Rooster enticing the hens to lay

[AmericanMom]

So far this has been the spring of broodys, working on #9 as we speak, or should I say, she is working lol... Out this morning doing chores and noticed our big blue orp rooster in one of the nesting boxes and several hens watching him, he was scratching around and vocalizing to them... I get it, he is telling them this is a great place to lay an egg right? I have never seen him do this before (he is alittle over a year old) Just found it interesting, anyone else experience this with their roosters?

 

[yyz0yyz0]

Mine does that when he's telling them he found something to eat. He'll scratch around and when he finds something god he makes a certain sound and the hens come running to see what he's got for them.

It's really funny when I dump a bucket of kitchen scraps and the hens are all busy rooting through it, he'll find something interesting and drop it then call to the hens but they are all so busy with what they are finding that no one comes to him. He just keeps moving it and calling to them until one finally wanders over and see what he's got.

 

[AmericanMom]

Mine does that when he's telling them he found something to eat. He'll scratch around and when he finds something god he makes a certain sound and the hens come running to see what he's got for them.

It's really funny when I dump a bucket of kitchen scraps and the hens are all busy rooting through it, he'll find something interesting and drop it then call to the hens but they are all so busy with what they are finding that no one comes to him. He just keeps moving it and calling to them until one finally wanders over and see what he's got.

Yes, mine does that for food, but I have never seen him act that way in the nesting boxes, even the vocalization was different

 

[lazy gardener]

My roo will go in the box and call the girls. He's very attentive when one of the girls is broody. But, I've not had a broody stick the course and hatch chicks yet. He's also very interested in the chicks. He and a few of the girls hang around the fence where they can watch the babies. I held a baby up so he could inspect it the other day, and he started picking up little pieces of debris from the ground and dropping them. Making tid-bitting sounds, but not as loud as he does for the hens. I think he'll be a good daddy if he gets the chance.

 

[aart]

When I got my first flock...full grown with a rooster....he checked out the nests and sat in one for about 40 minutes vocalizing.
That's him in my avatar pic.
Later that day there was an egg in there and I never saw him in the nests again.

 

[AmericanMom]

My roo will go in the box and call the girls. He's very attentive when one of the girls is broody. But, I've not had a broody stick the course and hatch chicks yet. He's also very interested in the chicks. He and a few of the girls hang around the fence where they can watch the babies. I held a baby up so he could inspect it the other day, and he started picking up little pieces of debris from the ground and dropping them. Making tid-bitting sounds, but not as loud as he does for the hens. I think he'll be a good daddy if he gets the chance.

Our Blue is a attentive rooster to his chicks, he will spend time with his favorite hen and her chicks helping her feed them.. Our other rooster who is one of Blues off springs has his own girls and I have yet to see him act this way, although he is only 9 months old so I am convinced its an age thing as I don't remember blue doing this last year.

 

[One Chick Two]

Some males can get a little broody sometimes.
Brownie our PR, was acting broody all that morning. Purring and clucking away. Moving nest chips around, throwing it over himself like a hen, squatting, and cackling. He sat on an egg in the nest for at least an hour. The other hens squawked loudly at him, until he finally got out of the nestbox and crowed six times. Occasionally we find a male in the nestboxes or in the box with the hen giving support.




Here's a great thread about broody roosters.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/882368/what-to-look-for-in-a-broody-rooster

 

[JeanR]

Instinctively, the rooster wants to be the "sire" of the chick in the next fertile egg. When the hen has just laid an egg her vent is stretched and soft and therefore chance of the most "fertile" mating. The cock who is luring the hen into the nest wishes her to lay her egg--and be first in line (if you have more than one rooster in the flock) or to just be right there when she leaves the nest after laying her egg. It is part of the natural routine of chickens--some of the boys carry on greatly, and others wait at the floor and chase the hen --"just anytime". What creatures, chickens are!!!!!!