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Davaroo - I have 12 hens and would like to get a gentle roo for leadership, protection etc. I am concerned about aggression though. What do you mean yard scrubs and volunteers? Is that an "infertile" roo? If so that sounds like what we need as I don't care about breeding.
The only infertile male chicken is called a "capon." They are the result of a minor surgical procedure whereby the testes are removed. This is performed at an early age. In essence, they are manufactured eunuchs. We never had them, that I knew of.
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On the WI farms of my youth, the farm flock was one of two things:
1. An afterthought, just left to run and live hand to mouth
2. Carefully controlled and bred for purpose
My family followed both practices. Their "good birds" were kept in a separate area removed from the other farm activities and were carefully bred. This is because they made money on the eggs and breeding of them.
However, in any program of controlled breeding, there are those subjects that are selected out. Some of these "culls" weren't faulty enough to warrant the hatchet, so they were allowed to run the yard. They fed off the leavings of the cattle and pigs and what my grandmother tossed them. As I recall, they were mostly females and this is where most of the eating eggs came from.
Random males that weren't destined for the breed pens could look forward to the soup pot at the end of their short life. But occasionally, they managed to breed with the yard hens before going to the chopping block. Their offspring were the "volunteers" I mentioned.
Basically, there were two flocks: one that was carefully controlled to be top-notch and which made money. The other was the free running flock that fed the farmer. They had a ramshackle coop behind one of the sheds, but that was it.
"Mean" roos didn't exist - because the notion of a "mean roo" didn't exist. Those males that wanted to bow up and get aggressive were handled in a simple fashion, typically with a shoe up their a**.
This was a working farm, run by work hardened folks. A flogging cockerel was more of a humorous moment in the day than any kind of threat. If you managed to get spurred or scratched by one, well... call it an 'occupational hazard'. Believe me, there were far worse things that could happen.
You washed it off with hard brown soap, dabbed on some kerosene and went back to work.
But I distinctly recall the admonition to keep away from the breeding chickens (always shouted in Norwegian, first, followed by heavily accented English!).
This was because they didn't want me doing something stupid and messing up their efforts - and the cocks in those pens were rough.
We're talking huge, mature males in full breed form, kept with breeding females. These guys stood as tall as a child and were a real Force of Nature. To borrow a phrase from "Jurassic Park":
"When they looked at you, you knew they were sizing you up."
A small kid caught in with them was definitely in harms way.
The yard scrub cockerels, for their part, didn't last long enough to be much of a threat to anyone.
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For these simple farm folk, natural vigor was more important than manners when it came to roosters. The farm animals, like the farmers, had to be able to withstand the rigors of life on a WI farm and breed true to form. This meant tough, vigorous and productive were the qualities most desired. In their eyes, the surest way to ensure that was for the fittest males to survive, so they could carry that to their offspring. If they were what we call "aggressive," that was part of it.
Many of us, on the other hand, want mild mannered chicken-pets that somehow manage to retain vigor in the bargain. We get rid of them because they are "mean," yet still expect to have top notch males that can compete, breed and lead their flocks. I'll wager such as these wouldn't stand a chance against the cocks from my grandparents farm.
My ancestors knew that such compromises led to less profitable results and, ultimately, to a weakening of the whole balance. So they didn't tolerate it.
I, personally, side with them.
P.S. The old texts NEVER mention the subject of "mean roosters" when speaking of males or breeding. It is wholly a New Age concern.
