What is my rooster doing to my hand?

[Shadrach]

This is Merlin; a little background:

I've never kept roosters before, but have decided to start breeding..

Merlin was hatched by me.. and I handle my chickens daily.

He's always been a lover boy.. when he sees me coming he does his little circle strut dance and I always pick him up for some snuggles.

Well 3 days ago he started grabbing my hand like this.. I thought maybe he was trying to mount me/mate me but after googling it looks like it could also be aggression?

Although google doesn't know him I'm hoping some here can help.

He's never been aggressive before, in fact quite the opposite... so what is this? How do I correct it? Should I be worried? Or is he in fact.. in love with me...? Thanks everyone!

Looking at the second picture it looks like he's wiggling hs rear end given his head is in focus but his rear end isn't(?)

From what I can tell he's trying to mate. Some young cockerels will try and mate a rock. It's not aggression but sometimes it leads to aggression because the keeper rejects the cockerels advances, or even worse, responds in an aggressive manner.

If you want to find out, then leave your hand flat on the ground and see what he does.

This is Treacle having sex with my boot.

I let them get on with it, but I don't offer my hand to young cockerels thus inclined.
I've had a few that did this and they grow out of it once they've attracted hens of their own.

 

[Camo chicken146]

In my experience it's best not to try to correct rooster behaviors with more rooster behaviors - this includes pressing on his back, grabbing his comb, etc. This can reinforce the behavior because as long as he thinks of you as part of the flock or a competing cock, he'll think of dominance scuffles with you as an option. Ideally, you want to be thought of as something apart from the flock. A creature that will never be competition for hens, and therefore doesn't need to be challenged. Unfortunately you say he was handled a lot by you growing up, so it'll be harder for you to convince him you aren't fair game as a flock member. Picking him up and carrying him when he gets aggressive may help - this is not something roosters do to eachother, so being picked up does not reinforce the idea that you are a competing cock who needs to be attacked more. I also wouldn't allow your bird the opportunity to even grab your hand to do whatever it is he wants to do with it. If he does manage to grab it, I'd pick him up, snuggle him, carry him around - again, the sort of people things folks do to chickens that just does not fit their ability to understand and forces them to view you as something outside of the type of creature they can challenge/mate.

As long as he's not being too aggressive or in danger of hurting someone, in your place I would do all my chores around him as usual, making a point to ignore him. If he's in your path, don't dodge but walk straight towards him so he has to either move out of the way, or step over him if he doesn't move - you don't want to trample him, obviously. But he needs to realize you're going to do what you do, and because you're a creature outside of the flock, he doesn't need to worry his little head about what it is you're doing. Some people say not to feed the hens from your hand because a cock will see this as tidbitting and view it as rival cock behavior - I have no opinion on that either way as all my birds, including the cocks, eat from my hand no problem, but I also make a point of not handling any of my chicks at all until I can discern sexes, and then I only handle the pullets. Your boy was raised so differently it may well be that cutting out hand feeding, if that's something you do, could be helpful in your situation.

The important thing to remember is to not kick him, or carry him upside down, or anything like that that could physically harm him. If you're ever in a place where you feel the need to kick, that's a sure sign it's time to rehome or stock up on chicken in your freezer.

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