If you have small children, I would not keep any roosters until the children are over 5 years old, especially if you are truly a backyard chicken person, where the children and chickens will share the same space.
If a rooster is going to become human aggressive, they often attack children first. There are many posts on here, where the darling became the nightmare in an instant without any warning. Probably was some warnings, but often times inexperienced people do not recognize the signs. Or they vastly underestimate the violence of a rooster attack.
Children's faces can be at a very vulnerable height under the age of 5 years old.
Roosters are a crap shoot, in my experience, roosters raised with flock mates tend to grow faster, and they are naturally braver. What people often interpret as friendliness is often a lack of fear. These are the chicks that will approach you, sit in your hand, come first for the treats. People tend to think they like them, but truthfully, they are not afraid of you and that is a disrespect.
With puppies and kittens, if you are nice to them, they grow up being nice to you. Roosters are not that way. It seems counter intuitive, but in chicken society, whenever any two birds meet, one is submissive to the other. People often holding birds in their lap, do not realize that they have taken on the submissive position.
When the rooster comes into his own, he will expect you to be submissive to him, and he will be willing to attack you to get it.
IMO - you get the best roosters when the chicks are raised with a multi-generational flock. The older birds school the rooster chick. In a flock mate situation, the rooster out grows the pullets, become sexually active earlier and can become a bully.
As stated above, each bird is unique, but if I am asked, I recommend a hen only flock for the first year.
Mrs K
