Nest Box Bandit: Did You Want That Nest?

I was lucky this morning; I actually got a picture of the most hilarious nest box behavior.


This brown leghorn is trying to occupy the nest box with a barred rock.

For some reason, my brown leghorns love to be in the same nest box that another hen is occupying. It's not that they don't have enough next boxes; they do. It's not a location issue, because it happens in any of the boxes.

I've watched this quite a few times and I don't think it's aggressive behavior. I actually think the brown leghorns like the company. Because if they both need to lay eggs at the same time, I'll find both brown leghorns happily occupying the same nest. But my other hens are not appreciative of this behavior. Usually a squabble takes place with the leghorn getting her way. The only hen that doesn't allow the leghorns to win is Hoppy, our partridge cochin. She loudly defends her turf. And, sometimes I actually have to remove everyone from the coop and let them start over.

For the meantime, our nest box bandits will keep up their stealth operations and enjoy their new found laying companions.