What the HECK is my cockerel doing???

[JFreeman]

I get the two Wyandottes are fighting over the nesting box, but what in the world is my Houdan cockerel doing? The video is a little over 4 minutes long, so if you want to cut a bit of time out, it starts getting good about 50 seconds in.

 

[Corny Caleb]

I had a rooster that did the same thing!, He would like get in the nesting box with one of the hens, and like try too make a nest for her, and just hang out, I'm not sure WHY though...

 

[JFreeman]

It's weird to me. He claims her and Half-Pint (a Houdan pullet), and mates with them. They seem to follow him around in the yard when I let them free range. They are always a trio hanging around one another. I thought he may be going through "sympathy pains" or something the way he acts. Bandit (the EE crowing towards the end of the video) makes weird "alert" sounds and paces because he knows one of his hens are going through discomfort, but he doesn't do much more than that. I guess it would make sense he's trying to make her more comfortable. "Here. Sit on me! It's more comfortable..."

 

[enola]

I bought a beautiful barred rock rooster one time. Couldn't figure out why the woman wanted to sell him and keep that scrawny rooster she had.

I quarantined him........

As soon as I put him in with the hens NO more eggs! Several days and no eggs!! On my day off I catch him in the nests eating eggs as fast as they can lay them......

Sure hope he doesn't develope THAT nasty habit............

 

[JFreeman]

I gave up waiting on the ritual to end and went inside. My husband went out a couple of hours later and there was an egg in the box. He doesn't seem to care about the eggs. I do hope he doesn't start though. He is one of my favorites.

 

[lazy gardener]

I think he went into the box to break up the hen squabble. Roosters will often hang out with laying hens, and will even build nests and encourage pullets to use them when they are approaching POL. When my pullets were approaching POL, the rooster would choose a site to his liking, and make a nest, get in and squirm around, make tid bit noises, and put on quite a show for the girls.

 

[JFreeman]

That was quite a show, I'll admit.

His "roars" are entertaining too. Well, it reminds me of a jaguar cub roar or something anyway, so I call them his "roars."

 

[azygous]

That was cute! He's quite domestic. I had a SLW roo who used to do that. He'd get in the nest with a laying hen and fluff it all up for her, chattering away, until she, getting good and tired of all the frantic domesticity, moved over to another nest to lay her egg.