tororider,
I wish you had known too! I'm looking for anything that is relatively calm and quiet (yes I know they're really not all that quiet overall) and lay well for a suburban backyard. Buff orpington, isa brown, australorp, wyandotte, those have been recommended to me but I'm open to suggestion too. These will be my first chickens, my husband had them as a child though. The problem is that we may be going away in mid-August, so I want them to old enough to be easier to care for by then (for the bird sitter). I think new chicks in a month will be too young.