When I started my chicken adventure I wound up with 9 or 10 roosters. The bonus chick that I got from mcmurrays was a dominque cockerel. He was my favorite from the start and quickly showed himself to be the best behaved so i did some social engineering, he always got to stay with the main flock and I would constantly remove and replace the others until my buddy George became the unquestioned alpha rooster. Hes almost like a dog. All I have to do is look at a rooster like Im mad at it and George will come running after them like a velociraptor.
I will tolerate threats to a degree but once they throw a talon its straight to the freezer camp waiting room coop. And they always get more vicious once locked up like that. What Ive been doing to make them stop attacking me every time I go in to feed them is grab them by the neck and the legs so they cant claw and im supporting their weight so Im not harming their neck, just immobilizing it. Theyll flap their wings for a couple minutes, the rest all run away, and then eventually it will admit defeat and never approach me again.
As for short term memory, they seem to remember important things just fine but see any relenting on less assertive corrective measures as a sign that they should try establishing dominance over you again. Basically, it needs to either be consistent discouragement or a consequence that they will not ever want to experience again
