How to pick up an aggressive rooster?

It is so tempting to give a [NSFW] response, but I will resist.

I know of one person who rounded up his roosters (or maybe it was turkeys – I don’t remember) by holding a moderately heavy piece of canvas, surrounding it, and grabbing the bugger. You can’t squeeze to hard, and it will try to wriggle away.

JG’s are usually docile, but yes, if he is an adolescent cock he is feeling extra testosteroned out. haha
Best thing to do is try to gentle him with treats, find something he really likes such as dried meal worms or bits of bread, pasta, etc. See if he will approach you for treats without being aggressive. To pick him up, scoop him up backwards, his tail facing forward and secure both feet in your hands with his head facing backwards under your arm.

If you subdue him this way a few times and encourage treats maybe he will mellow out, or, not. haha

We had a pole with a hook. Catch their legs and pull them towards you, then grab the legs. We didn’t have time for treats and stuff. That’s nice, but we had a crap load of stuff to do.

Layer up & hood him with dark cloth. I’d just give him space though. Moves are hard on birds stress levels.

With long sleeved leather welding gloves.

New info: he is apparently a sexist bird! I volunteered my (male) fiance to feed and try this whole handle-the-evil-rooster plan this morning, and the roo ate corn from his hand, showed no signs of aggression, and even acted submissive to him. Now it makes more sense that my (female) friend had such trouble with him but her husband did not. I never knew birds can have a gender preference, like dogs sometimes do. So I guess it’ll have to be me who mostly works with him on this whole gentling thing, then.

@elbanditoroso Hm, I feel like that’d be one too many items to juggle, but if Coloma’s suggestion doesn’t work I may come back and revisit the idea. Might freak him out more, with the canvas swooping down and enveloping him like a hawk or other predator.

@Coloma The other chickens I’ve handled all stayed very still once I had them in hand – is he likely to become quiet right away like I would normally expect, or should I be prepared for some struggling and pecking initially while I’m holding him?

@Adirondackwannabe I have the time to try this stuff, but thanks for the tip. I’m sure it’ll come in handy as we get more stock.

@KNOWITALL Reminds me of that Aesop’s fable about how the mice all voted to put a bell on the cat, and then the old mouse comes up and says Ah, but who shall bell the cat? I mean, if I’m needing to grab him to hood him, handling would kind of have to not already be an issue, yknow? As for giving him space – he ran all the way across the yard to attack me; I was just chillin with my goaties and not even paying any attention to him! But your point that he may be stressed is probably right on – between the move and not having any ladies to have his jollies with and watch over, he’s likely a bit on edge. We’ll get some hens Thurs or so; maybe that’ll help some.

@kritiper I have long gauntlet hearth gloves but they’d be kind of bulky. I think I’ll try with my just my leather work gloves and a tough jacket first.

If he’s as big as you say, you might need face protection (motorcycle helmet with face shield? It would make it much harder if you had to worry about your face.

Was I ever overthinking this! I tried picking him up yesterday when he went for me, and his behavior immediately changed from attack to escape. I didn’t manage to actually grab him – he’s slippery, and I didn’t want to hurt him – but all the same, he totally quit trying to attack me for the rest of the day and this morning. So hooray, birdie will be allowed to live instead of going in the stew this weekend. We’ll probably name him Harvey Birdman.

@wildpotato Ya gotta be the alpha chick! lol

Finally managed to pick him up today. I held him for about ten minutes till my arm got really tired (he weighs like 12 lbs!) and then sat with him on my lap for a bit and petted and talked to him while my baby goats tried to nibble his feathers, then set him down once he seemed resigned to his fate. He was totally humiliated! Pretended to be hunting bugs till I left the pen and then started crowing his head off.

Thanks for detailing the best way to hold him, @Coloma – he did peck a bit, and I’m sure he would have gone for my eye if I hadn’t been holding him with his head behind my back and his butt up front as you directed. One new question for ya: I noticed he has a lot of dandruff. Is that a possible sign of inadequate nutrition or external parasites, or is it probably just regular old wintertime dry skin? He eats layer ration crumble along with the hens. I realized right after I let him go that I probably should have checked out his skin while I was holding him; whoops.

We ended up naming him Brock Samson. I’m glad we kept him – he does a good job as protector of his hens, and he doesn’t rape them too much even though there’s only two of them. One hen had a bald spot on her back when I first got her (name: Lieutenant Baldovitch), and the feathers have completely grown back in. Good boy, Brock.

