Ex-lurker here!
I got my first flock of mixed Standards (from the classified ads of the local paper) 20 years ago. Had to leave them behind when I left my ex-husband and moved back into town. Never even thought I'd get back into them until I met Skip, 13 years ago (he used to raise Pheasant and Chukars before we ever met).
When I decided that I wanted to get back into chickens, I finally had a computer and wanted to spend the time learning all that I could about them, without asking a million questions.
I lurked here for 6 months before I finally joined and I haven't regretted one bit of any of it. Our flock will be a year old on May 14th and we've gone from 1 coop to 3 (with #4 in the planning stages).
When we ordered our day-old chicks last year, I swore I would never own an incubator and we ordered Banty Cochins and Silkies so they could do the hatching for us. It "looked good on paper", as the saying goes. Our Cochins and Silky girls began laying last October and within 2 weeks of laying, we had several of the girls go broody...just in time for the cold weather to move in.
Lesson learned: they'll go broody whenever the mood hits, not just in the spring, as I had thought would happen. That's what I got for thinking!
Talked Skip into getting me an incubator for an early Christmas present and the rest, as they say, is history! I'm hooked!
Dawn