I am by no means a chicken expert. I have had chickens for almost 4 years and that is nothing compared to all the old pros on this list. However, I have my own theory on the “nasty roo” debacle.
Our first roos were bantams. A straight run batch of 25 included 17 roosters! Nice, huh? They were the cutest and sweetest little things……and even as week old chicks, were showing offensive behavior and jumping at our hands. “oh, isn’t that so cute…..he is a fighter”. Haha, famous last words. These chicks were handled and loved on and treated very well. When old enough to put outside, they all went to the same coop and I eventually had to separate them….too many roos for my sweet girls. We made small pyramid coops and kept a few in each…….hell, they were all “brothers” so we figured they should each have company.
In my larger pyramid coop, we had three cochins and two rir………big mistake to go in there without a weapon. I stepped in one day to get their waterer and one attacked. I was wearing shorts and he drew blood…….I screamed…..totally taken by surprise and startled……..that antagonized the others and we had a free for all. ALL FIVE were tag teaming and hitting me in the legs- one at a time. All I could do was scream. My son stood there…….his reaction time is piss poor and he honestly didn’t know what to do. I screams, “Save me! Come help me get out of here”. The problem with the pyramid coop was that it wasn’t tall enough to stand up straight in and I had to back out……..and being in total shock over the carnage and the fact that I was the subject of their violence……….I still cringe over that day. The blood running down my legs to my white bobby socks…………ack! You can just imagine.
I digress……..my apologies. Anyway, I have had a few more roosters since then. I don’t handle them……..in fact, we have had three hatched here by my sweet little hens and they were not hand raised by us. When we enter the barnyard, they watch and scatter. We have never had any problems out of the roos we didn’t handle, only the ones we did………so, my theory is that the hand raised roosters don’t ever develop a fear of us humans and come at us as if we were competitors……whereas the chicken raised roos have a fear of us…….sure, they know we bring on the food, but they are still leary of us and leave us alone.
All those bad roos were given away. Maybe eaten……..I don’t know. I currently have too many roos but they are not rebels……in fact, we have a NH Red and a Barred Rock…….huge birds but very docile. They do not want to be caught or handled, but my daughter and I caught them the other day and removed their spurs. (only because they are hurting the hens with them) Our little bantams raised by the moms are still around and don’t approach us at all. I do have a few NN Silkies promised to friend and they act naughtly once in awhile, but usually walk away from us because they know I will pick them up and carry them around the barnyard like babies and they don’t like it. (I think it embarrasses them!)
I don’t order straight run anymore and if we end up with a roo for some reason or another, we don’t handle them much. Baby velociraptors grow into man eating beasts and we had proof of that at our house!
Laura Roberts
R Half Pint Farm
From: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 11:47 PM
To: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [CHICKENS-101] Mean little chicky..
This happened to me..one day our roo (raised from a chick, so very nice and
sweet) turned. We think it is from our nephew who came over and the was
playing running with him. From that day forward, I had to carry a rake
around the property, or anything else for that matter...because it was
either him or me. That bird would stalk and attack me multiple times a day.
And did he ever get the hose squirted on him, shooshed with my rake, threw a
few rocks too. THEN he started jumping on my brand new car when I would pull
in the property and he would jump on the hood. Nope, the horn didn't work.
LOL I was trapped!!! My husband would just laugh but it was getting
old..fast. J
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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