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My impression is that some roosters feel dominated by being picked up and held, so it comes to the same thing. My roosters didn't seem impressed by it, so I stopped picking them up when they're awake. (Though Yazzo has an interesting page about training roosters not to bite when they're petted - I'll try that wth the next generation.)
I trained mine, when they were young, to keep their distance by waggling something in front of their faces. A plastic shopping bag works great, or a stick - not to hit them, just waggling it at eye level. That backs them right up. Now I don't have to carry anything - when I'm working in the chicken yard, I just randomly walk at the roosters until they back up. That keeps them reminded.
It's important to recognize when they're challenging you, way before it becomes an attack. It'll be a funny walk, either sideways or in a circle around you, stiff-legged and maybe with the head and one wing down. Always walk at them when they do that, until they back up.
I was darn glad I'd trained them like that, because it turned out we had way more roosters than hens. Things got pretty violent before we could get all the excess roosters slaughtered, but none of them ever went for me. I would wade into a mob of eighteen roosters (after we'd slaughtered eight!) to break things up, sometimes grabbing them by the tails and throwing them. They didn't retaliate, I guess because I was established as the boss.
We now have four roosters and eleven hens, and eveything is quiet. The survivors settled right down as soon as the excess roosters were gone. We didn't pick them for temperament, but for being the largest and prettiest. They're eight months old, so I don't know if they'll get more aggressive when they're older. I may have to rotate them, or slaughter a couple more. The hens are fine with this many so far - they aren't hiding and they're gaining weight and seem happy.
As a matter of fact, the hens are much harder on me than the roosters! They got used to being carried around and protected during the rooster reign of terror, so now they come up, peck me on the leg, then step back and look me in the face. So I pick them up and they settle down to sleep. Sometimes I'm breaking up a rooster scuffle with a hen under each arm - swear to goodness I'm not making it up!
