My roo is gender confused....No. Really. He is...

[Camelot Farms]

OK...I have a 7 month old pair of OEGB Red/Blues. She has been laying for about 3 weeks.

Last two days we have spent lots of time in the barn because we are building new pens. So, yesterday I hear mama hen in there freaking out. I look and see the roo in her nest box happily pulling straw and shavings in around him while she stands outside the box screeching her head off. Hm. A little weird, but hey who knows.

Today we are in the barn working on the pens and I hear her screeching but I also hear another noise. Sounds a bit like an egg-song. So, I go look again and sure enough. He is in the nest box all comfy surrounded by the nest he has built up and he is doing a poor rendition of the egg-song while she chews him out!

My solution...I put another nest box in there. One for each of them.

I swear tho' if I find 2 eggs in that pen some day...I am gonna be famous!

Anyone else have gender confused roos?

 

[Dar]

he is just prepin to be a great daddy

 

[Mahonri]

I'd like a couple dozen of those rooster hatching eggs....

 

[Cackling Hen]

Yes i do my Antwerp Roo does that and he aslo huddled all the babies chicks under him at night when they were 2weeks old. I so wish I would have taken pictures of that

 

[teach1rusl]

I swear I JUST wrote about something similar last week on here. Mine settled down in the nest box beside my hen. She was crowded, so got up and moved to the next nest box over, and he stayed in his. I took pictures and ran into the house to ask what in the world was going on (here on BYC). Right after posting I heard a LOUD egg song bawking. My BO is my loudest proclaimer, and this was louder and rougher. Sure enough there was the roo walking around announcing the laying of the egg, and the girl that had been in the box was just standing there, looking a bit confused. But there was a huge egg in HER box (none in his...lol). Funny though, I had the same thought as you..."If an egg pops out nobody will believe this..." heehee

Here's the pic I took (horrible pic because of the light coming in). Dutch is in the left nest and poor Daisy got booted to the right nest.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Awww, he's being a gentleman, getting it all ready for her. They're obviously still dating. In 10 years or so, he'll be telling her she's doing it wrong and how to do it the "right" way.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Ain't that the truth! Honestly, he's just being a good rooster.

 

[Sequin]

My little d'Uccle does this for his girls too. He will make a nest for them and if they move to a new spot he tries to win her over back to the nest he has made. It is really cute to watch.

 

[Tala]

It's a nice thing to do!! He's telling her where to lay the eggs!!!!

My roo never preps the nest (that I can tell) but he does more announcing of the eggs laid than the hens do! Once they start up the egg song he goes totally bonkers about it, for about 10 minutes!!!
And we have 8 hens so....

 

[DAS]

My Blue Wyandotte roo did this for couple of days in a row. The next day one of my broody hens took over the nest and is now sitting on 4 eggs!