Nick, I raised chickens when I was in high school and FFA, both show birds and layers. First and foremost, it's way more work than it's worth. You need a good, clean, and secure coop. Otherwise disease and predators will relieve you of your birds. Depending where you live, the predators include dogs, cats, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, hawks, and these days, probably tweekers.

Keep 'em warm when they are little. I had an incubator that had a heating element with a thermostat. I vaccinated birds when they were between 20 and 28 weeks old and beginning to lay eggs. Can't remember what the vaccine was for, but it was easy enough to do. A little double needle on a plastic stick that I'd stick in the webby section of the wing elbow. Good ration helps a lot with health and egg production. It's expensive, or was in the 60s.

If you have any roosters and they begin showing some attitude, trust me, it won't get better. Take the cleaver to 'em sooner rather than later.

I had a lot of fun raising livestock as a kid, probably learned a bit about responsibility, but stock and owning a car were the main reasons I had to work all through high school. Cattle and poultry cost me way more than I ever made off them. And that's the main reason why I haven't owned or kept any livestock since. I'm happy and much money ahead to pay the farmer to do it for me.