Hello from North Yorkshire, England

Good evening/morning/afternoon - or whatever time of day it is where you are.

I've been keeping a small flock of pet chickens for just over a year. When I started, I had no idea how much time I'd spend laughing! They don't tell you that in the "How to look after chickens" books, do they.

I have Maggie, a Blue Orpington bantam who is brooding a clutch of eggs at the moment, Tu-Tu a Lavendar Pekin bantam who is helping her. Then there are two Araucana bantams (Rebecca and Punk); Fizz is a crested Poland frizzle bantam cockerel and Pom-Pom is also a crested Poland bantam, but smooth feathered - both lovely shades of honey brown & black. Our big girls are Irene, a Light Sussex and Titian who is a Rhode Island Red. In addition, there used to be Princess Fluff, a lovely white Orpington bantam - but she died after being trampled over by the rest of the flock in their rush to leave the coop one morning (we suspect internal injuries). In January this year we lost Queen B, a lovely silver Sebright who was in charge of everyone, including us. We've no idea what she died of, but we miss her terribly.

I found this forum by accident, but it looks such a friendly place to be, I thought I'd join.

Looking forward to making some poultry-mad friends from around the world. I've got a blog at www.muckycluckers.blogspot.com/ if you'd like to keep up with what my crazy bunch of chickens get up to.

Best wishes to you all.