Fiesty cockerel

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chickenfan

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I hope this isn't a silly question, but I have a beautiful Sablepoot that unfortunately likes to attack me. Would this trait be passed on in his offspring?
 
I don’t know chickenfan but the idea of a long running family feud aimed against you personally is tickling me :) I’ve read somewhere, here I think, that they are more likely to attack when they consider you part of their group (so they actually like you - sort of?) Id love to have a cockerel if I had the space and suitable surroundings.
 
Was he handled quite a lot so he became tame as a youngster? I've heard that this can cause cockerels to lose their respect for humans once mature as they regard a person as a competitor.
 
How interesting Marigold and Rick. He was fine to handle when he was growing up but wasn't handled a huge amount. He lives with his brother happily without any fighting. He has quite a feisty sister too that has my huge, 6-year old Marans fully under control.
 
Birds definitely pass on aggression, you can see this in the relative levels of docileness or aggressiveness of certain breeds. Some very quirky individual traits can also be passed on from mother or father. I would say that in general bantam cocks tend to be sparkier than large fowl and harder to deter from attacking you, they seem to have a two day memory of you besting them before they decide to have another go whereas one very unpleasant experience can be enough to deter a large fowl bird for months on end. Remember that even tiny birds like sablepoots can be dangerous when you bend down, a friends son nearly had his eye taken out by an aggressive pekin lad many years ago.
 
Interesting that bantams are harder to deter from aggression than large fowl. He is my first aggressive bantam. My other boy that once went for my back never did it again and I'm sure worked things out and that I wasn't a threat, so I will give him a bit more time. Perhaps he is just very defensive of his girls and needs more free ranging.
 
They can get very jealous especially if you are directly feeding them or their girls, it's also that time of year. Personally as I don't have any breeding plans at the moment apart from Rudi the Thuringian who finally struck out on attack number 13 I am operating a 2 strikes and your out policy.
 
I think he had trouble asserting his place, especially as he was living with another cockerel (Linden). I put the young chap with a seven-year old hen in a pen of his own and they are totally besotted with each other. He is so absorbed with his girl he doesn't seem to notice me going in the run now.
 
Linden has been positively attacking me but I'm understanding it as him being settled and confident. I can see how, with a cock twice his size, over confidence would be quite dangerous but not with this little chap. I have taken to rolling my sleeves down when I pick him up though as he can deliver a sharp peck!
He's a little knight and always offers the mealworm to his hens.
 
The danger is when you bend over Rick in case you get caught in the eye, I am always wary even with well behaved boys when my head is within range of them.
 
Well that's extraordinary that Linden - who I thought was 100% non-aggressive - has turned out to be fiesty and this one that was nasty is now OK. I wonder if he sees you as a rival male Rick.
 
I’m sure he does Chickenfan - or else a non chicken intruder who, admittedly, brings some tasty food sometimes but still isn’t to be tolerated! He gets particularly annoyed when I pick up the hens. Betty's eggs are now fertile though the other hens are just too big (or in the case of Teabag, off limits) to mate with. Its funny how a change in the flock reshuffles everything isn’t it.
 
When you are keeping lads you really need to pare down how often you handle the females as well directly feeding them. The correct protocol is to drop the feed in front of Linden and let him take the credit for providing it. Look at it from his point of view, a giant comes into your house and picks up your lady you aren't going to be very happy.
 
dinosaw said:
When you are keeping lads you really need to pare down how often you handle the females as well directly feeding them. The correct protocol is to drop the feed in front of Linden and let him take the credit for providing it. Look at it from his point of view, a giant comes into your house and picks up your lady you aren't going to be very happy.
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I'm sure the Count would give these ladies good reason to mind their etiquette but I fear I would be chasing Linden round the run with a bowl hotly pursued by 4 hens with scant notion of waiting! Linden has to accept some compromises around here, like being put in his own room at 10:00 at least until sunrise is later. Aerial jumps on my shoulder while Linden attacks my trouser leg, its the routine double act but he's not wound up all the time - most of the time he's pretty relaxed if a little stand offish.
 
He'll be on to his embassy about you if your not careful.

The Count doesn't even get a chance to chirrup, the food is gone as soon as it hits the ground.
 
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