[Poultry Judge]

Try making peace with some mealworms, they will generally drop whatever devil's work they are doing to eat worms. While he eats, try having a rational chicken psychology discussion with him, explain his options and consequences of his life choices. Tell him you have both a refrigerator freezer and a chest freezer. Explain to him that he does not wish to choose the vocational path of human fighting rooster! At the age of about five, I do remember my grandmother handing my brother and I rolled up newspaper and making us chase her bad rooster to establish the pecking order. I remember thinking it was mean at the time. She made us do the same thing with the geese. With the geese, it was all territorial. With one particular rooster, I'm not so sure. He would do the ambush thing from an arbor and I think he enjoyed terrorizing children!

 

[Poultry Judge]

Please keep us posted, love the name Puffball.

 

[Poultry Judge]

Thank you for the update! I'm with Robin, I think that might be how Puffball is hardwired. However, if you spend time with your flock every day, you may be able to desensitize him a little bit. On my farm we do a chicken, turkey and duck count every morning and everyone is very conditioned to the a.m. mealworms, it's just part of the routine.

 

[Poultry Judge]

It wouldn't have lasted. He would have gotten used to the look and been right back at it again.

Yup.

 

[Poultry Judge]

Thank you for the post, let us know how things progress.

 

[Poultry Judge]

That is too funny, I'm trying to picture you in the apple tree with a telescope. He is patrolling and he is very convinced he owns the place. I'm with Robin, see what he'll do with the extra space. I'm still holding out hope that you can break the cycle with some treats.

 

[Poultry Judge]

Make him work for the mealworms, only a few at a time. And don't give up, I'm not a chicken psychologist but you may have to get into his head. I've been doing this for a bunch of years and there are probably a few more things you can try. When I had my Emu flock, occasionally I would have to troubleshoot an issue with one of the dominant females. In that species, the females run the show. Sometimes I had to re-structure a run based on what fighting behaviors I had going on. I always tried to view the situation from their perspective and was usually successful. Those birds would cooperatively hunt you, especially at night and I generally never turned my back to them. I sold the whole flock last year because I realized I am too old to wrestle with them to do the vaccinations or chase them anymore. I worked with Emus since 1982 and learned a tremendous amount from them in those years. I think the most enjoyable time on the farm now is spent just observing, chicken, duck and turkey behavior on a daily basis. I still learn stuff all the time!

 

[Poultry Judge]

Yup, what Sylie said! No need to get into complicated treats. You may win him over eventually,or maybe not. I'm wondering if he has a literal pecking order authority conflict with you. The answer is somewhere in that little primitive pea size brain as to why he targets you specifically. I get a tremendous amount of mileage, goodwill and cooperation from mealworms. Keep us posted!

 

[Poultry Judge]

I'm with Robin, the garden represents unfamiliar territory. I was thinking about the cakes you made. During the late 1800's, the poultry books are full of recipes for cakes similar to what you made for all sorts of purposes, treats, medicinal, healing, conditioning etcetera. Glad you are making progress!

 

[Poultry Judge]

My thoughts exactly, he won't go too far at first but he's more than likely looking to expand his territory. So now I'm thinking back to the chicken psychology portion of this. I wonder how he is triggered and does his gameness contain any emotional intelligence? He seems to exhibit some impulse control at times and chooses his targets. It may be just based on his perception of pecking order.

 

[Poultry Judge]

You are right. There is an old chicken saying about how you never "keep a manfighter" and human aggressiveness is an undesirable trait from any angle. But, sometimes a change of environment works wonders and you get a bird with a totally different personality.

 

[Poultry Judge]

Nah, keep posting, post some pictures. You have the start of a good story or novella!

 

[Poultry Judge]

Explain to Puffball that if he is going to become famous, he needs to appropriately shape his public image and stop being mean to the hens and humans. He is a chicken living in the interweb age and like it or not, political correctness is going to be part of how the public perceives him!

 

[Poultry Judge]

And you can't say he doesn't give a crap...because he did.

 

[Poultry Judge]

She thinks he is possessed and I really can't convince her otherwise.

At times we rule out demon possession far too early in the assessment process.

 

[Poultry Judge]

There's always that one Rooster!

 

[Poultry Judge]

Soooo....What's up in the continuing saga of Puffball? Did he get arrested by the policeman? Has he been a good citizen, contributing to his community? Has he been involved in any additional domestic violence charges? Has he reformed himself? Has he been rehabilitated?

 

[Poultry Judge]

Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[Poultry Judge]

Perhaps a reality television series starring Puffball and you can be the script writer.

 

[Poultry Judge]

Sooo...maybe one of those survival themed reality shows, with lots of psychological subterfuge. You have described quite the cast of interesting characters and now you have added your mother-in-law to the mix. I wonder what her interaction with Puffball will be like? We shall tune in tomorrow!