This is a good time to buy chicks, they'll take ~6 months before they start laying, maybe longer because it'll be fall then and they lay less with fewer daylight hours. You can have some mailed to you (literally mailed) from
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html or such, or you can find some locally on on kijij, craigslist, hoobly, whatever classified thing is big in your area. Chicks will cost, ballpark, $1-3.
If you look around at local hatcheries you will probably also find some that sell birds that are around 6 months that will lay soon. Then you have eggs right away, plus they're guaranteed to be hens and are a bit hardier and you don't have to brood them. They'll likely be debeaked though, and probably all the same generic brown hen. You can also find beginning to lay birds on craigslist, though then you have to determine their age or you could get ripped off. These cost about ~$6.
The best layers lay an egg a day or so, but if you let them run around too much too early in the morning they'll go lay them in weird places. They slow down laying after a couple years but I have 1 leghorn that is 3-4 years or so and lays basically every day except when moulting, she's a star. They also stop/slow down laying in the winter, and when they moult (which happens for a couple months every year)
Anyways, when feathered all they really need is a big locking box of some kind (preferably with a window or translucent roofing material so light gets in) so the raccoons can't eat them, a perch, some soft of container/box filled with hay for a nestbox... all 6 of mine use one box, though they have 3 to choose from.
Personally, I recommend a coop with a FULLY FENCED (top, sides, and either a wire bottom, or sides dug down and secured with concrete etc) run. That way you can leave the coop door open 24/7 without worrying about predators, and you can let them out in the pastures to free range when you want. Chickens don't seem to get lost and never go far, they kind of scratch around in maybe a 200 ft radius, then they return at dusk. Even if one gets displaced (eg goes through a fence, can't get back over it), they tend to get as close to the coop as possible. You can find it with the dog, and they go catatonic at dark, so you can just scoop them up. Chickens go daybreak-dusk, so if you don't have a run you either end up planning around their schedule or keeping them cooped up (harhar) longer than necessary. Chickens need light so if you end up keeping them cooped up make sure they have lots of windows or they won't lay well anymore.
Eggs don't really go bad IME except during cold weather--the eggs freeze and crack and the rapid cooling makes the inner membrane contract and draw in bacteria. I have found eggs in my llama manger that have been sitting out from spring to fall, and apart from being somewhat shriveled they are fine (I mean you wouldn't eat them but they haven't a hint of the classic rotten egg smell). So you don't have to rush to collect them but once a day works and wash with water (I've heard soap ruins the natural layer on the shell that keeps out bacteria). If you miss a day sometimes the hens go "omg so many eggs, whelp, better hatch these" and they go broody and stop laying.
As far as coop maintenance, a deep litter thing is easiest IME, just dump down a bunch of shavings (lots and lots of shavings...) and stir it around periodically. It stays pretty dry.
They eat anything, mine get some commercial pellets and barley every day (maybe three cups??), and they run around and eat grass and bugs and spilled feed stuff.
They like to writhe around in dry dusty dirt, so make sure they have some of that.
If you just want eggs for yourself maybe 6 hens, a box 4 x 6 x 3 with a perch, a run, a sack of shavings, some grain, some table scraps, stir the bedding collect the eggs.
That's all I can think of.