Freaked out chooks

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Lionel
Gday from Oz,
Woke up this morn to find that one of our 4 young chooks was dead laying on the floor of the henhouse. It had no obvious markings on it, but had knocked over the water. We removed it and cleaned up after letting the others out. When I came home today it was obvious that they hadn't been in the henhouse all day as the food was untouched & water as well most probably. They make pining sounds and had to be hand moved into the henhouse after dark as if they are scared to go in there. There is nothing in there & I secure it at night so nothing can get in, so I am wondering if anyone knows why they are so freaked out?

Skewbaldpony
Maybe something tried to dig in, during the night - hens are very susceptible to stress and anxiety, we've had a bird die just from being freaked out by a fox trying to dig into the house, it didn't get in there but she died anyway.
Is the house a moveable one? make sure the predator can't come back and dig a bit more tomorrow .... otherwise, there's not much you can do, you can't talk sense into a chicken, that's for sure!
Do they have a cockerel/rooster with them? I kind of feel like my chickens feel more secure when there's a man about the place!

Lionel
Hey skew,
thanks for your feedback. There is no sign of any digging or anything else. the chooks are kept in a non moveable henhouse which is secured and the run extends metres to each side as well as 3 odd metres front and back. The run is also undamaged and shows no signs of any digging etc. There is no rooster as I live in suburbia & it is illegal for me to have a rooster where I live. It is now almost 5am so it will be light soon, so I will check them out first thing. They didn't seem to want to roost last night, so something weird is happening. I went & checked on them a couple of times during the night and they were quiet, so that is a good sign. I just hope all is back to normal soon as I get stressed when they are stressed.

Mo
Yes, we understand and share that feeling