Chicken love (or lack thereof), broodiness, and lead safety in eggs

I am back in charge of the neighbors' chickens, and just when I start to think it's getting easier, something gets tricky...

• Easier: Portland is in the grips of a mass cult-like chicken love movement, as covered by our local newspaper.
• Harder: Not everyone in Portland loves the chickens so much. From this article, I learned we are not following local rules to a T, and hope angry health inspectors don't come knocking on our doors. This stresses me out a bit.
• Easier: The chickens pretty much free-range all day, and then naturally roost or put themselves to bed each night. If only my children were so easy!
• Harder: There have been some daylight coyote sightings in our neighborhood, and one neighbor lost two hens to a coyote a few weeks ago. More stress.
• Easier: Their needs are quite simple -- fresh water and food, clean bedding, and remove eggs often so they keep laying.
• Harder: We've been disposing of the eggs for the last month while our neighbors had their exterior house paint professionally stripped and sanded. They did it in the most ecologically safe (and probably the most expensive!) way possible. The eggs have been tested twice for lead at a local lab, and have come out with no lead detected both times. Regardless, we all agreed to dispose of the eggs in that timeframe so that none of us (especially our children) would ingest any lead from the old house paint. This whole lead precaution was eye-opening for me. It's something I never would have thought of. And while I was pleased that these chickens, who sometimes scratch and forage in our yard, did not have any interest in eating paint chips that were scraped in our recent house painting job, I had not though about the sanding part and how that would fall to the soil. I had never had our soil tested for lead before starting our fruit and veggie garden, but am thankful that our most sunny spots are probably in safer places -- far away from the walls of our house.
• Easier: I know all the chickens by name and personality. I am no longer afraid of them. I have a better understanding of their funny behaviors.
• Harder: Then one hen goes and stumps me, and gets all broody! I did not know that term before this week. I feared she was sick. Broodiness is the chicken equivalent of the ticking biological clock. This girl wants babies! And we keep taking her eggs! Every time I check, she is in the laying box and she fluffs up her feathers. I hope she is eating enough and drinking enough water. One of the chicken owner neighbors will come home this weekend, so she can help decide if this is just broodiness or if this hen might be sick.

I know from past posts about chickens that a number of our readers and neighbors have become chicken owners this past spring. How are your chickies doing?