7 month old rooster behavior- please help

[3qkate]

There are some good articles about managing roosters here; look up @Beekissed , @BantyChooks , and for another view, @Shadrach . All are helpful, and might make a difference for you.
Small children and cockerels aren't a good mix, very often, and because you are all new to chickens, it's likely that you haven't noticed questionable behaviors until now.
Especially short people can loose eyeballs over this, so be careful, and have a Plan B if things don't improve.
Here we don't try to make 'pets' of our cockerels, we expect them to respect our space and move out of our way. Roosters have a job, and it's taking care of their flockmates, and looking out for danger, which shouldn't include the humans who bring food every day!
It's cute when the little cockerels come over and act friendly, but they may just be sizing you up, have no respect, and decide to get you away from their flock. Not good, with children, small properties, and especially visiting humans.
Cockerels raise with agemates only, with no adult hens and roosters to encourage politeness and humility, can be harder to manage. They become unruly adolescents, never a good stage, and it's not possible to promise that better behavior will occur later. Often not.
I hope you can work through this with your cockerels, but if not, don't wait for real injuries to occur before sending them off, with full disclosure.
Mary

Mary, thank you so much for your thoughts here! I posted because this is something I take very seriously and I appreciate your candor. I grew up with chickens, but have almost no experience with roosters. We had no intention of keeping any roosters until the kids got attached. We have always been up front with them that we won't tolerate any aggressive behavior and can only keep him if he stays friendly. My kids safety has to come first! Because we weren't expecting this change I want to be sure I'm handling the situation as responsibly as possible and you've given me a lot to think about.

 

[Coops Dad]

Roosters are funny. My nephews rooster won't bother him or his kids, but his wife is fair game.
If me or my brother are over there, he comes for us immediately, and will not back down until we really give him a taste of boot leather.

Our big Blue Andalusian/Jersey Black Giant rooster was very aggressive after his hormones kicked in at about 6-7 months. I did the finger pecks and holding him down stuff but he was unrepentant. After he hit me on the back of my thigh with those damnable spurs, I decided he had to die, and soon. Later that day, I saw him coming for me out of the corner of my eye so I spun and kicked him. Not a "go away" kick but a "problem solver/don't care if it kills you/hope you die" kick like I was trying for a 45 yard field goal.

It didn't kill him. It didn't even appear to injure him. But it did cure him. He keeps a 5 foot distance from all people, even when someone is messing with one of his ladies- he gets obviously agitated, yells and squawks, but keeps out of the stutterstep kick range. Once the hen is released, he immediately gets between the person and the bird, but displays no signs of aggression. He's actually become an excellent rooster, and he's hell on our dogs, keeps an eye out for hawks and won't eat special treats without giving his hens first dibs.

Also, I am unrepentant for the kick. I would've twisted his head off that very second if I could've grabbed him, but he's fast.

 

[Birdsonghill]

Welcome to hormones.
The thing is, since he was handled so much as a young one, the favorite as you say, he's thinking " I can do whatever I want want not get punished, I'm in charge!"
It's always the favorite rooster that turns into a spoiled brat.
He's probably been doing things that weren't conductive to respecting you but without the fire of hormones, you didn't notice to correct or just though he was being friendly.
When he gets ornery, pick him up and carry him or hold him down for a few minutes.
Don't back away or run, he pecks you, you Peck him with 2 fingers and a thumb, hard and fast. You're the boss. don't let your kids around him until you've got him to be respectful to you and then only with your supervison.

As a one time zookeeper and longtime dog rescuer, livestock and horse owner, one of the first rules taught me 50 years ago, just starting out, "never turn your back on a male animal", not even a pet or "friendly" one! And never run! A simple side step or step forward and a "bite stick" (just about any object) thrust in their face/mouth of the toothy ones, foils most attacks. I like the hand peck on the head thing! With a cow or a horse, a twitch may be called for. With roosters , a couple went for dog food treats, that repeated aggressive attacks after corrections had been tried.

 

[3qkate]

Thank you all again for your input! I'm thinking our best option is to separate our rooster from the flock in order to protect our kids while still giving them access to the chickens. I'm aware that people keep bachelor flocks, and I'm curious about the minimum number for this. Would he need a buddy or could he live solo? Does anyone have advice on keeping him this way? I don't want him to be miserable, especially now that the kids won't be handling him. One of the reasons we kept this rooster is that he has a bad leg and requires extra care. We feel committed to giving him a good life and I can't imagine finding a decent home at this rate.

 

[Bwc]

Wmother.W
With our cockerels, I also had my kids carry them around, make them submit, and 'peck' them using their fingers. My children are 10 and 6 years old and we have one 10 month old cockerel, and another cockerel that I assume is around the same age. I felt it was important for them to personally show the cockerels that they were in charge, not just me. I supervised throughout this training process, and we haven't had any issues since. My daughter, 10 years, routinely cares for, and interacts with our flock by herself. My son, 6 years, doesn't interact with them without my supervision. I simply refuse to take a chance with him, because of his age, and he is more likely to run away if attacked or scared. This would only entice the cockerels to keep attacking.

Yep.. i got the same advice on here.. now the rooster knows who's boss! Haha