New chicks

Well, its that time of year again - chick raising time.
Not wanting as many as we had last year and not wanting the prolonged hatching season I filled the incubator with eggs - 42 eggs. I know that they all won't hatch so taking that into account and then doing the 50/50 thing, I'm guessing we'll get another 12 girls to lay us eggs. Against all odds we hatched 27 chicks. I say 'against all odds' as I was supposed to add water to the incubator at the onset & top it up as the 3 weeks progressed - and I forgot to add any water! Oops, so the fact that we have any chicks is a marvel.
Last year we had a late hatcher who wore the shell on his head for about a week. He never did have tail feathers, we called him Conch. This year I thought we had missed that, because I know chicken breeders don't allow emotion to get into the deal, but we see a heart beat, then we have to help it. I always hate switching off the incubator once the eggs have hatched as some of the eggs that have 'pipped' may still be wanting to hatch. I feel it's akin to switching off life support. I had left the incubator for 24 hours and just before church I emptied the remaining eggs into the compost bin as I needed to get it cleaned for another hatching that we had planned for a neighbour.
Once back from church and working in the yard I heard the compost bin chirping! I checked but there were no chicks in there, just the eggs - and garden waste. But the chirping was incessant, so Phil & I investigated & found the egg it was coming from - which was pipped. So we took it indoors and using a tooth pick, Phil chipped at the shell to allow the chick out. Luckily I had the incubator on & it was up to heat so 'Dumpster' as we have called him, could go & get warm & dry. To date, Dumpster is doing well & it's hard to tell him from the others who arrived independently and almost 24 hours ahead of him.
Oh, the excitement of having chickens hatch!