I would hop on down to the library and/or
Amazon and read up on some books first so you know what you need and will be prepared with everything from what breeds you want, how to care for chooks, and the whole sha-bang! There are good sources online too, but there was also a decent amount of wrong info online as well (so take some of the online info with a grain of salt depending).
A couple of good books I liked best out of the many, many books I read were: "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" by Gail Damerow, and "The Small-Scale Poultry Flock- An All Natural Approach to Raising Chickens & Other Fowl for Home & Market Growers" by Harvey Ussery.
The books and perusing online should get you up to par with all the basics.
I figured that I would just give you a couple of random tips that I myself have kind of found out with experience that I think are helpful and not necessarily in the books as much/ unique lessons:
1.)It feels like FOREVER waiting the requisite 4 1/2 to 7 months from getting a newly hatched chick till they are old enough to lay. Sometimes a chicken that is supposed to lay well won't. We had an EE that laid for two weeks, then stopped and gradually turned into a rooster (an infertile rooster of course, it is a weird condition that happens if one ovary gets damaged). Our other EE took 7 1/2 months to lay her first egg, and I never knew how delayed laying can be in some breeds till then. Our first to lay (gold sex link) laid eggs at 17 weeks. Chickens only lay at their prime for 2 yrs- ish then have a decrease in productivity usually. Will you cull them at that age, or pay for them as pets? I personally cull and make soup.
2.) Spend lots of time giving treats, handling, and playing with your baby chicks if you want to have more friendly/pet-like chickens. Get them as young as possible or even hatch them if you want them tame & trained best. Spend a lot of time with them the first 3-7 days after hatching especially to get them hooked on their humans (well to have the best odds for this happening at least!).
3.) Chickens all have their own unique personalities, and while you can train them to an extent, they will always have their underlying unique demeanor. If there is a MEAN chicken in the flock picking on the rest of the flock or if there is a SKITTISH chicken terrified to know that humans exist and feed, care for them, etc....GET RID OF THE ROTTEN APPLE! One bad apple spoils the whole batch is true! Your friendliest chicken will be less friendly is there is a skittish, human hating chook in the flock. Once the skittish chicken is gone, the whole flock will suddenly be much more friendly! If a mean chicken is torturing the rest of the flock to no avail, they have to go somewhere else because if I was a chicken and stuck living in a certain coop I wouldn't want to be forced to live with a chicken that beats me up and/or rapes me everyday. Think of the greater good in other words!
4.) Unless you get a sex-linked breed of chicken you always stand about a 10% chance that you will have a rooster even if you bought sexed pullets. The sexers do their best at the hatcheries, but it is hard to tell 1000% for sure. Be prepared with what you will do if you end up with a roo. The general rule is only 1 roo per roughly 8-12 females, and cities usually don't allow roos....so you do the math in your mind about how many roos end up being dinner or need to be culled. Just keep this in mind as many folks are all traumatized when their sweet chicky girl fluff turns into a horny, evil, boy rooster that can only be rehomed if given away for free on craigslist and there were no takers any other way.
Good luck! It sure is fun having chickens!
