Ostracized?

[lsv313]

I have 8 pullets, ranging from 6-9 months old. They have all shared a coop just fine for many months. Recently, one of our EE's began sleeping outside of the coop. She will roost on a bar right outside of the coop, but will not go in. My husband or I will manually have to put her in each night after dark. I do not understand why she started doing this - she has been sleeping in the coop all along, putting herself to bed every night - and then all of a sudden this. She is at the bottom of the pecking order - do you think she's "not allowed" in? It doesn't seem like she even tries though- she just hops on her roost while everyone else goes into the coop. Is something wrong? Should I be doing something about this? She also began laying this past week so I'm not sure if that's related or not. She does lay in the same egg boxes as everyone else, inside the coop.

Any thoughts?

 

[mkearsley]

Hmmm. that's weird. The other night I came out & found 3 of my 4 hens sleeping in the dog house, the fourth was on a nest with an egg under her, so I'm guessing she was attacking them as they came in to bed. One of my hens lost her ranking with the others, and now, rather than sleeping cuddled with them, she'll sleep on the other side of the house, or in a different nest box, or on the roost (the others sleep huddled together, two in one nest box, one right outside it. Chickens are weird creatures.