I think a good book is an excellent starting point for someone who is a complete beginner. It teaches the basics then from there, once you get your birds, any problems can be aired on a group such as this. If you are a total newbie you need the most basic info such as housing, space, what hens to buy at what age, feeding, health, how to handle a chicken and so on and these beginners books are good at that. Once you have your own hens you move on and develop your own ideas.
I started with Katie Thear (plus I grew up on a turkey farm so wasn't a total newbie) but have always felt the need for something in more depth, but just about anything you want to know will be aired at some point in Country Smallholding, which has a big poultry section (too big

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Another idea is to visit other people who keep poultry and see what you like and what you don't about the way they do things.