First, you do know that hormones *aren't* used in the production of commercial chickens, yes?
Anyhow regarding breed selection:
In your area (I lived in Durham for 6 yrs a while ago) pretty much anything would be ok, although if you do not have lots of good summer shade then there might be some wisdom in staying away from the VERY large and thickly-feathered breeds.
The main difference between breeds, in terms of the eggs they produce, is how much you have to feed them to get an egg (or, another way to look at it, how many chickens you have to keep in order to average X eggs per day). Some breeds (some strains of 'em anyhow) are definitely better layers than others. Have you considered various colors of rocks, esp. barred rocks? (which it's pretty easy to find a good-laying strain of, and they are quite often good calm chickens). Another thing to consider would be speckled sussexes.
Honestly, I do not think it is useful to try to generalize about a whole breed, which contains SO much variation. What matters is the typical temperament etc of the particular lines you would have access to. If you could buy from a breeder in your area, that would in many ways be best, as you could have some idea beforehand of the laying ability and personality of the birds you'd get. If you were planning on going the mail-order catalog route, be aware that the great majority of what hatcheries sell are not particularly representative of their breed or the standard thereof, and will not help with the preservation of a breed.
I think my best suggestion is this: narrow things down to a few "top candidate" breeds, and then get at least 5 of each (at the SAME TIME, so you do not have different ages to deal with! A zillion different-age pens, and the resulting introductions and flock upsets when each group reaches full size, is WAY too much aggravation to deal with your first time!!). Keep them for a year, see how you like them and how you like chickenkeeping. Then next year you will know pretty well what direction you want to go in -- whether you want to get more of one of those breeds, or try something else entirely, or what.
Good luck, have fun,
Pat
Anyhow regarding breed selection:
In your area (I lived in Durham for 6 yrs a while ago) pretty much anything would be ok, although if you do not have lots of good summer shade then there might be some wisdom in staying away from the VERY large and thickly-feathered breeds.
The main difference between breeds, in terms of the eggs they produce, is how much you have to feed them to get an egg (or, another way to look at it, how many chickens you have to keep in order to average X eggs per day). Some breeds (some strains of 'em anyhow) are definitely better layers than others. Have you considered various colors of rocks, esp. barred rocks? (which it's pretty easy to find a good-laying strain of, and they are quite often good calm chickens). Another thing to consider would be speckled sussexes.
Honestly, I do not think it is useful to try to generalize about a whole breed, which contains SO much variation. What matters is the typical temperament etc of the particular lines you would have access to. If you could buy from a breeder in your area, that would in many ways be best, as you could have some idea beforehand of the laying ability and personality of the birds you'd get. If you were planning on going the mail-order catalog route, be aware that the great majority of what hatcheries sell are not particularly representative of their breed or the standard thereof, and will not help with the preservation of a breed.
I think my best suggestion is this: narrow things down to a few "top candidate" breeds, and then get at least 5 of each (at the SAME TIME, so you do not have different ages to deal with! A zillion different-age pens, and the resulting introductions and flock upsets when each group reaches full size, is WAY too much aggravation to deal with your first time!!). Keep them for a year, see how you like them and how you like chickenkeeping. Then next year you will know pretty well what direction you want to go in -- whether you want to get more of one of those breeds, or try something else entirely, or what.
Good luck, have fun,
Pat
