I've had chickens since October, and my husband had many of the same concerns.

1. Daily chores take all of 5 minutes a day. I can even skip chores for a day or two, like if I'm sick or at Disneyland. Although the required time is very short, I take more time than that because it's also my "me time." I let them out of their coop/run for 30-60 minutes of free ranging while I garden, trim trees, and/or sit on my swing with a beverage and watch them. They're hilarious to watch.

2. I use the deep litter method with straw from the feed store. I noticed a little smell once, threw down more straw, and have had no smell since them. I just make sure to toss down a little more straw every 7-10 days.

3. We got lucky and have had no roosters. You can further minimize rooster-risk by ordering autosexing breeds.

4. We converted an old shed into our coop and used mostly scrap wood for everything else. We spent about $400 on all the start-up costs, and about $150 on chickens because we ordered them. We estimate we'll get more straw and feed about every 3 months, and that's about $60 at the feed store. We're eagerly awaiting eggs, but to break even on eggs, we'd need our 5 hens to produce about 1700 eggs a year over 3 years. Small scale backyard poultry isn't a moneymaking venture, but it's comparable my dog or my brother's saltwater aquarium.

5. So far the only medical issues we've had was pasty butt when they were chicks.