Cypress, okay, this is something I can address...we have some laying hens who have a coop and a yard...I shut their coop door at night (have found possums IN there, scared the you-know-what outa me, much shrieking...mine and theirs, LOL). Feed them Laying Mash and "scratch", fresh kitchen scraps (except meat); they love spaghetti. (We won 1st place at the Louisa County Fair for brown eggs; that night those girls got a pound of cooked spaghetti!).
We also have some bantams that wander at will (doesn't matter HOW high the chicken yard fence is, bantams WILL get out) they'll roost in boxwoods, in the barn...the most charming little chickens, feisty little roosters, colorful, smart, good setters. Wonderful little birds, but hawks, raccoons, etc., take their toll (they never get the roosters, just the hens, that figures!).
Yes, they'll not only wander into your yard, they will dig up any and all flowers you just spent hours planting. We cover the tractor with a tarp...when we move the tarp to use the tractor, taa daa, there's an EGG on the seat!!!!
Have sold excess bantie chicks to the local feed store...people always seem to want them. Sell fresh brown eggs for $1/dozen.
Darned roosters...start about 4 AM or earlier, the ones in the boxwoods holler, the ones in the coop answer, the ones in the barn answer back...(truly, though, too many roosters will have a negative effect on egg production...and when a bunch of them gang up on a hen, I step in and start kicking).
But what's a farm without chickens? Seriously, if you manage the laying hens right and don't let them out of their yard (clip one wing), they'll do well for you; get them at about 4 months of age, almost ready to start laying, and keep them confined, fresh water everyday, a couple of nesting boxes for eggs, clean the coop once a week (compost it for your garden), and give them roosts to perch on at night in their coop, you should do fine. Great activity and responsibility for kids. If you want to get fancy, get an "egg-mobile" a la Joel Salatin, run it behind your cows, check it out, fascinating.
Wow, I sure got carried away on this one, sorry!