Quote:That all depends on what you are looking for as far as meat vs egg vs dual purpose; whether you want hatchery stock or standard bred stock, bantam or large fowl.
If you don't have any chicken experience, you might want to get just a few from the feed store/hatchery to hone your chicken husbandry skills. That will give you time to get accustomed to the fact that chickens die for seemingly no reason no matter what you do - without you having spent the extra money on getting standard bred birds from a breeder. It will also give you time to see what you like and don't like about the kind of chicken you got.
Hatchery/feed store birds are generally going to have a shorter utility lifespan in that they will lay pretty much every day but they will generally run out of eggs in a couple of years, versus a true "heritage" standard-bred bird from a breeder that doesn't always lay every day and thus has more productive egg laying years.
Temperament of the chickens can also go by breed but even more so by BREEDING - meaning selective breeding for friendliness, even temper, flock leader traits people associate with cocks (aka roosters), will often be better from getting good standard-bred stock from a breeder. But there are hatchery stock birds that can be friendly as well.
It's kinda hard to tell you which direction to go in without knowing what your short term and long term goals are for your flock. But if you just want some birds for eggs, a little bit of bug killing, some manure for gardening, and fun - just about any hatchery/feed store bird will fit the bill in which case I'd say just get some that "look pretty" to you.
