Bantams going beserk and seem afraid of their house! We're at our wits end!

Sorry this goes on a bit, but I wanted to give as much info as possible and we're desperate!

We've four Pekin bantams, about three motnhs old now, which we keep in a combined house/run and they've been fine until last Friday, when we came home and found them huddled in the front of their house/run.
We let them out (as we do two or three times a day usually), and they free-ranged around the garden for a while. We would normally then entice them back into their run without much of a problem.
Except this time, it was as if there was a force field around it! They just wouldn't go near the house. We eventually (after about half an hour!) managed to get them in but they seemed very distressed at the prospect and wouldn't go to the back of it. 
They went up to bed OK, but ever since they will not go near the back of the house, simply huddling as far away from it as possible and each day have become more and more skittish.
Today, they're even worse - huddling at the far end of the run, not taking any food or water, and going what can best be described as "mental" if we try to do anything like give them some water or moving something up against the run to give them shade.

We daren't let them out, as we know we simply won't get them in again, but I can't help feeling this is adding to their distress. It's a decent sized run but we've let them free rage from time to time ever since they were babies.

What could have caused such a sudden change in them? I'm assuming they've been frightened , although there's no sign of any physicall attack (to either the chucks or the house!). We do get problems with crows which have frightened them in the past, but they've never reacted like this. It's as if there's some invisible monster lurking in the house and they're permanently petrified.

We really don't know what to do and if this goes on any longer I think we'll lose them. Any help would be very gratefully received!

Chris

Have you checked for red mites, it might sound strange but if they've been alright in the past you might find that this could be the problem.

Hopefully its not the case but give the house a good looking over, all the perches, nestboxes and anywhere they could hide. Best time is when its dark with a torch as thats when they come out to feed on your birds. They may not look red but if you squash them you will see its them quite easy.

I hope I'm wrong but best to be on the safe side as they can kill young birds pretty quickly:)

Thanks for the replies.

I did check for red mites, but I'll check again (more closely!).
The set up is a combined house/run, with the house raised off the ground (see attached, although there's now an "extension" run to the side as well).
The strange thing is, they'll go up the ramp and through the pop-hole into the house without a problem (once they're in the run). It seems to be the bit under the house they're petrified of.

Chris

Does anyone have a pic of what a red mite looks like ??

Does anyone have a pic of what a red mite looks like ??

Nice pic on this thread, if they do have mite be careful with your biosafety you don't want them too lol

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=39563.0%3Btopicseen

Gold label Get rid powder works brilliantly on mite and everything else that crawls.
You can find it on ebay or probably at melton cattle market, horsey type shop.

And paint the inside with paraffin, allow it to dry and let the girls back in

we had this problem with our ducks, turns out there was a mouse that coming and going as he pleased..... soon got rid of the mouse and thoroughly leaned the house and no problem!

Aw blesss.....If you could move their entire coop and run into a cosy, sheltered area too, they might not feel so exposed. I strongly suggest you take out the food at night, as it will tempt all kinds of wildlife to sneak in for supper, and if they cant get in, the noise of a rat/mouse trying to would scare them too.