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Hi, newbie here.
Joined the chicken revolution last November, bought the coop with run, filled it with 3 POL Warrens,a Light Sussex and a Polish; read all I could about keeping them, fed them, nurtured them...and the eggs have been rolling in ever since. This year the Sussex became broody (figured this when all the eggs were missing and had to lift the growling hen off a dozen which she'd pilfered!) so I separated her and sat her on half a dozen random eggs from a friend who has cockerels...and doubled my chicken count by 5 of the 6 hatching (4 banties of unknown breeds to my untrained eye and a lovely Orpington.)
So, 6 weeks down the line I think hey, time to put the Sussex back in with the rest along with the chicks before she abandons them, since she'll protect them for now and she was the head of the roost prior to broodiness...makes sense to me. Unfortunately nobody warned me that the bloody dopey Polish would suddenly become the most aggressive creature since my ex wife, bullying both chicks and mother hen. I left it a day but had to move the chicks back to the other run after the Orp took a nasty head peck, but I left the Sussex in with her old gang and after a couple of days everything was back to normal.
Now came a baffler. I cleaned the coops and runs out 3 days ago....and suddenly the buggers stopped laying..or so I thought until I started finding the eggs outside in the run. Figured I must have disturbed their routine so I left it be, but today whilst working on the garden saw them make no attempt to head indoors to lay, rather just pop them out on the dirt. Panic set in....the dreaded red mite? Spent two hours googling the problem this evening and at nightfall set off to the coop armed only with a torch and a gin and tonic in search of these beasties. The girls were all roosted on top of the coop which didn't help my fears, I tentatively opened the nesting box and bolstered by another slug of Bombay Saphire shone my torch inside and had a scrape around..........Nothing! Not a mite to be seen, in fact not a trace of chicken to be seen either. I shone my torch further in wondering why I could only see so far into the gloom....and then it hit me.........
I'd closed the bloody door when I cleaned them out and not opened it to let them back in again!....MUPPET!!!!
Joined the chicken revolution last November, bought the coop with run, filled it with 3 POL Warrens,a Light Sussex and a Polish; read all I could about keeping them, fed them, nurtured them...and the eggs have been rolling in ever since. This year the Sussex became broody (figured this when all the eggs were missing and had to lift the growling hen off a dozen which she'd pilfered!) so I separated her and sat her on half a dozen random eggs from a friend who has cockerels...and doubled my chicken count by 5 of the 6 hatching (4 banties of unknown breeds to my untrained eye and a lovely Orpington.)
So, 6 weeks down the line I think hey, time to put the Sussex back in with the rest along with the chicks before she abandons them, since she'll protect them for now and she was the head of the roost prior to broodiness...makes sense to me. Unfortunately nobody warned me that the bloody dopey Polish would suddenly become the most aggressive creature since my ex wife, bullying both chicks and mother hen. I left it a day but had to move the chicks back to the other run after the Orp took a nasty head peck, but I left the Sussex in with her old gang and after a couple of days everything was back to normal.
Now came a baffler. I cleaned the coops and runs out 3 days ago....and suddenly the buggers stopped laying..or so I thought until I started finding the eggs outside in the run. Figured I must have disturbed their routine so I left it be, but today whilst working on the garden saw them make no attempt to head indoors to lay, rather just pop them out on the dirt. Panic set in....the dreaded red mite? Spent two hours googling the problem this evening and at nightfall set off to the coop armed only with a torch and a gin and tonic in search of these beasties. The girls were all roosted on top of the coop which didn't help my fears, I tentatively opened the nesting box and bolstered by another slug of Bombay Saphire shone my torch inside and had a scrape around..........Nothing! Not a mite to be seen, in fact not a trace of chicken to be seen either. I shone my torch further in wondering why I could only see so far into the gloom....and then it hit me.........
I'd closed the bloody door when I cleaned them out and not opened it to let them back in again!....MUPPET!!!!
Sounds like you're going to fit right in amongst us Nutters 
Honestly it was a complete shock to find that the only cock in the coop was me!
) Jeeeeeeez did they tell me off! Anyway, 'tis normal to experience extreme Muppetry on occasions, trust me! 
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