my black java roo is so endearing--have your guys ever done this?

[haTHOR]

i am trying to entice my 22 week old pullets to lay. today i took a nesting box and 2 eggs from the adult henhouse, and put them in my second pen/coop, where the pullets live. (my black java roo and his BJ girls used to live in that coop, but have long since moved on to the adult coop, and i never see him in that coop anymore.)

anyway 5 minutes after i stole the eggs and stashed them in the pullet coop/pen, here he comes, hunting them. he jumps up in the coop (how did he know, honestly?) and starts clucking like mad for his girls like he does when he finds food for them. two hens came over to the pen but did not come into the coop. i moved so i could see him better and there he was, sitting on those eggs, clucking to beat the band, trying to get some "wimmen" to come take over.

i thought it was really funny, and smart and protective of him. he did jump down like he was embarrassed once my face was right there by him, lol.

i was very surprised by this behavior, but i think it was a sign of a good daddy/husband chicken.

anyone else experience something like this?

 

[saladin]

Putting in fresh eggs to 'entice' young pullets to lay is not a good practise. If you want to teach them to lay in boxes use golf balls or some other such 'dummy' egg. All you are going to end up doing is teaching egg eating. The young pullets are going to try out the boxes, possibly break the eggs by accident or even peck at them and break them; thus, learning a really bad behaviour that will be difficult to change.

 

[silkieroo]

That's so funny my rooster does that too the first time i saw him doing it i thought he had switched genders!

 

[muddyhorse]

cute story I use Easter eggs to train mine

 

[haTHOR]

eh, i know opinions differ. i am going with my granny on this one. she suggested i do this as it was her method, and i'm giving it a shot.

she hasn't steered me wrong yet.

by the way, i am not so convinced that egg eating is a bad habit as much as it is an evolutionary mechanism by which soft or flawed eggs get eaten rather than rotting in the nest.

so, your roo hasn't ever done this, huh saladin? i am guessing you would have mentioned if he had.