It can be very hard sometimes.
I'll tell you a story, if you have the patience to read it, about an unusual rooster situation where I had to let go a grown rooster I loved and had hatched here from my very first rooster, Hawkeye, a gentleman to the core. This proves that a situation can change a rooster's behavior.
Dutch was an awesome Barred Rock rooster, son of my very beloved, late Hawkeye, younger brother to my crippled rooster, Zane. He had the big sturdy build you want in a BR, unlike many hatchery Rocks, was just exemplary. He was non-aggressive, only bit a couple fingers at the age of 8 weeks old and the aversion therapy of holding his beak shut I've mentioned previously fixed that. He never bit, rushed or flogged, very easygoing and sweet.
Fast forward to when Dutch was a year and a half old, not a young rooster at all anymore. He and his younger brother, Mace, were leading the main flock, but could not get along. Dutch, the alpha rooster, would not share the hens. They fought constantly and as a result, both were scabby in their combs and wattles. Sadly, I rehomed Mace and a couple of his half sisters to lockedhearts, who still has Mace years later, and I kept Dutch, who was larger bodied.
The hens constantly picked at Dutch's comb and wattle wounds and he stayed a scabby mess. The worst time was on the roost at night when he was a sitting duck, so we decided to separate him only at night into a little extra coop we had and return him every morning. Each afternoon when they went in, he'd stand still for one of us to pick him up and carry him to his night coop, literally stand between our legs to be picked up, calm as could be. This went on for two or three weeks and it was working, he was healing up slowly.
One day, he walked up to me to be picked up as usual to be taken to his night coop. I picked him up, left the pen, entered the other pen and sat him down, whereupon, Dutch immediately whirled around and bit the fire out of my hand! I was stunned! Could not believe this behavior out of him. I called for my husband, who came out and Dutch was obviously riled up and jumpy. We put him inside and tried to puzzle out why he would suddenly do a 180 degree about face in his behavior.
From that moment on, Dutch changed toward me. It was only me, not my DH, who had also taken him to his night coop, but for some reason, that rooster got it into his brain that I was the one who was the enemy. He'd rush me when my back was turned. When I faced him, he'd stop and act like he hadn't done anything. He'd bump my leg from behind and I wasn't sure it he'd hit me on purpose or been running too fast to stop. If I picked him up, sometimes he'd bite my arm, though not really hard.
You can call me crazy, but the soft expression in his eyes changed to a hard, calculating look. Even Cetawin, who was visiting from KY saw it. The look said, "You just wait, lady. I'll get you when you least expect it." I no longer trusted him. He was truly a different rooster. He had not flogged me up until that point. This went on for months, him being fine, then him being on the verge of actual contact-aggression.
I told DH that if he actually flogged me, that was the end, he was gone. One day I was on the phone with Cetawin in my coop looking for eggs when Dutch came in the pop door and ran at me and attempted to flog me. Fortunately, he slid into the leg of the roost and only managed a scratch on the front of my calf. I yelled his name in surprise and he came at me again. I threw something at him to back him off since I had the phone in one hand and was sort of tied up and he ran out the pop door.
When DH found out, he true to his word, got his gun, trussed up this rooster we both loved and was on his way to the woods to execute him and I stopped him. I didn't want him to have that memory and said I would try to rehome him with full disclosure, seeing that it may not be an issue with anyone except me and he may be okay in a new environment, since he had not shown any aggression before that advanced age and the circumstance that started it. I owe so much to lockedhearts who stepped in and said she wanted to come get Dutch and give him a second chance, which she did. He has since passed on.
