When will my rooster turn into a monster?

I have a dozen RIR's, all about a month and a half old. One of which is already displaying signs of being a good rooster. (shooing the flock, pacing on the front lines, etc.)
Since none are fully feathered (still missing their head feathers), I'm sure that they're nowhere near being set in their ways just yet. Which brings me to the worry that once "Buddy" starts to mature a bit more, he will turn into one of the aggressive monster birds that I've read about and he will no longer be the sweet little boy that I know him to be at the moment.

For now, when I open their coop in the mornings to let them out into the run, he's the first one to greet me at the door (presumably, making sure it's safe for everyone else)…and he waits patiently for me to put my hands out so he can climb in and be gently lowered to the ground- while the others clumsily spill out after he has left. During the day, if he sees me headed his way, he drops what he's doing and rushes to greet me, then stands there staring at me, just waiting to be picked up or petted. For the most part, "Buddy" behaves as if he's a pet (he's even starting to come running when I call him ) so….should I expect this fantastic bond to be broken any day now- or is there hope that my sweet little boy will keep up with this desirable behavior?

At around 16 week is when my rooster started showing signs of aggression. It is normal for them to start being more protective– with hormones and all. He may be nice, but my rooster also ran to greet me (followed by all the hens) and I later pieced together that he really didn't want me near his yard. As with your roo, it seems that he will be a good protector but only time will tell if he will be sweet to you.

Thanks for the insight. I'll just keep my fingers crossed, I guess.

Enjoy him while you can. There's no guarantee he'll turn into a monster, but no guarantee he'll stay as sweet as he is now, either. He has to grow up one day, and that can change your relationship.

My present roo, a Cream Legbar, is almost eleven months old. He was like your little chick. He would fall asleep in my hands, and was so sweet and adorable. But when he turned five months old, he began acting distant and independent. I took that as my cue to back off the interaction that we had been having up to that point.

The reason for this is that once the hormones start flowing, a young cockerel needs to know he can trust his human flock leader, and also that the human trusts him. I show him I trust him by keeping my interactions with him to a bare minimum. In return, he stays just out of reach of me, moves out of my way as I move around and among the chickens, and it's almost graceful how he does it. This demonstrates his respect for me.

I made all my mistakes with my first three roosters, learning a bit more each time, and this one has been almost perfect in his behavior. The main thing is to watch for those first signs of the hormones in your cockerel and then cultivate a mutual respect, leaving him to be a rooster with all the duties and responsibilities it entails while you tend to your duties and responsibilities with the flock. In other words, once he reaches that hormonal stage, you will pretty much ignore him if you wish to have a good rooster.

I don't handle my cockrels unless there's a reason to examine one. Coming toward you and staring at you is not necessarily a good thing! I expect the birds to move out of my way, and know where I am without staring, which is aggressive. RIRs can turn into tough customers, but having a nice rooster is so worth it! Mary

So I've got a problem. We have about 38-40 hens and 2 full grown roosters and a juvenile rooster. Well we took our RIR roo and 4 Delaware hens out of main coop to breeding coop for red sexlinks. They were gone 7 days. Today during free range time we turned them back into main flock. Well our once inferior barred Rock roo nearly killed our RIR roo. Fought first the ran him around pulling feathers and tearing/biting comb, so bad the RIR roo hide in garage corner. We pulled rock roo to isolation hoping he will lose status with RIR in with hens will this work to put back together or will they always need to be separate??

It depends, but often they won't ever be safe together again. I'm dealing with that now, and the roosters were only separated by wire, next to each other for five days. When I let them back together, war ensued immediately. Mary