Harold the Rooster

[Cosmo spring garden]

I'm a Harold fan! If he ever gets a tour contract for his famous tricks, I'll be happy to become a tour groupie even if it means cleaning is mobile coop .

 

[flowerbug]

Harold bit me today! Hardly had I sat down with my treats and my clicker did he rush over and bite the top of my hand so hard it left a beak print.

He found himself upside down being held like a baby to discuss the matter, but it was hard to discuss things with him because as soon as he was upside down both hens started trying to beat the tar out of him. I had to shield his eyes to keep them from pecking his eyes out.

ouch! i've seen what birds can do to a person when a friend of mine was showing me her favorite bird at a greenhouse she was scritching it and petting it through the cage but i mistakenly moved nearer and it bit her thumb going right through her thumbnail. at least with chickens you're not dealing with those big nutcracker beaks!

 

[AMKuska]

In does not take long for things to turn in to Lord of the Flies. Good thing Harold has you, looking out for his best interests.

He thinks I'm being unreasonable and unfair. ;-)

ouch! i've seen what birds can do to a person when a friend of mine was showing me her favorite bird at a greenhouse she was scritching it and petting it through the cage but i mistakenly moved nearer and it bit her thumb going right through her thumbnail. at least with chickens you're not dealing with those big nutcracker beaks!

That's true! Actually, a lady I knew as a teenager had a parrot and she is the reason I'll never own a parrot of any kind. They're so cool and so trainable but those bites will take your finger/ear clean off.

I'm going to go out there today dressed all in blue and just see what he does. If he's normal, I'll try being more mindful of color. There's no studies that I can find on chickens and color, but there's some anecdotal evidence that some chickens are afraid of the color orange.

 

[AMKuska]

Harold attacked my foot the second I walked in today. The rest of the time was spent trying to call the girls away with pretend food while they stuffed themselves with corn.

I'm afraid trying to train him is over for the time being. Hormones have gotten my boy.

I went out later wearing boots to protect my legs hoping to work with him on aggression, and he didn't react at all. Since it's possible color is what's bothering him (They're pink) and he's possibly reacted badly to orange and red, perhaps pink is on the no-go list too.

Only way to know is to go out with him tomorrow to work with him in boots, but if he's going to be this sensitive about color I'm decorating the whole coop in pink, red and orange and he can just get over that. That's a huge color range to be in a snit about when his waterer is red and you don't ever see him attacking that.

 

[AMKuska]

Went out there again with corn in boots (black) absolutely no reaction. It appears I will be doing a barbie pink theme in his coop for a while so he can get over his color fixation. This is just silly.

 

[Dahlia]

ouch! i've seen what birds can do to a person when a friend of mine was showing me her favorite bird at a greenhouse she was scritching it and petting it through the cage but i mistakenly moved nearer and it bit her thumb going right through her thumbnail. at least with chickens you're not dealing with those big nutcracker beaks!

My dad became blood brothers with one of our roosters when I was a kid! The rooster flew at him and scratched him up really good.

 

[baymule]

Harold better watch out! Here comes @AMKuska with a bucket of paint!

 

[flowerbug]

Went out there again with corn in boots (black) absolutely no reaction. It appears I will be doing a barbie pink theme in his coop for a while so he can get over his color fixation. This is just silly.

maybe it's color sensitive because that is the color of rooster combs as they get older? it could be a competition or selecting the stronger rooster kind of built in reaction. just guessing... and good luck.

 

[AMKuska]

The lady ringing me up at the feed store today raised roosters for 4H until she aged out of the program! I mentioned my troubles with Harold, and she had a solution. She said that color reactivity is very common in roosters, and the best way to desensitize him is to feed him out of that color.

I've got tons of cloth in different colors so I will give it a go and see if that helps!

 

[AMKuska]

Yep, it's definitely the shoe. He had no reaction to me when I went in to deliver the treat stuffed shoe, but he hit my shoe like a lightning bolt when I put it in. I put an orange cup inside the shoe because I also know he reacts to orange, that also got a strong reaction.

I am so relieved. I can fix this. I was very sad yesterday thinking he was just suddenly hormonal---which he probably still is.

Here's a shot of him going for the shoe. I've got a short video of him going for the shoe, then the cup. I ended up leaving the shoe, hopefully there will be some of it left when I go back.

He was super sweet to me. Don't worry mom, the shoe is not going to get you! He will protect me from that shoe. I suppose he didn't know my foot was in it last time.