Being real, this is a bad idea.

You cannot sex eggs.

This means you have no idea how many of what you get will be hens or roosters.

That is a huge problem. See, roosters can be awesome. But multiple roosters bumps the issues a single rooster has to absurd proportions. And even a single one can be a major pain in the ass. The scratches and injuries on my arm currently from dealing with a pampered but territorial rooster can attest to that.

Since rehoming a rooster is essentially impossible without a shit ton of luck, your batch of eggs is going to be some % ending up as soup. If you’re homesteading, chances are that slaughtering and processing livestock isn’t a thing you object to doing, but in terms of efficiency, having to kill off half (or more) of your flock is not exactly a great thing.

If you’re trying to build a sustainable flock for egg production with meat productivity being secondary as the hens go past laying age, starting off with a randomized batch of eggs is less than ideal.

As far as the rest, my birds are pets, not working livestock, so take it with a grain of salt.

Factor in at least 4 sq ft per bird in a coop. They’ll need at least double that to run around in. You can’t skimp on space if you want healthy birds. You’ll have to find plans that match your intended flock size. A dozen birds need a different coop than three, in other words. Going any smaller is just cruel as well as unhealthy, but even if that didn’t matter, stressed birds lay less, and hens are pecky little buggers, so the less space, the higher the stress, the higher the rate of injury, and the lower your egg output.

Feed wise, we use kalmbach. It’s easy to source, and (so far) their listed nutrients are what they say they are. We’re getting great eggs, and the birds are both healthy and eat it with gusto. They have a full line for every age range, so it’s at least a brand to get you going until you have a chance to read up and then make a careful decision. Chick feed is formulated to the needs of chicks, and there’s also transition formulas, then stuff for layers vs meat birds.

Bedding wise, you said you weren’t wanting info overload, so the best I can say is that some will be needed, and you’ll have to do your reading to decide what’s best for your situation. We use hemp bedding as the best balance of cost, ease of use, lack of problems, and effectiveness in controlling conditions. But there’s arguments the be made the any and all types (though wood shavings wouldn’t be my first pick at all). Mats are optional usually, but they do make things neater and easier to handle.

Water is a huge factor that you didn’t list. They’ll need a lot of it, fresh, and clean. You really don’t want to see what dirty water can cause. But, again, that’s where me only having a small number of pets is kinda useless to you. I can just change water out as needed since it’s such a small amount. You get a dozen birds, I’m not sure what kind of options are going to really work well, only that such options exist.

All of that being said, chickens are fucking wonderful. Just as critters to hang around with. But, once you get used to fresh, properly free range eggs? Anything else is a disappointment. Compared to the eggs we have now, storebought is like eating styrofoam. They’re a decent amount of work though.