Is your Roo really involved in the "hen's business" ?

[patandchickens]

I posted a couple days ago about my two sussex roos suddenly wanting to hang out in the nestboxes. Never did figure out why, I've caught them in there a couple times since then too. But maybe it's the same sort of thing you're talking about. I know at least one time there was a hen in the adjacent box.

Guys. Who can understand 'em.

Pat

 

[wasatusay]

Daddy Cletis will go into the big coop where some girls lay. But it is only when I have had girls that are starting to lay for the first time. I can only guess that he is showing them that it is a safe place to lay? Other than that he wants nothing to do with egg sitting. But once the babies are here, he paces around the coops while they are in there and paces the fence when they are allowed outside. Picking up and dropping food, talking to them. He is very protective of young pullets and does not try to mount them until after they lay their first egg. I have watched him dance for them and fluff his neck feather to make them squat but never mounts them, until after the first egg..

 

[Aneesa's Muse]

BenBen is a bantam.. wonder if that has anything to do with it? I dunno.. I think he's just a sweetie and he wants to be sure they have company ....OR.. he's guarding "Momma's eggs" ..so he can continue to get string cheese

 

[australorpchick]

My silkie roo, Frost, doesn't just sit in the nesting box, he makes all the chickie beds. It's the funniest thing! We'll put fresh hay and shavings and while the 3 girls are digging around outside, he'll go in the nest box and arrange all the hay there, than proceed to a corner and arrange the hay there, until he's made a bed for all the chickens. I just figured he was a very gentlemanly roo. He also calls the girls whenever he finds food, or delivers it to them if they don't come running. Does anyone else's roos do this?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Now that Thor DOES do! Thor just recently became my alpha roo. The other day I took a bowl of grapes out to the chickens. Thor called all the girls like a good roo and as I would hand him a grape he'd turn around and hand it to the nearest girl. Some of the girls were impatient and snatched em from his beak.
Thor had this look on his face the whole time like a man gets when he's stuck waiting in a waiting room full of pregnant women at the GYN's office. I interpreted the look to mean he wasn't sure being the alpha was all it's cracked up to be.
Later that night I brought him in the house and gave him a few grapes of his own. That was the only way for him to get any grapes at all.
Edited to add: Welcome to BYC!

 

[luvanimals3]

My rooster will sometimes act as if he is laying where the hens are suppose to lay! It is actually funny!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Quote:
Yeah, when we used to free range the birds I'd check up on them a few times during the day. I once went to open the feeding area where we keep the hay and I see with giant fluffy mass in the corner, making this weird cooing sound. I saw that it was my Silkie roo making a nest all alone. He stopped making any noise and gave me this look like, "Hey.....this is awkward."

 

[kwynn's birds Alaska]

Quote:
Yeah, when we used to free range the birds I'd check up on them a few times during the day. I once went to open the feeding area where we keep the hay and I see with giant fluffy mass in the corner, making this weird cooing sound. I saw that it was my Silkie roo making a nest all alone. He stopped making any noise and gave me this look like, "Hey.....this is awkward."

i caughtmy SSH in a nest box once, making weird noises, playing around in the straw all by him self. then when he saw me looking at him he was like...

then he ran away.

i also caught the late Colonel Sanders sitting on an egg once. When I took it away, he crowed for like an hour. I think I really upset him...

 

[MissPrissy]

A rooster will indeed get in a nest and coo and talk to his hens telling her where to lay and showing them where to eat etc.

 

[tdgill]

I love the rooster cooing sounds....