Question about being gently pecked by young rooster

[FunnyBunny89]

P

Well this morning I let the chickens out of their coop and into their run. (I have to do this manually each morning because the chicken tunnel between the two + automatic door = aren't setup yet.)

The young 4.5 month-old rooster gave me the impression of trying to push me around a bit. He sort of got in my way, seemingly intentionally. Instead of going around him, I waited for him to move out of my way, and I got ready to use "touch" to communicate with him. He more or less got out of my way, and I got ready to toss some feed on the ground, since they seem to much prefer eating off the ground to eating out of their beautiful feeders.

As I was messing with one of the feeders, the young roo acted like he wanted to peck my hand, so instead of fearfully pulling my hand away, I rested my hand on top of the feeder where he could reach it, to see what would happen. Sure enough, he tried lightly pecking my hand. At that point I reached down and tapped him lightly on his back. He jumped! away at that point. Then, as if to take out his frustrations on someone smaller, he began chasing a 3.5 month old female around, so I got between them and blocked his movements (sort of like how that Mexican guy used to do with dogs on his TV show). The cockerel seemed slightly irritated, but he kept his distance from me, which is what I wanted. All the females watched this.

Eventually I left to do other things.

I'm hoping that this is just a phase he's going through, sort of like a teenager testing his parents' boundaries. When I hear stories about roosters trying to fight a human to the death, it doesn't sound very pleasant. This young guy has tiny little nubs near his feet, which I assume will be his spurs later on. As I said before, I'm told that his father is very well behaved both with hens and with people.

I should mention that I let them free-range for a couple hours a day. I would let them do more but it seems to attract the local eagles when we do that.

Oh and I've never seen the cockerel trying to mount anyone so far, but I don't watch them all day. The one female that is his favorite is his half-sister that he grew up with from the time he came out of the egg. The two of them will free range together and leave the other birds behind. The other females that he doesn't care for - they arrived later on and are younger.

Thanks again for sharing your comments, everyone.

oh btw, both my roo and the roo I'm watching are very antsy in the mornings when I let them out of their coops. They just seem to have a lot of energy built up and they chase the hens for a little bit. As long as he isn't attacking them, a little chase is fine. Lets them get it out of their system. Eventually, his chase will become mating.