Some of the best advice i can give you, from my 5+ years in poultry/Waterfowl. IS look around, call people , if you can find any local poultry club meetings, meet breeders, if they will let you go see there set up. Don't say you will buy something untill you see, and are able to hold it in your hands. You may have one of the best silver laced wyandotte shape wise, but it needs to be the right wight. Travel that long distance to go to shows. Last year i taveled (mom was driving) 3+ hours one way to go to a show & to pick up some ducks. Often the best breeders i have found were the least known.
there is one thing that i have found out , That the Breeder may not have any birds for "sale" but i have found if you email/call the breeder , knowing what you want and politly asking if he/she will have any for sale, he/she may not but would be willing to point you to some one that does.
Also,
I am farly young (14 almost 15) but like i said i have been rasing poultry for 5+ years. And every year more and more contact with breeders, has tought me much more then the year before. Most people when they first meet me are surpised how much i know. I do not know half as much as say city chicks ( i think thats her username) butam all ways willing to learn. I am setting up a big program of blue/Black/Splash Australorps, i have my breeders growing out right now. I must have close to 30 breeders of B/B/S Australorps from 3 differnet lines, and would like to get a forth line of blacks. Now out of those 30 i think i will keep 2 roosters, and between 5-13 hens for breeding. The rest of the roos will get to got to the freezer, and hens will go to laying. I hope to be able to provide some of the chicken that our famly eats over the next few years. i rember some one saying "in order to presevre it we have to eat it" or something along those lines. I turly belive this.
Also, if you have extra roos that you can't sell, you can all ways put it in the freezer