Chickens attack
-
windwalkingwolf
- Poultry Guru - pullet level
- Posts: 3567
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 1:31 pm
- Location: Frankville, Ontario
- x 4900
Re: Chickens attack
The frazzle at 2:15!!! 
I don't know what's wrong with THAT guy, but I suspect brain damage
The rest are pretty easy. Chickens are dinosaurs. Everything is either food or a source of food, or a mate, or competition for food or mates...or a predator that threatens mates. If a rooster is unsure and tests the waters by assuming an aggressive posture towards a person, dog, etc... and the person freezes and stares back, or runs away, it pretty much cements in his mind that he needs to run you off before you breed with, or eat, his hens. Children are targets especially because they tend to move in quick jerky fashion, which is rooster body language for "sickly rooster wanting to steal the food and breed the hens". Toddlers love to feed the chickens, and tend to laugh, squeal, babble and carry on as they do so...a rooster sees this as an invading rooster crowing and trying to win his hens over with food. If the child laughs or cries at an attack, the rooster hears it as crowing and it further enrages him. After that, no child is safe with him, because he can't tell one child from another. Older children tend to think being chased is funny, and will bait roosters into doing it, and then the behaviour is set and only gets worse. Running bad.
As a rooster keeper, you either have to be head rooster, or a hen that happens to be good at "finding" food. Body language and sound is everything to our modern little velociraptors. If you can't manage either of those things, or if you have a highly aggressive, or vision impaired (if a rooster can't see well, he will often view EVERYTHING that moves as suspect), or brain damaged rooster, you will end up with stab wounds eventually.
Even within docile breeds, there will occasionally be a dick with a reptile brain, or a rooster that will develop a hate-on for a specific person or people for seemingly no reason. I used to have a rooster that would stare me down, beat his chest and crow, and even advance threateningly on me... at some times, but not at others. Turned out, at his last home, his keeper always wore blue work pants for chores and would routinely kick at this "evil, aggressive, unmanageable" rooster, at first to get him away from the feeder so he could fill it (yeah, don't do that) and then to keep him away when he acted with understandable aggression. It was a convoluted connection to finally make, but when I stopped wearing dark blue when I was near him, he was an absolute sweetheart.
Most people absolutely, and understandably, do not want to perpetuate aggression in their flocks, especially if they have small children or vulnerable pets, and so will kill or refuse to breed any rooster that shows any sort of aggression at all.
I, personally, have found that a rooster with just a little congenital chutzpah is a better protector of his hens, is more fertile, and will father pullets that lay more eggs more often, and have learned to tailor my behaviour and body language a little to each individual case.
And, I just went off on a complete tangent for no real reason. But, OMG, that hilarious Frazzle! I expected him to click his heels and do handsprings
I don't know what's wrong with THAT guy, but I suspect brain damage The rest are pretty easy. Chickens are dinosaurs. Everything is either food or a source of food, or a mate, or competition for food or mates...or a predator that threatens mates. If a rooster is unsure and tests the waters by assuming an aggressive posture towards a person, dog, etc... and the person freezes and stares back, or runs away, it pretty much cements in his mind that he needs to run you off before you breed with, or eat, his hens. Children are targets especially because they tend to move in quick jerky fashion, which is rooster body language for "sickly rooster wanting to steal the food and breed the hens". Toddlers love to feed the chickens, and tend to laugh, squeal, babble and carry on as they do so...a rooster sees this as an invading rooster crowing and trying to win his hens over with food. If the child laughs or cries at an attack, the rooster hears it as crowing and it further enrages him. After that, no child is safe with him, because he can't tell one child from another. Older children tend to think being chased is funny, and will bait roosters into doing it, and then the behaviour is set and only gets worse. Running bad.
As a rooster keeper, you either have to be head rooster, or a hen that happens to be good at "finding" food. Body language and sound is everything to our modern little velociraptors. If you can't manage either of those things, or if you have a highly aggressive, or vision impaired (if a rooster can't see well, he will often view EVERYTHING that moves as suspect), or brain damaged rooster, you will end up with stab wounds eventually.
Even within docile breeds, there will occasionally be a dick with a reptile brain, or a rooster that will develop a hate-on for a specific person or people for seemingly no reason. I used to have a rooster that would stare me down, beat his chest and crow, and even advance threateningly on me... at some times, but not at others. Turned out, at his last home, his keeper always wore blue work pants for chores and would routinely kick at this "evil, aggressive, unmanageable" rooster, at first to get him away from the feeder so he could fill it (yeah, don't do that) and then to keep him away when he acted with understandable aggression. It was a convoluted connection to finally make, but when I stopped wearing dark blue when I was near him, he was an absolute sweetheart.
Most people absolutely, and understandably, do not want to perpetuate aggression in their flocks, especially if they have small children or vulnerable pets, and so will kill or refuse to breed any rooster that shows any sort of aggression at all.
I, personally, have found that a rooster with just a little congenital chutzpah is a better protector of his hens, is more fertile, and will father pullets that lay more eggs more often, and have learned to tailor my behaviour and body language a little to each individual case.
And, I just went off on a complete tangent for no real reason. But, OMG, that hilarious Frazzle! I expected him to click his heels and do handsprings
2
-
Killerbunny
- Poultry Guru - total zen level
- Posts: 7964
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 12:04 pm
- Location: Brockville
- x 10272
Re: Chickens attack
Yup, Jan's right. CHeck out the body language on some of those people, almost inciting the rooster to attack! Lucky was great on the protection side and the only time he stabbed me was when I made a mistake and blocked his exit making him feel trapped. At the end he appeared to get aggressive and yes, he had gone blind in one eye poor chap!
2
Beltsville Small White turkeys.
Mutt chickens for eggs
RIP Stephen the BSW Tom and my coffee companion.
RIP Lucky the Very Brave Splash Wyandotte rooster.
RIP little Muppet the rescue cat.
-
Happy
- Poultry Guru - pullet level
- Posts: 3887
- Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2016 8:46 am
- Location: Wasaga Beach
- x 10928
Re: Chickens attack
My little house rooster taught me a lot about how they think and see the world. The two people he lived with were his flock and although he didn't see himself as the boss of his flock he chipped in to "find" us food and check out visitors to ensure they were safe. For the most part he was standofish with people at first and would choose a spot to observe them then slowly get closer to see how they would react and eventually he would go peck their toes or dance around their feet. He was tiny so his pecks never hurt but one person took acception to them and sort of kick-lifted him several feet back. Bad move. Not only did said person get an earful from me this started a trend of Happy attacking anybody wearing beige pants. Even his own people. He raged when he saw that colour and had to be removed and put in another room.
1
-
Farrier1987
- Stringy Old Chicken
- Posts: 1537
- Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2016 5:46 pm
- Location: Chatham-Kent
- x 3535
Re: Chickens attack
A good time had by all on some of them. Others, especially a couple little kids, pure terror. I liked the goose/chicken duel.
0
Farrier1987. South of Chatham on Lake Erie. Chickens, goats, horse, garden, dog, cat. Worked all over the world. Know a little bit about a lot of things. No incubator, broody hens.
-
Ontario Chick
- Poultry Guru
- Posts: 5412
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 10:12 am
- Location: Carp - West Ottawa
- x 9647
Re: Chickens attack
Most people are too busy to observe animal body language and really other people's body language too, we poultry people are a very lucky crowd, we learned to slow down enough to actually see :)
5
