Velvet Sparrow gives excellent advice. It's best to just start off with a few. Before I made the plunge, I bought a chicken book that had a ton of info on various chicken breeds and went from there. I chose from those listed as "docile" and "good for beginners", plus I wanted ones who laid a brown or tinted egg, and was fairly prolific. I wasn't interested in Bantams, nor Polish-type show breeds. Therefore, please bear this in mind when you read my advice. Although I've gone more "commercial" and the majority of my hens are hybrid layers.I still have a variety of "heritage" or dual-purpose chickens. I think that the best of these is the Barred Rock. The females lay a good quantity of light brown eggs, and the males make really excellent eating. Very, very tasty. I've only had 3 Buff Orpingtons (one was killed by my dog), so now I have two, and I just love their looks and their personality. My Easter Eggers (Ameracaunas) have been the only "fragile" breed I've had. Of a total of six - one was euthanized for crop impaction before she came into lay, and another died without explanation - and she was the one who laid beautiful blue eggs, and was really, really sweet. One other lays only white eggs extremely rarely....(grrrrh!), and another is so low in the pecking order that she frequently has a bald back. My Marans are nice birds, even the Roosters (although I've read differently - mine have been nice). The hens don't lay well (except for the spring of the first season. HOWEVER, my Maran-Ameracauna hybrids lay REALLY well - an olive-green egg. I really like my Welsummers. To me, they just have a very pleasing look (and the roosters were the Kellogg's rooster!). At the moment, they're young, they lay a smaller, but nicely colored brick-red egg. They are very curious and have a very sweet disposition (even the roosters). I'd also like to try Barnevelders - the double-laced variety - just beautiful. I've heard that a typical novice error is to buy too many different types of chickens. However, I just don't agree with that. It's MUCH cheaper to buy eggs and chickens from the store. Depending on how your raise your chickens, it's usually much more humane to raise your own chicken and eggs. Therefore, given that you'll be paying more, my stance is that you may as well raise different colored eggs, and chickens that please you visually! It's a lot of work - why not enjoy it! Although I'm raising eggs commercially now from several different breeds - I still get untold pleasure by looking down on eggs ranging from blue - green - olive green - pink, light brown - brick red - dark brown - speckled brown. Plus, since my restaurants are buying "farm fresh eggs" it's kind of a good way of making sure I'm different from the competition! Have fun!

I don't care for cast iron. I use the stainless steel fryer my mother bought at a home party when I was about 4 years old (that means that the pan is about 56 years old). I love chicken any which way, but I'm in heaven when it's fried. I use vegetable shortening. My go to recipe is a combination of two recipes from "Cooking With the Chicken Man", by Leonard Thomas. In my opinion, his "method" was a game changer for me. Spicy Buttermilk Fried Chicken: 1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into serving pieces 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp onion powder 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup Old Bay Seasoning 1 tsp. cayenne 2 cups vegetable shortening Wash the chicken and pat it dry. In a bag or bowl, combine the chicken, buttermilk, salt and pepper. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour. In a large paper or plastic bag, mix the onion powder, garlic powder, flour, Old Bay Seasoning and cayenne. Put a few pieces of chicken in the bag and shake to coat. Repeat with the remaining chicken. Shake off any excess flour. Place the chicken on a baking rack until time to cook. In a 12-inch skillet, heat 1/2 inch shortening to 350 degrees. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cover. After 5 minutes, uncover; the pan should remain uncovered for the remaining time. After 5 more minutes, turn all the pieces over. Continue cooking about 10 minutes, or until well browned and crisp and the juices run clear. Remove the chicken to paper towels. Let sit for 5 minutes and serve.

I really don't blame the franchisee for not accepting them during their busiest times, they have to make a buck and it's hard to tell how (or if) KFC corporate is repaying them for the meals they are giving away. And even if they are reimbusrsing them for the actual food the franchise owner is paying his employees for taking care of those customers. They make their money during the peak dining hours and have to wait on the paying customers. Makes sense to me. Often the marketing departments come up with these wonderful ideas and the poor franchisees have no option but to honor them with little advance notice.

Thanks again happyjacq - you are very special. Which is obviously why you got your very own fairy tale with your very own Prince Charming - or is that Knight in Shining Armour? lol. How many chickens do you have? What sorts? I don't know what ours are - 2 yellow chicks and 2 black chicks from the hatching at school - very technical! And the way my luck is going - they'll all be roosters. But we are committed now - we've built the bestest chook tractor ever (cost me less than $20 from Bunnings - got lots of roofing iron, timber etc from the scrap heap in the building site across the road - so I'm very pleased with myself). So if they all end up being roosters, I'll go buy a few silkies, or pretty bantams, to look beautiful in my backyard! Do poodles really make good chook wranglers? That must be funny to watch. Our babies have been in their chook tractor for a week now, and the last 3 days we have let them out in the afternoon. The first 2 days they stayed right next to their house, and put themselves back in after about 10 minutes (so we rushed and put their evening chook crumble in, and went "chookchookchook" - pretending we were teaching them the routine lol). Then last night when they were out, we moved their chook tractor from one end of the yard to the other. They didn't realise at first - my youngest son (4yo) was still with them - but when he started walking across the yard to get to us (about 25m) they just RAN after him - it looked so funny - Pied Piper of Chickens. Then they got sidetracked by a very nice daisy growing about 1m from their front door, and we were starting to get worried we would never get them all back inside. And even though they are just 5 weeks - they can get themselves to the top of the trampoline, so I was worried if we had to chase any, they might even make it over our 1.5m high timber fences. They are still growing their feathers (moth eaten straggly things they look at the moment lol)- seems a bit mean to cut them off one wing already!