wierd chicken behavior(to me)

[chicmom]

It's funny....when I had a different nesting box--(they were plastic bins, just the right size for a chicken to nest in), the boxes were identical, but the ladies had their favorite and crammed into it two at a time on occasion. They would wait in line for it, with the other identical box empty! Too silly!

I changed things up a bit, and now they don't seem to do that anymore. I put a huge plastic storage bin on it's side, and then put two plastic nest bins inside of that so they could have more privacy and feel more secure. That seemed to fix the problem. I think they feel safer, being that their boxes are in another big box (hope you can picture that), and they no longer pile in on eachother.

(Or maybe it was just a coincidence!)

 

[Judy]

Yes it could be a roo, though more likely a hen. Not proof it isn't a roo, anyway.

My roos, if they paid attention to the egg laying process, are more likely to pace around the coop near the nest boxes, as if guarding or encouraging.

Actually I don't think I've ever seen a roo in a nest box at my house -- but I know this is not an absolute.

 

[SycolinWoodsChickens]

My roo has been in the nest boxes before but not with the hens. He hasn't been in one in weeks (not that I've seen) but I have witnessed both my roo and my drakes showing their girls good places to lay eggs.

Seems normal to me.

BTW, we have 5 nest boxes for 20 hens and they all lay in one of them (with the duck eggs) or on top of a hay bale we have stored. THe others remain unused. I've tried golf balls in them, built nests for them, turned them around, changed out the bedding material but they all want to lay in the ducks pen?!?!?!

 

[luvzmychickens]

my boxes r the same size i sometimes 3 chickens will squeeze in side

 

[ChickieBerryFarm]

I just got done cleaning out my coop and the girls were in a hurry to lay...couldn't get the pine shavings down quick enough! At one point, all three were in the one box with the shavings...lol! After I got the other box filled, Ruby moved over. Two minutes later, Midnight and Camile came down and I had two eggs in the one box...guess it was a group effort!!!

Silly chickens...

 

[dandelionheart]

The RIR and the BOs all want to be in their own box (often the same two boxes, but they take turns) but our EE (Martha) likes to jump into a box when one of the others is in there and just laid, to lay her egg... ? And then Martha and Georgia (her sister EE) often share a box, just to snuggle in, Georgia hasn't laid yet (that we know of). I haven't heard (so far) of a rooster sharing a nesting box, sometimes a rooster resting in one with no eggs, but never snuggly like. And Georgia is definately a she and has been squatting for like two or more weeks.

 

[RL]

I had a Light Brahma rooster that would follow his favorite hen into the coop when she went in to lay. He would get into the next box beside her and talk to her until she was done and then they both would walk out of the coop. So roos do lay in the nest boxes at times.

He would even guard a nest box if one of the girls were in a bad mood and started to kick the other hens out. This is a pick of Turd Ball guarding a nest box because my little banty Cochin hen was doing just that. There are two hens behind him laying eggs.

 

[dandelionheart]

Quote:

Awesome. Good job Turd Ball.