LOL, I do that all the time with my chickens. I tell them, "Don't worry, you're fine. The tarp I am carrying won't hurt you." I use that extra calm voice and try not to laugh at them and they seem to chill out and stop squawking.Hi and welcome to BYC. When you are sitting with them and something startles them - do you talk to them to calm them? Gee that's a lot of "thems".
For instance you could talk reassuringly and say"oh that's just some sparrows." etc. so they notice it didn't frighten you. Maybe I am assuming too much on the part of chickens. I know other animals notice voice inflections .
Still, it strikes me, with your chickens that you say they spend more time in the coop than the run. I can understand them taking time to be less anxious, but after a month, not feeling comfortable in the run it seems a bit unusual. It seems like they have been conditioned to not feel that safe in their run and decided to go to the coop now even with small provocations like a blue jay's call, and I wonder if that had something to do with even just a few experiences with your dog near the run. I think all of our chickens spaz out, but they don't exactly hide and not come out for a long time and that gives them the chance to see that threat has passed. Maybe once they change to a coop house it will break them of the habit of running inside so much. They should adjust okay to the new coop house. Will it have a run attached?
and Welcome To BYC! You might also check if you have any hawks hanging around in the area, they are getting bad in some places now, and after being spooked a few times even chickens in a safe run tend to be really leery about going outside again.
