Thanks Tony, we friends again? Good!
Well no one is perfect. I know I am far from it, but I have always tried to learn from the professionals. Especially where the poultry is concerned.
I found the people at Hendrix Genetics really helpful. they are now one of the biggest owners of the parent stocks of hybrids in the world. They are based in the Netherlands, but their website is full of info if you have the time to look through it. They own the parent stock of all the ISA, Bovans, Warrens, De kalbs, hi-sex and more hybrid laying hens. I think they are into meat birds and pigs as well now.
Once I emailed them a question I had when I was worried about the smothering issue, and I got a lovely email back from one of the Mr Hendrix's himself. We used to get all our day old chicks from one of their hatcheries, and it even got so if the hatchery had leftover chicks, rather than gas them all, they would phone up and ask if we had room to take some! lol
Unfortunately not everyone is like that. They get a little bit of info from goodness knows where, and they suddenly become experts, and spread nonsense all over the internet, which confuses people. But there are a lot of people on this forum who have been keeping poultry for many many years. I've only been keeping them on and off for 16 years, but its only since 2007 when we started raising them from day old, then the year after got the incubator and suddenly everyone wanted laying hens!
All I can say is, like you are doing now, troll around the internet and books, don't just think everyone with a book or website knows what he's doing! Good luck with your chooks!