Just wanted to forewarn you that your good breeder may not be the breeder you think she is. Red Stars are a specific commercial strain of black sex link hybrid that is, I believe, copyrighted. There are no private breeders of any of the commercial sex-link strains that I am aware of as the parent stock tends to be a closely guarded "trade secret." And none of the sex-link hybrids breed true, meaning a Red Star rooster + a Red Star hen does not produce Red Star chicks. If she is advertising Red Stars I would strongly suspect that she is either using misleading or inaccurate names for her birds (which may or may not be technically illegal) or that she is simply re-selling chicks she purchased en masse from a hatchery. Or she may be a reputable breeder who also happens to sell hatchery birds on the side, I don't know. But at any rate, I'd be at least a little suspicious that any "ameraucanas" she sells you are actually easter eggers. Not that there's anything wrong with EE, mine is my favorite bird in my small mixed flock, but it's always good to know exactly what you are buying.
As for egg laying abilities, that depends a lot on the strain and a little bit on the age, health, and diet of the individual bird. Some strains lay better than others. My hatchery EE lays 5-7 green eggs a week even in her second year of laying. My 1 year old ameraucana lays slightly less at about 4-6 eggs per week, or at least she did before she went broody on me a month ago. Egg laying abilities is something that you should ask the breeder about if it is a priority for you. Any breeder, even one who does not breed their birds to the standard, should be able to tell you what kind of egg production the parents of the chicks or birds they bred have.
As for which I would recommend, I have no experience with RIR or stars. However, if you are looking for a bird of a slighter build, then an ameraucana, easter egger, or red star would probably be a better choice than RIR. If egg production is really important to you, it's hard to beat the commercial sex-links like Red Stars for rate of lay in the first 2-3 years. However, after that their egg production will drop significantly and because they are bred to be egg machines they do tend to be somewhat more prone to reproductive problems such as egg binding, internal laying, egg yolk peritonitis, and cancers of the reproductive tract. If you are just looking for chickens as producers and intend to cull your flock every few years as the hens' production starts to decrease then these issues may not be a problem for you. If however you are looking at chickens as pets who also happen to produce yummy eggs, then this reduced long-term productivity and increased risk of potentially fatal reproductive problems is going to be an issue in the long run.
