Roo in nest box...

[grasjm36]

So I walked into the coop today to find my giant rooster shoved into a nest box making cooing and purring noises. I think he was teaching one of my disabled hens to lay!!! She used to be a tremondous layer until her hawk incident. She was in the nest box beside him throwing scraps of hay behind her and what not.

It was so adorable that I just had to share! So is this what the rooster is doing? Coaxing her along? Anyone else ever see this?

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Yes I have had a rooster sitting in the box with the hen or sitting next the nesting box and waiting for his hen to get done.

 

[ellieroo]

There is an amazing dialogue that goes on between roo and hens. I've watched and heard the poor roo trying to find THE SPOT

and he mutters and cajoles for all hes worth and half the time the hen just walks away! But when the right spot is found its almost like hes saying breathe, breathe ,deep breath ......... now Push!!!

 

[emvickrey]

One of my roosters and hen are very close. He will protect her with his life. She sleeps in "her" nest box and he sleeps sitting at the entrance of it.

 

[gryeyes]

I just finished construction of my newest coop, with a "two-seater" egg rollaway pop-out nest box. As the chickens were checking out the new coop (not yet aware it was going to be their new home) I heard a discussion from within it and peeked closer through the people-door window. TWO chickens in one of the nests.

Then the chicken closest to the opening hopped out, and I realized Carl the accidental rooster was all the way inside it. Which means he had to have entered it first..... Huh.

And it's not all that big a nest box, really.

As far as I know, he's never gone up the ramp into the A-Frame coop to check out those nest boxes there. But he HAS been into the nest boxes of the coop the chickens were all using up until yesterday.

(Yes, that's three coops: An A-Frame, an eBay construction kit coop, and the newest I just built.)

The overheard conversation was quite amiable, so maybe he was coaxing his lady into it. Or just reassuring her it seemed to be a pretty nice spot, despite that odd downward slant to the back..... Hmmmm.

 

[grasjm36]

Hahaha thats soo funny! I do love these chickens. I like the idea of the roll away nest box, wish I would have thought of that earlier. We just built a bunch of new ones...and yet they all lay in one box. I even put fake eggs in each box. Oh well.