If I was at jurassic park I could've stopped it

So, years ago I owned a couple of excellent roosters. Gentlemen to the hens, friendly with humans, and I knew they’d protect the flock if it came to it. Unfortunately those were my only good experience with owning roosters. After them, we ended up with 3 roosters (at different times, not all at once.) and they were terrible. Rough with the girls, nasty with humans, one even left the hens unattended to run across the yard and kick me as a hawk was flying over. The flock seemed so much happier once we went back to only hens and I ended up with a hatred of roos due to it all (only with owning them myself, I love other peoples birds of any kind) Anyways, I’m worrying one of our month old chicks is a rooster, its comb and wattle development makes me nervous. If that’s the case it’ll likely be rehomed when older, but for now I feel kinda disconnected from it and almost angry. I’m not mean to it, I just avoid interacting with it and focus on hanging out with the other babies which in return makes me feel guilty. I know it’s not the chicks fault, but I hate the idea of it growing up to become a nuisance that harasses the hens and attacks people.

I don’t know how people end up with good roosters, all ours except for 2 (one ended up aggressive, the other was a great bird) were raised by us since they were chicks and treated as beloved pets. I know there’s techniques people use to try and tame mean roosters, but I’ve tried them before (didn’t work) and honestly I don’t want to have to bargain with a domestic animal to not attack me in my own yard. Funnily enough, the aggressive roosters I had were of breeds rumored to have friendly roosters, though that’s sadly not the focus with hatchery birds (what they were).

I wish I didn’t have such bad experiences with roosters, your boys seem lovely and good roosters are a joy to be around. I just do not want my peaceful flock ruined and my legs covered in bruises. Here’s to hoping this one’s nice I guess, maybe being from a local farm and not a hatchery will result in a better chance.

My roosters are so lovely and very good roosters because I cull the bad ones. Ibis and Peanut are from my breeding project so there is HEAVY selection pressure for them to be good roosters. Selection for a good rooster begins immediately once they make it known they are a boy.

A good rooster dances for the hens, he watches the skies for the hens and should spend the majority of his time fussing over them. A good rooster tidbits and finds good nest spaces by making an adorable noise to entice the hens to lay. Of course a rooster protects the hens as well but I rather my birds not have to do that.

Its normal behavior for roosters to get a bit randy sometimes (especially in the morning) and chase the hens around a bit. To the hens they may run away and vocalize but they are actually testing his strength and endurance. They shouldnt actually be scared of him after mating and should rouse and walk it off. There are roosters who constantly chase and over mate the hens, these roosters should be culled. An established rooster should also never attack his girls or kick them unless he is new to the flock and establishing pecking order.

We mustn't put human morals on our chickens because they arent people and their life style is much different from us.

We want good roosters because good roosters have better welfare and so do the hens they live with. If a rooster is threatened by humans and attacks them that stresses the rooster out and his hens, birds in that situation will have higher stress hormones and can negatively impact the flocks long term health. A good rooster can increase his hens lifespan and lower their mortality rate due to his caring for them and giving them more behaviors to enact.

So the answer to your problem is to cull the bad ones. There are many wonderful and sweet roosters out there and yet to hatch there is no reason to tolerate a rooster who is aggressive to humans or the hens. It doesnt matter if you raised them with love and care if their genetics are screaming at them to force their hens and to attack their human.

The red jungle fowl the wild chicken ancestor even does this culling themselves as well. Roosters who are aggressive to hens get shunned to the edges of the flock and eventually picked off by predators, roosters who approach people and other perceived threats to attack are promptly eaten.

So my answer to your question is to stop holding your bad experiences with roosters against them and just cull the ones who dont meet your criteria. Everyone involved has better welfare in the end. It may also help to look at peoples nice roosters as well so you know its not that every rooster is awful. If you get hatchery chicks be aware that hatcheries breed for quantity over quality and they end up purposefully selecting roos who are aggressive and over breed the hens since that gets the results they want. If you dont breed yourself you will want to get birds from breeders or lines that you know have been selecting for good temperments so your less likely to deal with ornery cockerels.

Oh one last thing as well. I do find it nicer for all the birds involved to either seperate the cockerels into their own bachelor pens or in with bigger older meaner hens when they get to be around 3 or 4 months. It teaches the boys manners and gives it time for their puberty (also called rooberty) to calm down. If its a bachelor pen situation you will also quickly get to see which cockerels are the nicest and which ones are aggressive and dominant and you can decide which roo is a keeper based on how they exist in the bachelor flock. Sometimes there are no keepers and thats fine there are good cockerels out there.