Hello Tuppence. Spend your time on the coop supplier first. There is some real rubbish on the market. Unsealed wood, lack of ventilation, difficult to clean out, not secure and generally poor quality are all evident in abundance. Consider your chickens relative to the size of your coop, as claimed capacities are generally about half what I would consider acceptable. As to your choice, some bantams are great characters and great layers but our Leghorns are extremely flighty and definately wouldn't make good pets. There are docile large pedigree breeds like Orpingtons which make great pets but they can get very big (10 lbs) and need a large coop and some strains don't lay particularly well. Commercial hybrids are great layers but lack character and look bland, they just want to eat. They are also usually given live viruses for ILT and IB which means they will be contageous to untreated hens if you ever wish to increase your flock. We have chickens still repeating ILT infection when stressed after two years. I agree with chuck. Get your pullets or hens from one flock so they are used to each other already, that means one major problem removed immediately. Based on experience 'point of lay' in hybrids is about 20 weeks and they lay in the 4 weeks following. POL pedigrees are sold at 6 months and they start to lay immediately or up to 3 months later. Hens already laying will be disrupted by the move for about two weeks. Hope this has helped -we still can't decide what to buy for the best after keeping chickens for 4 years now! On balance I would probably go for little fluffy well coloured bantams if they layed well.
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