We have raised bantam chickens and guinea hens for about 10 years. I have 10 - 15 hens and 3 roosters (all hatched here) and1 guinea hen. We got the guineas because they eat ticks and there was a big Lyme disease scare, but I think that chickens do just as good a job on the ticks. I actually love guinea hens, even the noise that they make. The feathers are beautiful and the eggs are small but really good with very hard shells. Baby guineas are beautiful.
Keeping a few chickens for eggs is not cost effective especially when you give away the eggs instead of selling them like I do. They are so small that we don't eat the meat. They are nice though, and they all have their little personalities. I have one that likes to sit on my foot.
I don't have any trouble with flies but I have seen a rat, unfortunately. They must be attracted to the food.
I he we haven't all put you off. If you are interested. There is a website community called BackyardChickens.com. They have loads of Information, an active message board and classified ads, I got a lot of my chickens from the ads.