Hens - the pros and cons for a newbie!

We've been thinking about doing the chicken thing for about a decade now (!) and one of the sticking points was having someone to keep an eye on them when we were way. But as going away no longer seems to be a thing, our neighbour no longer works away during the week and we have a couple of other friends in the village all who will exchange chook checking for eggs, it would appear that the time has come to think more seriously.

However MrPP needs some persuading ...

Honestly, what are the pros and cons? Especially the cons. Costs - how much do they eat, diseases, predation (we're surrounded by woods and see foxes and martens even in broad daylight). Are they more trouble than they're worth? They would probably be in a small run/hen house within a larger enclosure for when we're around, rather than roaming free. Our other neighbour was a small scale commercial free range egg producer, and kept a dog in with the hens to keep the foxes away, so this concerns me greatly.

And I'd like to combine young birds with re-hoaming battery hens.

With respect to the vegetarian members, I'm also pondering birds for the table as well as layers. Perhaps a Christmas goose?

Thanks as ever