Rooster cleaning nesting box?

[amyburemt]

I heard a ruckus in my coop today and when I went out there the rooster was "yelling" and scratching out one of the nesting boxes. One of the hens was near him yelling at him. Has anyone else had a rooster that cleaned out the nesting box for a hen?

 

[amyburemt]

He's about 10 months old. It made me laugh because he does the whole encouraging chatter to the hens when they are in the boxes. He has now been cleaning out every nesting box(10 of them) each morning. he does a great job i hope he keeps it up

 

[centrarchid]

That is fairly routine in my setting. The rooster picks up on some vocalization produced by the hen that indicates she is coming into lay and is looking for a dude. When this occurs in the yard area around house the rooster usually has a fairly good handle on nest sites in the bushier perimeter. As the group walks about the roost will penetrate those little clumps of grass and do as described by OP. Sometimes a hen rejects a given site so another is displayed. First egg usually deposited the following day or day after that. Thereafter the rooster is within hearing distance of hen when she comes of the nest as that is time he preferentially covers / treads / copulates with her. Hen is normally secretive when approaching to lay an egg and does not make a sound until 50 feet or more from nest after leaving it.

I can have a hen that is coming into lay walk down a row of rooster pens where each one in turn will do the display. Other hens will not get the display.

 

[amyburemt]

He throws out all the chicken poop. Those boxes are spotless every morning!

 

[chickens really]

He is encouraging her to use the nest box...He is just being a tentative Rooster...

Cheers

 

[amyburemt]

thank you so much! It was very interesting to watch lol

 

[chickens really]

thank you so much! It was very interesting to watch lol

lol! The Roosters do love the ladies!

Enjoy!

 

[aart]

How old is this 'rooster'?

Have had a mature older cockbird sit in a nest and chatter for about 30-45 minutes......
.....when I brought my first multi-aged flock home to my brand new coop.
Egg in that nest the next day. He never did it again.

Have had a cockerel stand nearby where a pullet chose to lay her first egg and mutter some 'encouragement'.
Once saw this happen a couple times.

Never had one get in scratch up a nest box tho....pullets do a fine job of that themselves.

 

[donrae]

My splash Ameraucana did that for a white. I don't remember if there were new layers, or what might have triggered him to do it. But he carried on for a good 20 minutes. The hen waiting to get in the box was an established mature layer who totally got impatient with him---she basically pushed him out of the way eventually. Here he was, "Look at the great place I'm making for you, isn't it so pretty and comfortable, come here and lay your egg, look what I made for you".....and she's more "I'm under a time crunch here. Get outta my way"

He only did it for a few days, then quit.

 

[aart]

He's about 10 months old. It made me laugh because he does the whole encouraging chatter to the hens when they are in the boxes. He has now been cleaning out every nesting box(10 of them) each morning. he does a great job i hope he keeps it up

What do you mean by 'cleaning'?