Backyard homestead: Is it possible to raise a sweet rooster?

I’ve been reading chicken blogs, chicken forums, and following chicken Facebook groups for several years, and I’ve read some mixed reviews of keeping roosters. We had chickens a for quite a while before we made the leap and got a rooster for our flock.

We accidentally ended up with two roosters (story below), and so far, both of them are relatively sweet boys. They are mostly grown but still immature, and I keep watching and waiting for major signs of aggression. Based on what I read, I’ve been worried they are going to turn into mean roosters one day, but I’m starting to hope that we have two sweet roosters.

Is that possible? It is possible to raise a sweet rooster?

image of rooster

This is our accidental rooster named Rooster. He is the one who really seems to worry about the flock and is a good guard rooster.

And I’m not talking about the roos who live in people’s houses. I expect them to be sweet. They get so much human contact that you just know they’re going to grow up and be sweet. I’m talking about the farm roosters who protect their flocks and live in the barn or the coop and, of course, have human contact but nowhere near the contact a house rooster gets.

And, by the way, if you were unaware that people have pet chickens in their homes, let me tell you: It’s true! There are many people who keep chickens as house pets because chickens are so sweet and smart. The chickens have to wear little chicken diapers, but people do it.  If I could, I might try to let my favorite chicken, Poe, move in our house, but my husband thinks this is not a good idea. So there’s that.

Anyway, so far, my experiences tell me it might be possible to raise a sweet rooster, so I did some research. It turns out that there are some strategies to help promote sweetness—or at least good behavior—in a rooster, and I was accidentally doing some of these things, just following my instincts with my flock. I was impressed with myself!

I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m bragging. I’m not. I was just really impressed with myself that this once city girl and academic had some proper gut instincts in relation to our farm animals! I have grown!

But I won’t keep these strategies to myself any longer. Here’s what my research revealed about how to raise a sweet rooster, and, so far, these tips have worked for me.

  1. Handle your rooster as much as you can as early as you can.

We were able to do this a lot with the Rhode Island Red rooster we bought as a baby, but we accidentally got a second rooster in a group of chickens that were supposed to be girls. I was outside last summer cleaning water and filling up food buckets when I heard a big crow come from a direction where there shouldn’t have been a crow. It turned out we had another roo, and since we had the space and enough hens, we decided to keep him. So we started holding and petting him as much as we could from that day forward.

The idea, of course, is to humanize them as much as you can, and the handling is how you do it. If your rooster is not a fan, use bribes. Treats are a good way to get your rooster to hang out with you a bit.

  1. Don’t let your rooster mate in front of you.

You want to be kind about this, and you don’t want to kick or hurt your rooster, but, apparently, it shows your rooster that you are the boss if you don’t let him mate in front of you. I was doing this before I read about this as a strategy just because chicken mating is pretty aggressive, and I didn’t like one of my sweet girls getting jumped. So I just take my foot and scoot the rooster right off when he jumps on a hen in front of me. Not everyone agrees with this strategy, but, in my research, it came up time and time again.

  1. If he gets aggressive, hold him or give him a time out.

If your rooster does get aggressive, it’s best if you can just pick him up and hold him firmly until. he settles down. I have also read about the method of picking him up by his feet and carrying him around a bit upside down, but I also read this can be dangerous if he happens to have something in his mouth when you do this. So I would recommend just holding if you can. Time out in another area also seems to work well.

  1. Never, ever hit or kick your rooster, unless you are defending yourself or your kiddos.

Over and over again, the most important I read is to never hit or kick your rooster. You don’t want to hurt him—ever. He’s going to have instincts you will want to work with, and unless you just have to fight back to defend yourself, never hit him.

Of course, reading this list, you may be wondering if roosters are worth it. There are a lot of people who keep chickens who never want to mess with the trouble of a roo. They can crow quite loudly. And, in addition to being aggressive toward people, roosters can be aggressive to your hens, and this just makes them not worth it to many people. I do understand.

However, roosters will provide protection for your flock and can be raised to be kinder. And, if you want to raise your own baby chickens, you’re going to need a rooster.

And, so far, our experiences with roosters are pretty positive. The two we have, Runkle and Rooster, are at least pretty sweet. We can hold them, though they gripe about it a bit. And Rooster is a great guard rooster. He worries about the girls, gets stressed if something is out of sorts, and is the last one into the coop every night. He’s a good boy!

If you have rooster tips or experiences, please share below. I’m still learning, but so far, I’m a fan of roosters. Our roosters are pretty good boys, but I’ve read that even a mean rooster can be rehabilitated if you are willing to work with him.

Of course, the best plan seems to be to try to raise a sweet rooster from the beginning.

Crystal Sands

About Crystal Sands

I am a former academic and award winning writing teacher turned hobby farmer/homeschooling mom/freelancer. In 2015, after too many years of working too many hours, I decided to change my life. This blog shares my stories related to making the change and simplifying my life–a process that began when we finally got our first chickens. In this blog, I will share my experiences learning how to hobby farm on a small place in Maine, become more self-sufficient, live frugally, live peacefully, and have more time for love. I hope you will join me on this journey by following my blog and following me on Twitter @CrystalDSands.