Things my roosters bring me

[DonyaQuick]

I have raised three roos so far, and I've maintained a very friendly relationship with all of them. When I let my flocks out to forage, my roos sometimes bring me stuff and tidbit with it to get my attention - but they don't bring me food like they do for the hens; it's other stuff they find. They've clearly picked up on the fact that I pick up any junk that erodes out of the soil around the house. The pic below is stuff they've brought that I saved, grouped by which roo brought it to me.

• Junior, top right cluster: things that aren't rocks even if some of them look like it. The PVC one is obvious, but the others are weird bits of synthetic stuff. Junior also brings me a lot of hazardous/sharp stuff that I don't save (rusty nails, broken glass, etc).
• Vanilla Bean, bottom: exclusively brings me white plastic pellets.
• Monster, top left: I didn't think he was going to join the club, but then out of the blue he brought me a tiny Brachiopod fossil last week.

Do other folks' roos do this?

 

[Folly's place]

Amazing! Glad they aren't eating any of that stuff. None of mine have ever done this, interesting learned behavior, when one of them (the senior?) decided it was a good idea. Do you reward them in any way?
We could all use pick-up artists like your boys!
Mary

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Fossil for the win!

 

[DonyaQuick]

Amazing! Glad they aren't eating any of that stuff. None of mine have ever done this, interesting learned behavior, when one of them (the senior?) decided it was a good idea. Do you reward them in any way?
We could all use pick-up artists like your boys!
Mary

I've been told I'm out of my mind for it, but I use a lot of verbal cues with my roos ("up up," "go on," "wait," "no," "good boy," etc.). So, when they bring me stuff that I want to pick up, they get a lot of praise using a particular praise voice ("oh what a good boy! Oo can I have that? Such a good boy!" type of thing). Both Junior and Vanilla Bean went through phases when they were much younger of tidbitting with sticks and bits of straw, and I rewarded them with a bit of praise for that too, but I up the praise quite a bit when it's something useful to me. Junior and Monster are full brothers but Vanilla Bean is younger and likely learned it from watching Junior.

The Monster fossil thing is somewhat stranger. Although he's very sweet and likes hugs, he's quite aloof most of the time and didn't go through any prior tidbitting phase with me. He's spooky smart though, so in some respects I guess it figures he'd be the one to bring something super rare.

 

[Sally PB]

What an interesting trait. Thanks for sharing the story.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well, I have a new generation and the behavior continues: Monster's loud and awkward son called Goober dug this thing out of who knows where and brought it over to me. I don't know what the material is. I assume some sort of plastic because it's hard and light, but it smells like a crayon.

Now, Goober is very much a cockerel and not a rooster. He's actually started this much younger than my other roos did and I didn't really think about that. I did as I would with them and lavished verbal praise upon Mr Goober and gave hime some pets like I would one of my adult roos. He got completely over excited, proceeded to trip over his own feet trying to a big dance, and then desperately attempted some inappropriate acts on my elbow. Sooooo I guess I have to tone it down a bit with him the next time he brings me something to try to keep things calmer lol.

Goober was raised by Junior and Monster and is now in a bachelor flock with Vanilla Bean, so he's had a lot of opportunity to see them all dig up and bring me weird things - Vanilla Bean especially since some workmen spilled a container of little white screws last fall and Vanilla Bean has become my master finder of those. I also have two other cockerels from the same hatch as Goober, but they're from Junior and a different hen; it'll be interesting to see if they eventually pick up the same behavior or not.