees them flocking to me all the time, me handling them, etc. and it has caused him to become this way. Seems to be the consequence of getting him last year when I didn't know what I was doing and mixing him with smaller hens and then realizing my error in my choice and having to separate him.

It's good to know though that friendly roosters aren't as hard to come by as I was starting to think with my up and coming plans of owning a few this year.

It seems we have very complimentary posts going on Chicory I dread having to deal with an aggressive roo but it seems just part of having Roos. Our future Cochin roo is being raised by our AraucanaX hen so he's not being handled as much. I will warn my son to love and snuggle his hens and let his Roos be

Glad you read this thread Serjay. I was going to say something about encouraging your son not to handle him based on the advice I've been given here. The disappointment in a rooster turning bad, I can deal with. It's the consequences which are uncomfortable as I feel bad, it's uncomfortable and inconvenient to have to kill one bird - messy, etc. But such is the 'darker' side of our hobby.

Nasty roosters eat just as much as a friendly one and taste good too. No real reason to keep them out of the oven.

I have noticed that certain breeds give friendlier roosters. I have never had a Silkie, Mille Fleur Booted bantam, buff Orpington, Cuckoo Maran, Barred/Buff Plymouth Rock, White Chantecler, Blue Cochin, or a Light Brown Leghorn rooster go for me.

I had Golden Sebrights once and both those boys went for me every chance they got.

My Silver Laced Wyandotte started going for me last year. He was delicious. Right now his son is on probation. So far he hasn't bothered with me yet.

Of course, what some other people are saying about handling could also be a contributing factor. I don't handle my birds a lot but those wyandottes came from a woman who would sit in the pen and pet them. Maybe that's why his son is better behaved. I never pet him so he never got too used to me.