Odd, I've always had the opposite experience! The males I handle a lot as chicks end up being anything from annoying to downright nightmarish. The nightmarish ones were a set of three Marans cockerels that were so cuddly as chicks, and then always too forward with me as they grew older. Then one day the three of them jumped me when I entered their pen to feed and water them that morning. Luckily, I was wearing my knee-high muck boots so their attacks were deflected, but I nearly was knocked over by them and had to fend them off with the top half of the feeder in order to get out of there to safety. Those boys were on the freezer camp list faster than you can say soup's on! It was a real shame, too, because I loved their father so much (who was raised hands-off for the record because I was busy with school when he was a chick) and would have loved another like him.
My hands-off boys, they always end up being so sweet, standing at my feet to be picked up or coming over to have their feathers stroked when I sit out there with the flocks.
They definitely don't want their girls to see them being cuddled or anything, gotta keep their tough guy reputations going in the flock you know, but they're much more gentle than the males I handle a lot as chicks. I suspect it's because they don't imprint on humans, at least not as strongly, so they're better able to recognize that I'm not another male who's a threat to their standing in the flock. That's just my theory on it, though! I've found over the years that they all have at least a short stint where they're kind of a butthead as their hormones get pumping for the first time, but as long as you're patient with them and react properly to their behavior, it doesn't always have to be a dealbreaker.
