What is my rooster doing in the hens nesting box? He is making a lot of noise and scrathing around like he wants to lay an egg.
Cross-dressing chicken? Maybe he's jealous? HeHe, sorry, I'm no help, but thought it was kinda funny.
He is trying to entice the hen(s) to lay or begin sitting. I see mine do this quite often! Pigeons will also do this - they will get into the nest and call the hen to them.
My little rooster doesn't get in the nest by himself, but when one of his favorite hens is laying, he loves to accompany them! I think he thinks he's protecting them from BRANDY hen aka Cruella DeVille due to recent behavior!
Someone on here had a roo a couple of months ago that she claimed actually incubated some eggs and hatched them. I've never heard of such.
He's saying to the hens, "Check out this nice nest over here! This is a good spot to lay your eggs." Last week all the nest boxes in the coop were taken, so one of my hens was shopping around outside for a nice place to lay an egg. My two roos were right with her, finding a secluded spot and clucking over it, making a scene, enticing her over. I think they checked out 4 places before one of the roos finally led her up into the coop, jumped up into a nest box, somehow got the previous hen to jump out, then he sat in there beside the new hen while she laid her egg. Also when I put a new nest box in the coop, my head rooster will make a big scene in there to get the girls attention, then if no one gets in, he'll sit in it for a while, demonstrating what a nice nest it is. Just more fascinating chicken behavior!
I noticed something simaler today. We have a young banty hen who is broody. I gave her 5 eggs last weekend and have been leaving her with her group. 1 rooster and 3 other hens because I was afraid she would give up if we moved her. Today we moved there pen to fresh grass and I switched her to a different cat box (we had two and they would all pile in hers with her at night, I was afraid they would break the eggs!) I turned her box against the wire so she had to stay in for a while, just in case. Our rooster looked in the old box and cackled and hoppped in looking around like where did the eggs go?? He scrattched around puffed up and settled down. Then started pulling the straw around him like he was setting on the eggs. I decided to leave her in the pen. Seems like its a community effort to hatch the eggs!
I am glad to hear that this is normal behavior. This is my first spring with my chickens and I learn something new about them everyday. Thanks for all the answers.... I have enjoyed reading the posts on this website.
I have a BLRW that would love to get in the nest in the hen house but, he's so big he can't cram in one. Poor guy is as wide as a turkey. He takes his duty as nest finder very serious and looks in the fresh pine needles i provide for bedding and calls them.