[Lindeggs]

Sheridan, I got heritage breeds for exactly those reasons you mentioned!  Big, easy-care, hardy birds that settled in quickly and were ideal for a new chicken-keeper.  I had read too many scary stories on here about hybrids getting sick with reproductive problems and I wasn't ready to deal with that.

Hillfooter, you have put forward a very logical and well-reasoned argument.   I spent six months preparing my coop and run, researching breeds ad reading everything I could about chickens and their needs before I got my six pullets. (I also wanted poarticular breeds which meant I had to wait longer.)

In the end I got my pullets right at the beginning of autumn and had them for four months before I got my first egg.  It was a lovely way to get to know them and watch them grow up before they started laying.

So my advice to nippyhen is to make sure you are properly set up and have everything in place before you get your chickens.  Go around and see breeders and choose your stock carefully.  Heed Hillfooter's advice.  But once you're all set up and you find the chickens you want, go ahead and buy them and start enjoying them for their company, if not their eggs.