@wildpotato Haha…victory! His dry skin is probably not an issue, but yes, check under his wings and around his vent area to look for tiny red mites or other parasites. You can then dust him with Sevin Dust and do the same in your coop and nest boxes. Remove all bedding and dust liberally, especially in all the cracks and crannies.

You can also dip your chickens in a bucket of warm water with 2 tablespoons of Hexol and spray that in the coops as well if the weather is warm enough. Just hold them in the solution up to their necks for about 2 minutes and roll them in a towel for a couple more then cut them loose. haha They will just lie there wrapped in the towel looking like they are going to die so don’t panic, they just sorta go into a trance.

All exhibition poultry is bathed in this manner prior to showing.

Hey @Coloma…something severely freaky just happened. From the beginning: he’s still attacking both my fiance and I a lot, so I’ve been picking him up about every other day and offering him crumbles from my hand. He sometimes takes a few pecks, and other times goes for my hand instead. Today, just about 15 min ago, I was holding him and as per his usual he stayed quiet for a bit then flapped and tried to get away for a bit. After he quieted down I again offered him some crumbles, and noticed blood on my hand. At first I thought he got me, but then I realized the blood was dripping from his beak! I immediately let him down, apologized profusely, and got his feeder out for him and the ladies. After wiping his beak on the grass a few times he’s acting totally normal – eating pellets, hunting bugs, crowing.

Do birds tend to act normally if they have an internal injury? Is there such a thing as a chicken “nosebleed” that’s not such a big deal, or some easy/less scary explanation like that? I’m thinking he must have hurt himself when he was trying to get away and I was trying to keep ahold of him – I don’t recall holding him especially hard when he did that but I suppose I might have hugged him reflexively and not been aware. I feel terrible, poor little dude. I’d like to check him over and feel his bones and such, but I’m afraid I’d hurt him more by trying to catch and hold him. He’ll be more mellow tonight when he roosts and I can probably grab him then without as much fuss, but still… If you have any experience with something like this, or any idea of what might have happened…

Vet is not in the equation, so if it’s not something repairable by me at home and you think it’s likely he’s in pain, I’ll go ahead and slaughter him today so he’s not suffering, at least. Probably will happen in the near future in any event, sorry to say, since he is not showing signs of becoming less aggressive despite the holding and the hand-feeding. It’s frustrating; I love everything about him except how much he attacks us. My fiance is arguing that there’s enough nice roosters out there, and we’ll be processing most of the boys we hatch out ourselves anyway, so why not just wait for a nice roo to keep instead of this guy. I keep saying, let’s give him more time to learn to be nice, but honestly my patience is wearing a bit thin too.

If giving advice on this makes you uncomfortable at all, since you know what my next step might be, please don’t stress about not answering my questions if you don’t want to – I know you don’t keep birds for meat and don’t like thinking about poultry processing.

Edited to add: I did check him over for little red mites or other crawly things, but did not see any. I think he might have just been “shedding” from the stress of me holding him that first time.

@wildpotato Hey yhtere, just saw this. Funny, I just came in from cleaning the duck & goose barn here. haha
Most chickens are moulting right now so the “shedding” is probably just loose feathers coming off. As far as the bleeding, maybe a nosebleed or he nicked his beak or comb somehow. Just keep an eye on him for awhile, most likely a superficial injury.

I don’t think holding him firmly would cause internal bleeding unless you really squeezed him hard.
See if you can spot any little scabby, dried blood spots on his face, beak, comb, wattles. No, issues with processing birds for the table as long as they have decent quality lives before being processed. Let me know if you find a wound.

Just like people, head wounds bleed a lot, a cut comb or wattles or beak looks worse than it is.

Thanks, your reply calmed me down a lot. I didn’t find a wound, but I have some blood stop powder standing by just in case. I spent a while hanging out with him today, since the birds decided to stay in the goat barn rather than brave the foot of snow back to their coop and so I had to set up their stuff. Silly boy attacked me again so he must be feeling spunky, and he seems to still be acting normally otherwise. Maybe he’ll calm down and the hens will become a bit tame now that we’re all in such close quarters for the winter.

I think you’re right that he was just moulting; I’m not noticing any more dandruff now and my hens started laying again after a three week break. Winter layers are awesome.