Boy did I learn my lesson.
Do NOT move the chicken coop during the day.ONLY move the chicken coop when the birds are in it. If they don't wake up in it, then they don't know where it is. Is magic! No coop!I went out to close the coop last night. We moved it midday and the birds were happily milling around and under it all afternoon.But in the evening, I went out to close them in, and what do I find?Every single bird standing around in a confused cluster where the coop HAD BEEN. When I arrived, they were quick to tell me all about it, too.You'll never believe it! Our house is gone! Is mystery! Just gone! We found our way back here, like good chickens, even though there was this fence in the way, but there's no house anymore! Is disappeared! We are very confused.First of all, they had to make an effort to escape to the former location of the coop. It probably involved climbing up on the coop in order to fly over the fence. I was kind of impressed that every single bird was out.Second, the coop is in plain sight, no obstructions (except the fence they crossed on the way out), about fifteen feet away.I knocked down the fence, crouched down, and tried to slowly herd them towards the coop. Surely they would go Oh, there it is, and go in.They ran around me and returned to the vacant spot. They were starting to slump down into chicken rest, too, getting dopey.I opened the feed bucket by the coop. They came running to the sound, but then seemed to forget why they were there and drifted back to the missing coop. Sleeeepyyyy. No coop. Doesn't matter....I started scooping up chickens and stuffing them onto the top of their ramp. Now the chickens got agitated and started scattering and hiding in the brush. One of the chickens ran back out of the coop to rejoin the flock. The rooster attacked me for the first time ever; I must have grabbed one of his favorites. I'm glad he has it in him, but it was a shock (just scratches).Get H.W.H.W. is all business about chicken snatching and rapidly got the remaining birds stuffed into the coop. Oh, here it is!! Even the rooster; not so tough once you grab him.Beak count, and...one missing. Of course. Now it's totally dark. I kept hunting, getting chowed on by mosquitoes. Eventually I found her, and the chicken catastrophe came to a close.Lesson learned.