Roosters withOUT hens turning aggressive

[RumAndCoconuts]

I'm a little confused about the behaviour of some of my roosters. I have several of them.I have a very large open free range pen with most of my hens and two roosters, a smaller breeding pen with a rooster with two hens and another breeding pen with a rooster with four hens.
All of the roosters that have ladies are perfectly respectful of me and are really ideal roosters.

I have four young cockerels (actually all my roosters are the same age, about seven months) and they are in a pen together. They were all hatched together and reared together and for the most part get along fine and all were very very friendly birds, probably the most friendly of the 31 in the batch. However over the last couple of weeks EVERY bird in that pen has started to get aggressive toward me. Even if they are out free ranging with no other birds around (I only let one pen out to range at a time) I had one run at my heels today while I was walking down the path
When this happens I scoop the bird up and carry it around with me and just talk to him. I never lash out but I do firmly hold him, stroke his head and neck which they loved as chicks and then let him down after a time. I'm willing to attribute this bad behaviour to teenage angst but would like an opinion of others.
Do you think this will improve? or is it likely to get worse? does one bird being aggressive toward me encourage that in his penmate? I'm currently building another free range pen so I can split them up to give them even more space.
If it is not likely to improve I'd rather cull them now but wondering if the issue of not having the hens but having them in a neighbouring pen is an issue. I want to be fair but I'm not willing to deal with it if it's going to continue.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[centrarchid]

Bucket aggression? Could you post a video of the behavior?

 

[RumAndCoconuts]

Bucket aggression? Could you post a video of the behavior?

Bucket aggression? ?????
It is just pecking at me from all angles REALLY hard and even grabbing skin and shaking.
They're being rather naughty.

 

[centrarchid]

Behavior is method to get food from you. Need to see it. Your description so far is consistent with such.

 

[RumAndCoconuts]

Behavior is method to get food from you. Need to see it. Your description so far is consistent with such.

Wow. Ok, I will keep that in mind over the next couple of days and see if it improves. They get a LOT of food and treats. We get a lot of castoffs from the local grocery store so they get more than their fare share, but maybe I'm not being as fair as I thought. They ARE big boys and big boys have big appetites.
So Thank you. I will see if watching for this will make a difference.

 

[centrarchid]

If I am correct it is how the feed is presented that is the cause. They figured out that getting into your space and pecking at you causes you to promptly put out more feed. Nothing tastes sweeter to a chicken than food that just came into view.

 

[RumAndCoconuts]

If I am correct it is how the feed is presented that is the cause. They figured out that getting into your space and pecking at you causes you to promptly put out more feed. Nothing tastes sweeter to a chicken than food that just came into view.

That there can not be the case though. When I go into their pen I put a tray of feed down, any treats also get scattered. I've never given a treat or any food for that matter when I've been pecked, to me that would be reinforcing bad behaviour.
I am thinking though that you could be correct in it being a feed issue. Maybe I was just not doling out enough. I give a tray of fermented feed in the morning, then usually our kitchen scraps or something cool like lettuce or fruit in the afternoon when it is really hot, another tray of fermented feed late afternoon. Not much is given from my hand.
But those boys are very large, I've had people compare them to turkeys! It could very well be that they just need more sustenance.
I really appreciate your input though as I think maybe you've hit the nail on the head as one of my guys was much better this afternoon. He was out free ranging and I called him over and offered him food before I went to the main pen. Then he wandered around me while I was getting the other food ready and was fine. Things are looking up. If this works I owe you one!