I had nearly a 100% hatch rate on my latest incubator full of eggs and now I have 42 chicks that need a new home. Fall may seem like an odd time to hatch chicks but I think it is the perfect time. They can spend the first 5-8 weeks in a box in the garage as their feathers fill in and only need the heat of a lightbulb to keep warm through the nights once they move outside. They should start laying eggs in April and lay nearly daily until November. Most chickens like to take the winter off but I can usually convince them to keep laying by bribing them with some heat and light.
The downfall of getting chicks in the spring is they only have a month or two of established egg laying before the days shorten and weather chills - the two factors that can end the laying cycle until the following spring. I look at the issue from a mathematical stand point. Fall chicks tend to provide a better egg to food ratio over a lifetime than the spring chicks.
Keeping chickens is so much easier than most people believe it to be. My first flock I spent hundreds of hours in self-education and more money than I like to admit in building the perfect hen house. My second flock, I incubated myself and used a left over dog house with a tarp over top of a chain link kennel. Frankly, the second flock of chickens produced more eggs.
Chickens are so easy to keep that I think more people should have them. Hens can live in most city yards. They don't take a lot of space to live. Fresh eggs actually do taste better than store bought eggs and it's nice to not only know where food comes from but what it's treated with before it gets to the frig.
If you want to give it a try - call me. I can hook you up with eggs or chickens or both... If you don't like raising chickens - you can bring the chickens back to me - or eat them.
