Picking up a rooster and holding him confined works while they are young and not very large. If a rooster exhibits aggressive behavior when full grown, catching and holding legs may not be that easy. I have established myself as the alpha by simply not tolerating aggressive/bully behaviors. As juniors I separate my roosters for a period so that I can evaluate replacement breed stock and cull. When they bully/brutalize each other I use a "time out" in a large dog wire crate placed in their pen. The bad boy can see the others and may unsuccessfully protest the confinement but soon realizes he's stuck in there AND humiliated. A couple times placed in the "box" often cures major agressions in younger roosters and the roosters settle down just seeing me enter their pen like I'm going to impose a time out. And spending a night in the "box" mildly rearranges pecking order when the humiliated bad boy is released in the morning. I don't tolerate uber aggressive behaviors of any kind - in any animal. If an aggressive rooster to savages a hen's back - he's separated from the flock and later reintroduced. If he does it again - the rooster is culled. A primary cull sign for me is when an aggressive rooster bullies a smaller/younger rooster in the pen. There are no hens to compete for in the pen so it's pure bullying beyond establishing pecking order. I had a Blk Copper Marans rooster from a large hatchery that was so mean he actually tried to rape other roosters, relentlessly chase/bite/bit off a portion of another's comb and once jumped at my back trying to flog me. That rooster was first cull - in fact he almost was culled on the spot. I believe in the haste of producing large numbers of chicks for sale, large hatcheries/"some" breeders pay no attention to temperament and the domesticity that took decades is wiped out in a couple random breed seasons - remember most breeds today can trace back to fighting cocks. Even some hens have become overtly aggressive. I believe we need to cull for aggressive behaviors in both rooster/hens. You have to ask, "Why are hen saddles so popular?"
