Rooster attacked for the first time

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The side-step was the start of bad behavior. Now it has escalated. And it will escalate again. I still have a scar from a bad rooster. He would pretend to be eating or scratching around but he always had one eye on me, waiting for me to turn my back. It’s like that old saying, “when someone tells you who they are, believe them.”
 
He’s my second rooster I’ve had. I also have a third who is wonderful. My first rooster was very aggressive but I kept him until he died after saving my girls from what I believe to be a fox. I do not have small children and am a teenager myself still living at home but I understand that him hurting anybody isn’t ok. Maybe it comes from a place of selfishness but I don’t want to part with him. Do you think his aggression could disappear if I moved him inside away from all the hens? I will take a look at the article now
 
I would suggest, if you want to keep him, that you make a habit of locking him away before you handle or carry any hens around. Make sure he can't even see you doing it. That way there is no chance of him coming at you, even in a misguided attempt to "protect" his hens. In other words, don't set yourself - or him - up for failure.
 
I think that making excuses for rooster behavior isn't a good idea. Yes, birds recognize fear, human sizes and individuals, and see colors, but most often human aggression increases over time, from the smallest busiest humans up the scale to the largest. Convincing a bird who's inclined towards human aggression that one individual human is off limits usually won't protect other people either.
Mary
 
A fire will always burn. If you throw gasoline in the fire, it will explode.
Roosters are not pets, they're not domesticated animals. Their behavior is the same as wild animals. Fear is the fuel for every naturally aggressive animal. Roosters are naturally aggressive.
If you see a hog in a forest and you run, the hog will attack you even if the hog initial intention was not to attack. Fear and fleeing is like telling the hog "please kill me, I'm so outrageously weak". Same goes for the rooster. I'm not making excuses for the rooster, but if the humans behave in the wrong way, it's the human's fault because humans can use reason, animals use instinct.
If I give a treat to a dog every time he barks, it's not the dog's fault if he ends up barking all day.
Aggressive roosters are hard enough to rehab, but if the human is afraid of them, fear will reinforce bad behavior towards the infinte. Seriously, roosters literally feed on fear.
I work with cattle. I've been charged, kicked, challenged many times. If I was scared, I'd be dead by now. Roosters are livestock, not pets. Around livestock, you must be the boss, not the chicken. There is absolutely no reason to be afraid of a rooster. Just get a stick and hit the thing. He started it, so it's self defense. If he dies, just shrug and make soup. If he survives, maybe next time he'll think twice... or maybe not.
Many cockerels can be human aggressive. Some will learn that humans are not to mess with. Others have very low self preservation instinct and will keep attacking and attacking, and those really don't deserve to live and spread their suicidal genes.
 

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