Not Sure

 I have been here in Texas about a month. I was left 12 chickens and 2 roosters from the lady we bought the house from. I am now down to 8 chickens and 2 roosters. I really hate they keep dwindling down. Don’t misunderstand me, I know there are a lot of predators that can kill a chicken and the fact that they are free range makes it that much more likely. I’m wondering what I can do to protect them. They only thing I can think is to put a gate up to where they stay at night so nothing can get in or out. I still have the 2 that stay in the shop so I know they are fine. The other thing about this is when we got here, I found a laying box full of eggs. I know a lot of people would love that. I’m okay without the eggs. Anyway. I didn’t know how long the eggs had been there and I had not seen the chickens over there at all since we got here. Ronnie and I started cleaning them out. Oh my goodness. A couple of them ended up breaking as we were cleaning them out and let’s just say, they were rotten and it was awful. Yesterday I was watching the chickens and they were all back over near the box. They stayed over there until the donkey and goats saw them. I’ve never seen chickens run so fast away from anything. I looked later to make sure they hadn’t left any eggs. They hadn’t. Now I’m wondering if they are going to start laying more eggs. I’m not sure what’s happening around here anymore. Lol!!