Get Brahmans... small pea comb so they can take cold weather;feathered feet so they don’t dig quite as vigorously as other chickens; sweet tempered so even if there’s a rooster in the bunch he’ll be a sweetie; pretty patterned feathers for crafting, can’t fly [too big], and they lay huge brown eggs close to the size of duck’s eggs.
Their only drawback is they take a little longer to mature to egg laying than other breeds because of their size.
That sounds perfect, actually! I will poke around and see if they work for my area.