The Scoop on the Coop

Our chickens have been sorely neglected lately. There, I admitted it. With so much focus on the goats, prepping for winter, etc., the  poor laying ladies have not gotten the level of care and consideration they deserve. Of course, it didn't help that we had the chickens broken down into three different flocks, with two outside, free ranging, and hiding all of the eggs they were laying. We still haven't figured out where those eggs are.In order to get ourselves together on the chicken front and get everyone prepped for winter, we decided to build a big chicken area inside of the area of the barn that has just been housing clutter.As with every single one of our projects, it took twice as long and was twice as expensive as estimated. But, the end result was great, giving us a separate area for the Crested Cream Legbars so they could be separated off for breeding season. And then we put all of the chickens in. And it turned out we had more chickens and less space than we bargained for.Well, at least we'd be getting a lot more eggs now that the free range girls were wrangled, right? Wrong! Right now virtually NO ONE is laying in protest of the new living situation. They are angry at being shut inside while they learn where their new home is. They do not enjoy mingling with their new coop mates. They do not feel the new nesting boxes are up to par. One hen went as far as to drop dead out of the blue yesterday morning. Everyone has been checked and rechecked for signs of illness, parasites, etc. - at this point I'm thinking she did it out of spite.No good deed goes unpunished. And so we will continue on, making sure everyone is healthy and making adjustments until the girls forgive us and decide to start laying again.