my name is sue i am a community midwife in south east london.
i have always loved chickens and now within the last year i have been lucky to start keeping them.my daughter works on a city farm bought home some random eggs to hatch and next thing i knew there was a buff orpinton, a splash orpinton and an indian runner duckling liveing in my house! i kept the splash orpington who was a lushious black bird and the buff and indian runner returned to the farm hand tame and ready for handaling by the school kids that visit the farm.at 5 months splash went to live in the garden in a nice new EGLU owever he turned out to be a cockral and began to crow each am lol. as i am liveing in a urban area i steeled myself to send him back to the farm also.but unfortunatly one morning i went to let him out into the run i found im dead in the hen house.very sad :?( however in those 9 months i have learnt so much about thease wonderfull birds i enjoyed my splash so much. All is not lost however as currently we have 1 nacked neck a strange little thing who is so ugly she/he is lovely a poland and 4 longcrowers! all are abou 4 weeks now and very noisy but growing well. somewher in this mixed bunch is my new girls who will be staying with me whilst the rest return to the farm for the kids to enjoy.
i have joined this forum because obviously i have many questions such as will my chickens be ok out side in the terrible wether we have how can i keep them warm over nite did i do something wrong that may have led to splashes demise?i hope to learn loads from all you knowladegable guys that enables me to sucsessfully keep my lovely chickens.