Newbie - lots of questions!

Hello Louby

Cant help you with the Bantams i'm afraid

I can recommend a couple of books for you that are aimed at people starting out

Starting With Chickens by Katie Thear
Choosing and Keeping Chickens by Chris Graham

If you are already thinking that you may add chickens then I would say you might be better getting more than four to start with as it can be a bit of a pain to add them later to be honest. Cuprinol garden shades has a wide colour range (including green and cream i think) and is safe to use. If you buy a coop early it should be fine, you just need to disinfect it thoroughly before you move your hens in.
Hope this helps

I believe Haynes do a good manual on chicken keeping. 

The Sabelpoots (booted bantams) are lovely but lay very small eggs.  I love mine and you will find an enthusiastic sabelpoot fan club in this forum.  I don't know about seramas but would be interested to hear from anyone who has or is currently keeping them.

Good luck and have fun choosing your chooks.  Don't forget that pics of your hans (when you get them) are a statutory requirement of this forum. 

Thankyou all so much for your help.

I've been to the library this afternoon and have borrowed all the chicken books that they had so that I can have a browse through and buy copies of any that I like.

So...I need to get more to begin with do I...well, if thats what needs to be done who am I to argue?

I didn't realise that Sabelpoots laid really small eggs (I knew they were smaller than usual). Can I mix in a couple of normal egg layers with the bantams or will they just beat up all the little ones? 

If I can mix them, which 'normal' size egg laying hens are the friendliest?  I would like pure if possible.

Thankyou again
Don't worry Bantam Novice, photos will be filling the pages at all stages of the project

Louby, both Sabelpoots and Serama are true bantams, so their eggs are very small.

My poots lay on average a 30g egg which is very large in proportion to their body size.  I believe serama eggs can be even smaller, in the region of 20-25g.  Most people keep serama and poots for their prettiness and for show rather than for egg production.

One other thing to keep in mind... Sabelpoots should really have something soft to walk on.  most are best kept under cover all year round to protect their foot feathers.  Mine rough it, and are in the main pen with all of my other breeds (including a couple of very large brahmas!) but their foot feathers are rubbed away to almost nothing.

Also, as serama as so small, many breeders actually keep them inside (heated greenhouse or similar) during the winter so that they don't suffer (their low body mass makes it more difficult to cope with very cold temperatures than "normal sized" hens.

Another thing to keep in mind, especially with Serama and Sabelpoots, is to read up on the breed standard.  It costs as much to keep well bred birds as it does to keep poor quality birds, so you are better off getting very nice examples.  Both Serama and Sabelpoots are increasing in popularity over the past couple of years, and there are more and more people breding like mad to make a profit, but not focusing on quality or standard, and consequently it can be quite difficult to find good examples of both breeds.

I'm not sure where you are, but both the National and Federation shows are looming in the not too distant future.  If you pay a visit you will be able to see good examples of the birds, and talk to the breeders