Hi Malcom. Welcome to BYC. I'm in Central Maine. When you say "sustainable", do you mean that you want to be independent of having to buy replacement chicks? That's my definition. Or, do you mean semi-sustainable? Raise a few, bring in new blood now and then... or raise a new batch to replace the old when production drops? There's no right or wrong way to do it. Luckily there are enough chicken breeds and methods of flock maintenance to satisfy the many needs of us opinionated chicken keepers! If you want to be independent of buying replacement birds, you'll probably want to raise a good dual purpose bird that will provide eggs, and a decent sized meal when she's done laying. You'll need a hen that will brood chicks for you, or you'll need an incubator. You'll need a good rooster: one that takes care of his flock, and does not abuse his hens. He will be people friendly, or you'll invite him to dinner. Mean roosters should not be allowed to play in the gene pool. You can choose a single breed, or do a flock made up of multiple breeds. Now, my recommendation for northern Maine is: a pea or rose combed bird. They are not as prone to frost bite. Will you keep your flock in a secure run and coop at all times, or will you allow limited or unlimited free range time? Answers to all of these questions will weigh heavily on what breed(s) you choose. Check out Henderson's chicken breeds chart for a partial listing of the options. If you want to go the route of having a laying flock, and supplementing with meat birds, there are lots of options there as well. There's the famous Cornish x Rock which is an eating machine, will grow to butchering size in about 8 weeks. Then there are the free range friendly birds that achieve butchering size in 10 - 12 weeks, but they're better adapted to gleaning at least some of their sustenance from the land. Freedom Ranger, Dixie Ranger, Pioneer are some of the trade names you'll see for these birds.
Enjoy the process. Making all of the decisions is a great part of the fun! No matter what you choose to do, realize that there's always room to change direction down the road. Just be sure you build a coop and run big enough!
What not to do: Build a coop only large enough for your immediate anticipated need. Get your chicks before you have housing for them. Get birds from multiple sources at multiple times. You'll invite disease into your flock if you do. It's also hard to add new birds to an existing flock because of the pecking order wars that will erupt.
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