Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. For sheer egg production, White Leghorns are the best layers, under ideal conditions (good lighting and warm temperatures). A caged White Leghorn set the world laying record in 1979 with 371 eggs in 365 days. However, Leghorns are very high strung and flighty, and in areas with very cold winters, Black and Red Sex Links, which are the best brown egg layers in the world, will outlay them. Sex Links are laying machines, consistently churning out over 300 eggs per hen per year. I have had both varieties of sex links and actually prefer the Black Sex Links to the Red Sex Links as my Blacks have been friendlier and have slightly outlayed my Reds in really cold weather. If you prefer a standard breed (sex links are hybrids and will not breed true), then Black Australorps are the direction to go. They are very hardy, calm and gentle, and the best standard, brown egg laying breed. Until it was broken by the White Leghorn hen in 1979, they world laying record was held by a Black Australorp with 364 eggs in 365 days, and while my BAs have never reached that kind of production (and likely never will), I have had a few of them lay over 300 eggs in a year. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Whatever kind of chickens you get, good luck with your flock.
and Welcome To BYC! X2 if you are looking strictly at egg numbers the Red Sex Links and White Leghorns are the two tops, here are some nice chicken breed comparison charts you might like http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html and http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf when you have narrowed down your choices, don't forget to check the BYC Reviews section for member reviews on the different breeds. https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/category/chicken-breeds and https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread and check out your state thread for what breeds people in your area are having success with
