Just starting out: opinions on best breeds for me?

First of all...

I love my Buff Orpingtons, Black Sex Links and Rhode Island Reds. I have a variety of all kinds though. I'm just now trying the Speckled Sussex. They are 4mos old know and they are sooooooo cute.

I do have NH Reds but I don't like them as much as the RI Reds. What ever you get you'll fall in love and end up with many more than you probably thought you would have. Have fun.

depends on the size you of chicken you want. if you go with bantams they wont get that very big. their eggs can be quite small depending on breed of bantam (i use 2 bantam eggs to = 1 regular egg). the rest are standards and can get to a good size with nice eggs.

egg wise with the bantam assortment you can at least exepct white, creamish, and pink eggs (probley more colors than that).

br will lay a creamish/tanish colored egg

marans should lay a nice brown egg

i'm guessing with the rainbow assorment that those will be ee's laying various colors from white, brown, green, and blue

the rest i am not sure about

meat wise with bantams being so small they wont provide a big carcus, depending on what breed you end up with there might not be much to them. i would go for a large foul breed for meat such as a sexlink or marans both get fairly large.

temp wise, i live in louisiana and the temp last year did so much flutating it was pitiful. i have bantams oegb and d'uccle, my parents have a wind range from a light brahma hen (bantam), some games (bantam and standared and not oe), black copper marans, br, doms, americana's (i think they are ee's), yokohamas, and sumatra's. as long as they have plenty of water and shade to get into they should be fine (all were panting though when the temps did get over 100 to help them cool off). during those hot days you can add ice cubes to the water to help keep them cool.

as far as forging goes i have no clue i let my bantams out and they do great as chickens are all natural forgers (just some are not that smart when a predoter is around). they will need a coop to get into at night so night preditors, such as coons, dont get them. during the day you also need to watch for hawks, dogs, cats, ect.

I would highly recommend starting out with an assortment for your fist time, and then if you come out with a favorite (which can be really hard) you could either sell or butcher your original flock and get more of your favorites.

I agree with what everyone is saying

but the barred rocks you are considering are a fine choice for a dual purpose fowl

I like wyandottes too but that might just be me

If all you wanted was eggs, feed conversion and heat tolerance the leghorns

and California whites would be unbeatable but the carcase is light.

brown leghorns seem to be good at predator avoidance

Plymouth Rocks have always proven practical all round  birds for me

Walt

the 3 best  layers in the list would probably be the,

red sex link

california white (these are all hybrids)

black sex link

the welsummers and cuckoo marans lay "chocolate eggs"

All the others lay good aswell, and are large enough to be used for meat, minus the brown leghorn.

the best foragers would most likely be the welsummers and brown leghorns.

bantams could obviously be used for meat and eggs but, as already stated, they generally produce less eggs that are smaller and there is not much meat on them. But they do have their pros. Bantams eat about 1/4 pound of feed in a week versus 3-4 pounds for the other breeds. They also need MUCH less space and are usually great foragers and mothers.