I come from a family of nine kids...you can imagine how many grandkids and greats have sprung from that well. We've never had one flogged by a rooster..or even approached by a rooster. Primarily because the children are taught to act a certain way around livestock and the livestock are started out understanding the relationship between humans and birds. We don't encourage young children~or anyone, for that matter~to hand feed the roosters, no matter how young the rooster may be. Actually, especially the young roosters....here's an article as to why:
http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/Bottle-raised males can be very dangerous.pdf
We never had animal behaviorists to give us this information when we were all growing up..we were simply taught that male livestock are unpredictable, at best, so establishing a certain idea of what is safe behavior around them is always taught on a farm. Kids are not encouraged to go in the pasture where the bull is kept, not to get in the pen with the boar or the sow with new pigs, and certainly not bend down to hand feed to a rooster...that puts your eyeballs where his claws are. These are all common sense issues and I know it's no longer common any longer to have good sense but it doesn't change the need for it.
One simply cannot change the nature of some male animals when hormones kick in unless they neuter said animal..a farmer can have the nicest big pet of a bull for many long years and then get killed by him one fine morning because he has let his guard down. I can't tell you how many times that has happened in my lifetime, to read a story of just that, one guy right up the road, actually....all his history with that bull seemed to indicate the bull was gentle, docile, trustworthy and so he was not eliminated from herd genetics. But temporary instinctive behavior has little to do with genetics and that is what most people are experiencing with roosters. The very first time or two the rooster makes fight at them, they come on the forum asking what to do about a bad rooster and everyone says "kill it". Quote: "He was nice and sweet until he turned about 5 mo. old and then he turned "bad"." He's being a rooster and doing what roosters do when the hormones kick in...this does not mean he will always be trying to attack humans. It merely means he acted on instinct and the humans didn't let him know that his instincts do not apply to the human. That's where teaching comes in...for most old farmers, that means a quick boot to the roo and a lofty flying trip through the air. Training finished.
I don't walk around in fear of my rooster's hormones kicking in because I've taught him that I am not a target for his instincts....the rooster has already been conditioned to see humans as top predators, not as another animal. How? Because we move and expect the bird to move away from us and any bird that confronts or doesn't immediately give space while you are walking is moved upon, just walked right through as if they are not there...they are "chicken" after all, and the one that gives space is the weaker animal. Same with dogs..a dog that crowds your space, jumps up on you, is not aware of the nature of the human vs. the nature of dog..but they can learn to give you space, not touch your body unless invited, to remain calm when being handled. Same with roosters.
You don't have to be mean, merely assertive. I had a young rooster launch a sneak attack on me the other day. Now, I did not raise this rooster on my place, so know nothing of his earlier conditioning and have just obtained him recently, but he was stupid enough to not pick up on the flock's cues. Ran up behind me out of nowhere and bit me on the back of the leg and then turn and RAN. My immediate reaction was to reach for something that would equalize his fleetness of foot and my lack thereof and the only thing available was my walking stick, which was not a proper training tool but it was right at hand~the lessons have to take place immediately or they do not equate their actions with the reaction. I reached over with that stick and whomped the interloper on the back...once..hard~this is the same reaction he would have gotten from a top roo and it's the only language they fully understand. He's never done it again and gives me a wide berth whenever I approach. He learned he cannot run quickly enough or far enough to escape from the big predator, me, and that I'm not to be trifled with.
Every time I see him now I move towards him just to make him walk away..and that one lesson stuck in his feathery little head because unfailingly, he
moves. For the rest of his time on this place he will be forced to move when I approach simply because I want him to...I don't want to snuggle him or place him on my lap. I desire that he act like a chicken to other chickens but not to me and that has been accomplished. I'll let you know if the training has stuck. I've never had to repeat a training session on a rooster, nor have I ever had to train a rooster that was raised by me from a chick...they learned from the flock how to interact with the human and so they are never confused when they reach sexual maturity.
I'm a firm believer that if you train up a rooster in the way that he should go, he will not depart from it...but be prepared... hormones can cloud his better judgement. Never take an intact male animal for granted, but handle then with cautious confidence. This doesn't mean you have to carry a stick or walk around in fear in your own yard...it means you keep that bird in the corner of your eye and he will be doing the same to you and that's a respectful relationship.