never knew there were so many breeds. I thought about just going to the local TSC ,or Co-op (farm store) to purchase the hens. Don't know what breeds they sell. I only know they sell chickens.
I have a friend that has Rhode Island red chickens. I get brown eggs from him at times
To answer your questions from earlier, that's what I did was buy plastic containers from Walmart, you want around a 12x12 inch box, mine ended up being 11x14in boxes due to the plastic totes but the hens used them just fine.
I originally didn't have the mini ladder but I was getting a crazy amount of eggs on the ground and little in the boxes so I built a mini ladder which solved that prob, it was about a 3ft hop which they weren't a fan of making.
That platform I built my boxes on was already in that room, it was a shelf higher up so I moved it lower, in order for it to work it had to be above the block, that's the only reason my boxes are that high, you can have them almost on the ground if you want, only downside to that is the varmints like skunks that suck eggs down low, I have not purposely pushed a few out of my coop late at night lol.
Yes a hen will lay just fine without a rooster and if you have a low hen to rooster ratio the rooster will literally screw the feathers off there backs, normally you want around 20 hens to 1 rooster, no less than 10:1 unless free ranged.
As far as chickens go it's cheaper to buy them at Rural King if you have any near you, I buy all my stuff from RK, they have the best prices on Chick Starter and chicken supplies. I have ordered over 30 chicks from murray mcmurray hatchery out of Iowa I believe, chicks are more expensive but they have a large variety of breeds, I had about 6 of there chicks die on me from something I did, I told them that when I asked about it, I said I have them gutter water and lost 6 chicks in under 24h and was curious if it was just mine or they had other reports of a bad batch of birds, they said we have gotten no reports but will refund your money for all 6 chicks, I never even asked for a refund, I just wanted info and they only warrant the chicks for 24 or 48 hours, it was like 5 days at this point lol, I was shocked they offered to refund so quickly.
Anyway I have had americana/ araucana (Easter Eggers), australorps, Turkins (Transylvanian naked neck's), ISA Browns (Rhode Island red/Rhode Island white cross), Leg horns and Amberlinks.
The best production layers are the crosses like EE's, ISA Browns ext, best full bred layers are Rhode Island Reds (brown egg) and leghorn (white egg)
If you want a blue layer stick with EE's, McMurray has True Blue Whitings that a poultry geneticist came up with for feathers, he breeds chickens for fly fishing feathers, well he made a new breed a few years back that lays a blue egg, vary rare gene. I posted on backyardchickens forum a year or so ago and many people that ordered them were not happy, biggest complaint was lower than expected egg production and they were too wild and flighty.
The Terkins are a cool breed, very hard to get a hold of, I waited over 2 months before RK got my hen chicks in but they were my fav chickens, I had one turkin rooster that was sent free by McMurray when I ordered my EE's and that was the smartest and best rooster that I ever saw, he was so protective of his hens, never was aggressive towards me and for a chicken, that guy was smart as a whip, I called him turkin and every time I said that he put his head up and looked at me, he was all the time leading the hens in my barn when I had it open looking for feed and all I did was stand still, point out the door, say "Turken get out" and he would look over and run out the door lol, all the hens would follow him out, it was funny, that bird was a trip. I thought highly enough about him I ordered 14 turkin hens from RK, there not great layers but are neat birds, ugly and unique.
Chickens are a blast, there stupider than a box of rocks but are hilarious to watch, I thought it was funny watching the neighbors cattle get territorial and chase my chickens back to my pasture
, when I got cattle later on they became protective of my chickens.
The chickens always free ranged with the cattle, mine or my neighbors but I never understood why until I saw a big fox chasing my chickens one morning, I let my birds free range 24/7 for the last 7 months at this point, but this fox was after my hens and my cattle were after the fox
, I lost I believe 3 birds in 7 months, in the last month I had the chickens I lost 2 so I sold the chickens, that was 3 months ago and there is still two back there, they were roosting in a neighbors tree when I cleaned out my coop, they showed back up at my barn two days later and have been back there ever since, I see them every day, little survivors lol. I'll feed them in the winter if there still back there by then.
I have one stall door open for the cattle to hang out in a stall, the coop was a 3rd connected stall so the hens have access to the roosts and nesting boxes if they want, I think they prefer the tree most nights, there's a creek they get water from and they eat grass, bugs and all the corn my and neighbors cattle drops. There healthy birds.
, when I got cattle later on they became protective of my chickens. 
