Hi,
This is actually not uncommon. It is generally the male that initiates the aggression. For some reasons, some captive males become too territorial over the nest, and even fight the hen over it. What you can do is separate them and let one parent sit during the day, and the other at night. Sometimes he will calm back down after a few days of this and they can both stay in the cage together. Otherwise it is very hard for the hen to try to care for the chicks by herself if the eggs hatch. I know this isn’t easy to hear, but first clutches almost always fail. Even if the eggs hatch, the parents often don’t feed or care for them right and the chicks do not survive. Keep the parents separate as long as they are fighting, but again, rotate them as far as sitting on the eggs. Once this clutch is done – no matter the outcome – remove the nest box for 6 months before you let them try again. The parents need a 6 month rest between every clutch whether they hatch chicks or not. Forming and laying eggs is hard on the hen’s health, and in the wild she would only do this once a year. It’s also important that they are on a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets, and not a seed mix. You should also offer dark leafy greens, chopped veggies and when you have them set up with a nest box like right now, you should be offering an egg food daily – either a commercial dry egg food or cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
