I called the County and they sent me a copy of the new ordinance since it's not online yet. It's quite a bit less restrictive than the previous one. I'm not sure what the licensing fee is--someone told me $5 per chicken.
We are first-timers as well--our chicks will be 2 weeks old soon. The woman we bought our chicks from suggested a large 56gal tote from Home Depot to keep them in (we have 8). We put a clip on light inside along with pine chips, their water and feeder. The pine chips stay in the tote instead...