We’re allowed to raise chickens here, and it’s something I’ve thought about off and on over the years. Now seems like a good time to get started.
I know very little about this. Please share what you know about keeping chicken happy and healthy and laying. 
They are super-easy to take care of.
Do you have coyotes in your area? If so, they are the biggest problem.
If not, just provide them with a sheltered area that they can roost in for the night. Make some brooding boxes that the hens can use to lay their eggs.
Get some chicken feed, and call them in the morning, and then scatter it for them to eat - they like to scratch around and search for their food.
If you gather any eggs each morning, a hen will lay one a day for many months. If you let her lay a clutch of 10-18 eggs, she will start sitting on them, and you will have chicks in 21 days.
Will they lay without a rooster?
Oh yes they’ll lay. Don’t get a rooster unless you want chicks. Get pullets (ready to grow up and lay) if you can find them.
Feed laying pellets and plenty of water and you’ll have eggs in no time.
Beware: they smell.
If you get a rooster and allow a clutch to hatch you could easily end up with over a dozen eggs a day. Don’t worry, you can feed them back to the chickens.
Did you know many places in the world don’t refrigerate eggs? Why The U.S. Chills Its Eggs And Most Of The World Doesn't : The Salt : NPR
I get 8-12 eggs a day. I have 14 hens. A couple are grandmother aged. They are retired and eating me out of house and home. I tell them everyday they have a pot of dumplings in their future. They cackle about that.
(:))
I never thought that the smell was bad, but mine were all outside.
I had Rhode Island Reds and Araucanas (which lay green and blue eggs).
Chickens love table scraps, so are an excellent way to dispose of plate scrapings.
I’ve heard that you shouldn’t feed eggs or eggshells in recognizable form to chickens, or they may start pecking their eggs open as soon as they’re laid; you need to grind the shells up first.
Haven’t kept chickens myself, or experimented with that, so don’t know if it’s so.
Beowulff, they’re not living in my house. Thats funny.
The chicken pen is out by the barn. And there is a definite odor. I don’t mind it. It’s part of a country life.
If you have neighbors and the wind blows your chicken coop odor to their patio, while they are out, I assure you they will complain.
**Sunny Daze **may live on big acreage. Probably not an issue.
Some Chickens cannabilze their eggs. Its a thing. That’s the one you fry up on Sunday.
Don’t buy from Tractor Supply. They don’t sex their chicks very well. We bought what we were told were four hens, plus two bantams that weren’t sexed (so they could’ve been either hens or roosters). Both bantams were roosters (oh well), but two of the “hens” also ended up being roosters.
So of the six chicks we raised, only two were layers. The rest ended up going to freezer camp (except for Percy, a hawk got him).
Where I’ve seen it done they just smash the eggs on the ground. The chickens peck at them and it attracts bugs that they eat. It may be a problem if you don’t break them up much. And the shells are good for the chickens, replenishing the nutrients lost in making them.
It hasn’t been hard to get chickens around here, tons of backyard breeders are always giving them away. My neighbors have between 10 and 20 wandering around, there are eggs anywhere a chicken can shelter. When we had a dumpster taken away after some construction there were over a hundred eggs underneath.
Anyway, if you want to raise your own livestock then chickens are pretty easy way to go about it.
I don’t want a rooster. They never shut up (neighbors have had them).
I’m not on large acreage, but they’re allowed so I’m thinking I’ll get some.
“Freezer Camp” 
When we had them in the suburbs, possums were a bigger problem.
And I’d be much more worried about raccoons. Either way, if some kind of canine based predator deterrent is a viable option then I’d strongly suggest it.
To the OP, it’s none of my business how you see these chickens. Are they feathery friends or are they future chicken pot pies? There’s no wrong answer here but you better make up your mind because they can’t really be both.
Everything loves a chicken dinner. You really do need to keep your girls safe from predators. Those include coyotes, raccoons, possums, foxes, skunks, dogs and likely some obvious ones I’ve overlooked. You can run into all of these into a suburban environment. If you have weasels, they can exploit tiny holes to get at your chickens.
Make sure that predators can’t dig into the coop from underneath. Make sure the hens can’t be pulled through the chicken wire, even if only partially. I’m sorry to say this can happen.
You’re right, you don’t want a rooster unless you want chicks. In the absence of a rooster, your hens will probably look to you to be the “rooster.” You can tell when they do if they squat when you come by. It’s kind of cool, because it makes them easy to pick up.
Speaking of picking them up, do handle them a bit as they are growing up to make them docile for handling. You will have to occasionally move a chicken to get to their eggs or perhaps to administer medical attention. It’s nice when they don’t take off after your hand for a peck.
Chickens definitely have personalities, and different breeds are popular for different traits. My personal favorites are Buff Orpingtons for the combination of docile personality, quietness and decent layers. But everyone has their own preferences. In my experience, White Leghorns are machines for laying, but they are spent more quickly so you end up with tons of eggs in the beginning and not so many over their life span. Over 16 years, I’ve also kept Australorps, Speckled Sussex, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and a couple of easter eggers. Now I only keep Buffs.
Think about how you’ll handle things if you end up with unwanted roosters, spent hens you no longer want to keep or an injured or sick hen. These things do come up and you need to know what you’re going to do about them.
Hens (and some roosters) are quite lovely to have around. They’re funny and sweet, they will reward you mightily for little effort. Keep them safe and they will produce well for you for many years.
My next-door neighbor’s first batch of chickens were quickly killed by raccoons. Chicken wire isn’t sturdy enough to keep them safe. Use something stronger like hardware cloth.
One thing you need to be careful about is what plants you have growing in your yard, you need to make sure you have nothing that is toxic to the chickens, also be careful with pesticides etc
My mom has chickens, on her standard-sized city lot. They really are quite easy.
First, make an enclosure. Lots of things that will go after chickens will dig, so make sure there’s wire under the ground, too. Give them someplace to go inside, and someplace to go outside. My mom built an automatic feeding trough: A large bin with a trough on the bottom, so the trough refills itself. The bin needs to be refilled every couple of months. Give them actual chicken feed, not just corn, and every few days, toss in a handful of crushed oyster shells. Water is the biggest day-to-day maintenance need; I think my mom’s go through about a quart each per day.
You’ll also have to muck out the coop every so often, or ammonia can build up. Let it compost for a season, and it’s great fertilizer.
Maybe not necessary in California, but whenever it’s expected to get very cold overnight, Mom takes out a five-gallon bucket or two of water to the coop. Water will release a lot of heat in the process of freezing, so it’ll keep the coop from getting too cold. Then in the morning, she dumps out the buckets of ice in the yard, and repeats if needed.