Folks, there is good news and bad news.
Good news:
My mille fleurs have begun to lay again, though only an egg or two per day. And indeed, they did have a hidey hole they were laying in, but unfortunately, it was a wet spot and not a good place to store eggs. I've filled that in, so they can no longer lay wet eggs. Almost all of my chickens have started laying more. My mixed pen went from a few eggs a day to nearly a dozen a day in the last week. Either the rain or molt or whatever was affecting them seems to be ending, so that's a good thing.
Bad news:
I never got eggs from the previous offer. The person who offered them sent me a USPS priority mail tracking number. The number is indeed listed as a package scanned in at a Montana post office 10 days ago, and then.... nothing. It never shows as being sent to a sorting center or anywhere else.
I spoke to the folks at my P.O. (no package) and at the Absarokee, MT P.O., and neither of the postal employees have ever seen this situation, where a package was scanned in and then no record after that. I contacted the shipper and told him he could contact the p.o. if he wanted to track down exactly what happened, but at this point the eggs would not really be hatching eggs. They might not even be eating eggs, depending on what happened to them.
I would like to let my OEG banties out of their breeding cage soon, since their summer shelter is not really ideal for winter.
I know this is a community thing so can y'all give me input on whether "backing up" to the last offer is okay? I would withdraw my offer, since I have gotten no eggs. I guess this means the last offer would be in effect.
If this is okay, then I will expect no eggs from the last person, and will withdraw my offer. Then I can let the OEGs go back to being part of the general population in my mixed pen, and I'll look for other offers when things pick up in the Spring.
If OTOH, 'backing up' is really rude or a bad thing to do, then I may be able to make the offer with just banty cochin and mille fleur eggs, assuming that the mille fleurs keep up their improved laying rate. In any case, I'll need to move my OEG banties soon before we get a serious cold snap.