What type of chicken to get?

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Your chickens would be safer in a coop at night. There will always be predators around, even in towns/cities and many of them hunt at night. Also a coop would give them shelter when it rains and a cool place to hang out in summer.
 
Personally I'd want a shelter where they can roost during the night with little to no chance of encountering a predator, It needs to be some type of enclosure which will provide ventilation and protection from the elements year round with little chance of encountering cold winter drafts. In the winter months the chickens would no doubt stay inside more and you'd want a large enough shelter 'coop' where the proper food and water can also be stored without creating an over crowding situation.
 
It would be best to have a safe place for them to go at night where they can roost. They like to sleep up off the ground. I would shut them in at night and make sure it is safe from predators that will try to dig in and get them. If you do not give them a place to sleep where they will feel safe they will wander and look for ones themselves and can sometimes make strange choices.

I have a bantum cochin frizzle (which is a cochin who has feathers that stick out in the opposite direction) and a bantum silkie. If you are looking for more of a pet I would get a silkie. They are VERY sweet and silly. But, they are not good egg layers at all.

My cochin is a fairly good layer (but please be aware that any bantum hen will lay the little bantum eggs). She lays everyday when she is not broody. She is broody quite frequently (I would say every 2 months or so) and for that time she will not lay any eggs for a few weeks and just sits in her nest and is grumpy.

Neither of them can fly at all.

I would also recommend putting the nesting boxes in the coop. If the birds do not feel safe in the box you provide them, they will make their own next somewhere that may be hard to get to or unsafe.

I can send you pictures if you want to see what the hens look like or their egg sizes.

As a new chicken mom I would recommend reading about apple cider vinegar and diatomaceous earth.
 
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ChickensRDinos said:
It would be best to have a safe place for them to go at night where they can roost. They like to sleep up off the ground. I would shut them in at night and make sure it is safe from predators that will try to dig in and get them. If you do not give them a place to sleep where they will feel safe they will wander and look for ones themselves and can sometimes make strange choices.

I have a bantum cochin frizzle (which is a cochin who has feathers that stick out in the opposite direction) and a bantum silkie. If you are looking for more of a pet I would get a silkie. They are VERY sweet and silly. But, they are not good egg layers at all.

My cochin is a fairly good layer (but please be aware that any bantum hen will lay the little bantum eggs). She lays everyday when she is not broody. She is broody quite frequently (I would say every 2 months or so) and for that time she will not lay any eggs for a few weeks and just sits in her nest and is grumpy.

Neither of them can fly at all.

I would also recommend putting the nesting boxes in the coop. If the birds do not feel safe in the box you provide them, they will make their own next somewhere that may be hard to get to or unsafe.

I can send you pictures if you want to see what the hens look like or their egg sizes.

As a new chicken mom I would recommend reading about apple cider vinegar and diatomaceous earth.
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Some friendly bantams: Belgian D' Anver, Japanese, Cochin, Silkie, and Barred Rock.
 
I vote for the cochin AND some kind of secure coop.
 
I don't raise chickens so can't offer advice on a breed but
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