When I first joined BYC, I felt the same. My very first eight chicks were six months old and had barely started laying. Well, seven of them, because the "10 percent error in sexing" cockerel bcame a father when my Buff Orpington went broody and hatched a solo chick.
That experience led me to lurk in hatch-a-long threads. Oh my goodness, so much drama and disappointment! Sure, it was mixed in with fabulous chick and/or broody photos, which are always a bonus, but dang.......
Watching Buffy and her chick, Samantha, go about the business of being a little family - with the doting attention of proud daddy Carl - made me curious about incubating. I tired it on my own, with the most idiot proof incubator of small quantity, had some success with eBay eggs, and was hooked. Life created from what could so easily have been breakfast three weeks earlier!!
Unlike many others who are heavily invested in enlarging or improving their flocks, I am just dabbling here. Every single chick is a miracle to me, so I am not disappointed with dismal hatch rates. I seldom, if ever, candle eggs. One hatchling and I am happy, although I would rather it had company. Two or more - I am over the moon.
There is a lot of time to pass from egg to chick, though, and a hatch-a-long is a great way to share common experiences. Take in what you need, gloss over the rest. Share what is important to you and enjoy what touches you in others' posts. Drool over pictures. Discover new breeds.
I keep telling myself I won't participate in these things (this HAL is the seventh for me) because I don't NEED to hatch anything. But, by gosh, I am now invested in the companionship of other "hatchers" I have grown to know these past four years and it's so very cool to discover new folks to admire (and tease) and which just might have hatching eggs for breeds I want to include in my flock.
Thank you ALL, but especially Sally Sunshine, Happy Chooks, ronott1 (and of course, Nifty-Chicken) for all the selfless work associated with this Easter HAL. You're my heroes.
How excited he is now is un-explainable... i had to remind him that the saying is still true "Don't count them till they hatch!" haha!! 
