Not necessarily promoting what I do, just sharing the experience. Fwiw, when I go out to the chickens I'm wearing a long Duluth Trading company firehose jacket, galoshes and a hat. So I'm an odd, but familiar sight to them.
Our splash rooster, Big Blue, is a full-sized Cochin who takes care of our free range ladies. Calm as grass on the hill. I can walk over and pick him up most of the time, other times he walks away as I approach. I attribute this to always handling him at night in the coop, so he's very much accustomed to me. So much so that I use him as a model at Chicken 101 workshops. Most folks are in awe of how polite and tolerant he is of strangers. If I walk up to him and he rustles his wings, I rustle my arms back and he walks away. THAT SAID, when he is on patrol, walking the nursery mile (as we call the area where we keep the broody hutches) I do not approach him in a dominant fashion, nor do I schedule workshops with him then. He also keeps an eye on our ducklings, oddly enough. I do keep unfamiliar men, even my brother-in-law away from him in hatching season. If my BIL is around them, I arm him with a very long handled koi pond net because my BIL made the unholy mistake of feeding Big Blue's hens worms during breeding season. Oh boy. Open season on BIL
Also, I want to make the very specific point that whatever we might think, a screeching child playfully chasing the hens is a predator in a rooster's instincts, so we don't allow the neighborhood kids in the backyard during chick season, either. On a related note, a few times the rooster has gone after our Border Collie, who herds the ducks and chickens, she just laid on him until he stopped. End of problem.
I also had two hatchery bantam cochin cockerels. Meanest little imps we've ever had, they kept attacking the back of my legs and pecking at my feet. Its amazing how aerodynamic a bantam cockerel is. They went to the freezer camp pronto. I didn't want those genes continuing.
Then there's our two Frizzle Silkie males, both roosters, both living together in an enclosed pen/coop and sharing the ladies. Works for them, so we haven't sold off the extra guy. I don't see the same behaviors from Napoleon or Grumpus that I do in Big Blue. Even with broody hens, chicks, etc. they just don't seem to care. Not sure if this is a Silkie thing (they are my first) or if life is different in the pen.
I'd love to hear others thoughts on this.
One of Big Blue's offspring is a lovely blue Cochin cockerel with red leakage, so we call him Red Chief. He's still a very young guy and in training. He tried to peck me about a month ago and Big Blue stomped him. And I do mean STOMPED. He tried it again this week, so I grabbed him off the perch, laid him down on the coop floor, held his body down carefully and pulled hard on the feathers of the back of his neck. Then after holding him down awhile, I let him go. He's been very politely wary since then, but we're keeping an eye on him. I've got a friend who wants chicken for Christmas supper, so he's got three weeks to figure things out.
I employ a few college-aged young people to do yard chores, landscaping, coop cleanout, etc. and I always make sure they are familiar with roosters and the warning signs. They also wear thick farm coats, galoshes, etc. so well protected. So far, so good.
