On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 13:58:27 GMT, "Heather Gribble"
wrote:

Hi all....any suggestions for an aggressive rooster...my neighgbours have
one and they don't want to get rid of it....it has 2 hens under its
charge....is bringing in another rooster a good idea to take it's
aggressiveness away from the humans a good idea?....I know it's not
gardening but it's "husbandry"!! Many thanks for any replies forthcoming!!

I used to have chickens, and had several roosters, one is always ..
well.. Cock of the walk, dominant bird in the coup. As far as getting
another rooster, it will lead to fights, the introduced bird will most
likely get his tail feathers kicked, at least at first... However.. it
all kind of depends on the breed of chickens. If these are banties,
fighting cocks.. they're going to fight until one's dead. If they're
barred rocks, rhode island reds.. one rooster will run and try to stay
out of the other's way. With only 2 hens, an introduced rooster will
have to fight and win, or live at a good distance from the other.

Now, all that *might* keep the aggressive rooster busy. However, it
might make him worse. Personally, I'd just let the bird come on
over... get close.. then I'd grab him and put the fear of ME into him
grab hold of his head, of course that might kill him if he jerked
around too much, but you just want to get hold of him and then get him
by the legs and hang him upside down awhile, let him squawk and flap
(hold him far away) all he wants.. then once he settles down.. let him
go. He may just leave you be after that. If not, then do it again..
put him in a burlap bag for awhile.. rough it around.. not hurt the
bird.. just spook him a bit. Eventually he'll get the idea that it's
not a good idea to bug you anymore, and if he just leaves that one
person alone, but not others... the give him the treatment from
several other folks.

Birds are smarter than they're given credit for being. Granted
chickens are not "bright" but when I had them, I was surprised by how
much they could learn. I had a little white rock hen I got from a
hatchery that was culling out layers who had slowed down. She had
never seen dirt, probably not even sky, but it didn't take her more
than a couple times to learn that shovels brought worms and worms are
yummy to chickens. I could step outside the back door and pick up a
shovel and say "Chicken" (that was her name.. creative 'eh?) and she
would RUN as fast as she could toward me and she would follow a
shovel anywhere it went. The other chickens made the association, but
nowhere like "Chicken" I would step on the shovel, and she knew what
would happen and she'd start scratching right in front of the shovel,
and would ride the clod up as high as she could until I started
turning the shovel.

Are roosters legal where that trio lives? When I had chickens, they
were illegal, but now you can have 3.. hens only.

Good luck to the neighbors! I had to have a disagreement with one of
the 3 geese I had too. One was trying to intimidate me, and I grabbed
it by its neck.. not hurting it.. but I did explain to it that it was
not a good idea trying to bite me. He finally backed off, but when
he forgot himself, I advanced on him and he backed down. In nature
there is a dominant beastie, and I just had to let them know it would
be ME not them.

Just as an aside..When I got rid of all the roosters, but had 15 or so
hens, eventually one of the hens assumed the role of "rooster"
complete with Mounting, and going through all the motions of a
rooster.

Janice