Awesome, I didn't know there was a backyard chicken thread here already...I posted a couple of things on the Pet thread. I've had chickens for 2.5 years. Love them, but it's a tough gig as we've lost 4 of our 11 over the last year: 1 to a red tailed hawk, one to ovarian cancer, one to an internally ruptured yolk, and one to my neighbors cocker spaniel. We've just clipped the birds wings to keep them in our fenced yard because our neighbors are assholes and won't fence their dog (it's attacked our chickens three times and killed one).
We've got an austalorpe, an Easter egger, a silver laced Wyandotte, a barred rock, two buff Orpingtons and one bantam. The Barred Rock and the Aussie are the best layers, the Easter egger is the friendliest.
Anyway...chicken keeping is awesome. So glad I got into this.