'the most productive egg layers are hybrids, including the Hy-line Brown, California White, Golden Comet, Cherry Egger and Indian River. If you prefer heritage breeds, Leghorns, White-faced Black Spanish, Rhode Island Reds, Australorps, Rhode Island Whites and Plymouth Rocks are good choices for producing lots of eggs'. - internet
I found that my bantams are always ready to lay a couple eggs now and then, ven though they are probably out of their 'prime time' of laying quantaties of eggs. - though they are small chickens - so they lay small eggs.
I recomend giving them a reasonably large pen, with grass and that growing on the bottom - leaving them free to scratch around in the dirt, and peck at the grass blades. but good chicken feed can be leftover scraps (no meats) and grain and seed. i reccomend using 'red hen' grain and seed if that is available.
chickens are fairly easy to take care of. but do make sure that they have a fenced pen and a 'chicken' house and nesting boxes, as well as perches where they sleep on at night. make sure that no predators can get them, especially if you have baby chicks - they are very vulnerable.
some important parts can be making sure that they are safe and fenced off from predators, and a good healthy diet, depending on what you feed them can make quality eggs (tastes WAY better than bought :P) and hard eggshells. telling if you have quality eggs is if the yolk is a vibrant orange. - but some eggs and colours can differ from species of chickens. and i'd imagine a chicken would get lonely without a mate. (hen - hen. roosters will give you chicks straight up)
not much work is put into it. they are lovely pets!
yes extra effort is put in raising chicks. a hen should manage approx 5-7 chicks. yhey're quite a handfull. they can be eaten by eagles and kites from above. cats and dogs can kill them. snakes, foxes... you should make a baby pen that is proof from all these predators. put mum in with them aswell.
you can even use their poop for fertilizer- they make lots!
As ive stated before - make nesting boxes. we make our nesting boxes from lawnmower leaf catchers. you can make your own, or large plastic plant pots. to get them using your nesting boxes, put golfballs or you can buy imitating eggs, and ut them inside the boxes.
use thick-ish branches from trees to make perches for them to perch on at night, safety from the ground below.
hope i helped. :)