We invested in an incubator early on and have never regretted it - every year at least one batch of chickens hatched, also geese and this coming year hopefully ducks - it has paid for itself several times over already. As to raising meat birds, we have found that buying in a batch of meat birds at day old provides roast chicken for a couple of years, and then we eat the spare cockerels from the home-hatched egg layers as curries and stews (only taking legs and breasts off the birds). I have mainly Maran hens and they lay very well, but for a roasting bird are a bit scrawny (after you have gone to the effort of plucking and gutting...)
The only breed I have seen mentioned as a good all-rounder is the Ixworth, but I don't think there are many breeders around.