Welcome to BYC. saw you over on the virigina thread. 
personally, i'd say look at ALL the breeds. most hens are pretty quiet as a rule, but some do have pretty vocal egg songs. that's more of an individual thing not a breed thing tho IMO...
find breeds that you like to look at. after all, you'll be seeing a LOT of these birds. so even if it's the best layer in the world, if you think they're ugly then there's no sense keeping them. just my 2 cents.
personally i'm not overly fond of the black and white barring, so barred rocks and dominiques wouldn't be on my list (tho i did have a wonderful dominique hen years ago who was an angel!). I do love the 'traditional' looking breeds, like black breasted red, or silver duckwing - ok i have silver grey and red dorkings... so yeah i like the color patterns. the hens look drastically different from the roos tho, which is part of the appeal to me.
there are colors and shapes and patterns galore to choose from. some lay better than others, or are flightier, more prone to broodiness, etc. there are enough breeds out there to suit nearly everyone's personal choices...
I had a discussion today with someone at the swap, who just loves naked-necks and showgirl silkies, but thinks dorkings are "hideously awkward". in turn i shared that IMO, naked-necks are... well, fugly. it's all personal opinion. i love my mellow laid back 'low riders' and wouldn't trade them for the world. except maybe for a cute fluffbutt bantam cochin here and there. 
but then again, i have 26 acres and only a hubby to keep me slightly in check... tho he did mention something about "the big D" if i get too much more out of whack.
my flock consists of primarily dorking and bantam cochin...
in the 'mature' category, I have 12 silver grey dorkings (2 roos 10 hens), 2 easter egger hens (blue eggs), and 6 bantam cochins (pair of white w/frizzled hen, trio of black/self blue, and a calico roo) and the 'oddballs' a crele old english game bantam (oegb) roo , a silver duckwing oegb hen, and a bantam rhode island red. in the 'teen' category, i have (all pullets) 4 EE, 3 cochin (white, black, birchen), a black frizzle cochin, and a red dorking. then the 'baby' category is where things go nuts... i've got 23 colored dorking, 15 red dorking, 3 silver grey dorking, and 3 cochins (white, buff, mille fleur). then i've also got eggs. oh do i ever have eggs... and more on the way. hm. 14 silver grey and colored due the 24th, 20 sg and colored due the 29th, 4 from my white cochin pair just set 2 days ago, and in the mail i got today, 11 guineas (that was an oops, don't like guineas in particular, but i'll hatch anything 
), 5 columbian wyandotte, 12 barred rock, and 24 bantam cochin eggs that should ship out monday to me... there's some black copper marans also on the way sometime soon, but the breeder has the flu. so they can wait a bit.
the guineas, rocks, wyandottes and marans will all be for sale as soon as they hatch. but i wanted to have some chicks to take to the local poultry swaps. these breeds are pretty popular but not too common around here. (well, except the rocks, the're everywhere.)
Edited by ki4got - 4/21/12 at 1:40pm
Karen - k.i.forgot (it's a ham thing...)
Welcome to the Zoo! 2 Morgans, 2 Minis, 1 Standard Poodle, 3 cats, 3 pet birds and the chickens.
Dorkings and bantam Cochins mostly, with a few others here and there.
And of course, my wonderful Hubby, who puts up with me and keeps me in check when I start to get crazy.
Karen - k.i.forgot (it's a ham thing...)
Welcome to the Zoo! 2 Morgans, 2 Minis, 1 Standard Poodle, 3 cats, 3 pet birds and the chickens.
Dorkings and bantam Cochins mostly, with a few others here and there.
And of course, my wonderful Hubby, who puts up with me and keeps me in check when I start to get crazy.
