Here is one place you can go for breed comparisons:
Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart
Go to the bottom of the chart to see what the various symbols mean -- the snowflake means that breed tends to lay through the winter even without extra lighting.
It's easiest, if they have the breed you want, to just go to the local feed store and pick up your chicks there. If you order from a hatchery, there will be a minimum order -- usually it's 25 chicks, because they need that many in the box to keep each other warm. A few hatcheries will send less, but it will cost extra because they'll need to put a chemical heater in with the babies. Although, the Speckled Sussex I got from Cackle a couple of weeks ago had one of the chemical heaters in with them even though there were 25 of them.
If you want hens that will both lay well, and go broody to hatch out replacements, I can recommend Icelandics; however, they are rare and still pretty expensive. They also like to go semi-feral if they get out of the coop. Pretty little birds, though, and good control for pests like ticks. Also very good at foraging most of their own feed.
Of the more common breeds, I actually like the Leghorn breeds. The White Leghorns I had were skittish, but would be the first to come running when I went outside -- skittish is just another word for alert and cautious, which means (slightly) less susceptible to predators. So it's not necessarily a bad thing. People who are concerned about their chickens being tame have them partly for pets, which is fine, but if you want them for eggs, Leghorns are a good choice. They seldom go broody, but if you add a couple of Silkies to your flock they can raise replacements for you. Anconas are a Leghorn-type chicken that are very good layers and are pretty birds. Some of the colored Leghorns are calmer than the Whites, but most of them don't lay as well as the Whites.
The only other chickens that lay as well as, or nearly so, as the White Leghorns, are Sex-links and Production Rhode Island Reds. The RIR's generally lay well even in the winter; roosters tend to be very aggressive.
Ameracaunas (Easter Eggers) can be pretty good layers, and some will go broody and raise chicks (most of the broody hens I've had have been Ameracaunas), but they generally stop laying during the coldest months of the winter if they don't have light.
You might also consider ducks. Some duck breeds lay better than any of the chicken breeds; they are hardy, will pick up more of their own feed; generally lay first thing in the morning, so you won't have to hunt for eggs if you just wait till mid-morning to turn them loose; and they are really good slug control. Drakes are quiet compared to roosters. They need enough water to dip their heads into (and they make a mess with it), but they don't have to have a pond for swimming.
Lots of options -- I suggest choosing a breed you enjoy looking at.
Kathleen
ETA: Browsing through the breed chart, there are four that have high laying ability and generally lay well through the winter: Delawares, New Hampshires, Rhode Island Reds, and Sussex. They are all considered dual-purpose breeds; Sussex are known to go broody and raise chicks. They all lay large eggs, although the Sussex chart says medium to large. Sussex are the only ones that come in several colors, but I think Speckled is the most common (and I think Speckled is very pretty). There are Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds, but I don't know if they lay as well as the Production Reds.
