Never Count your Chickens before they Hatch...

I had 2 different sets of eggs set to hatch out of my incubators. In one incubator I had 12 lavender Orpington Eggs, 10 Black Copper Maran Eggs, and 2 Americauna Eggs,  in the other incubator I had 30 Polish Eggs and 6 Polish Orpington Crosses.   I set the temperature to the 99.5 degrees, and I waited, and waited and waited the 21 days it takes for a chicken to develop and hatch.  There was candling (a process done to see development inside the eggs using a device that shines light directly thru the egg) on Day 8 in both incubators. In my incubator with the Lavender Orpingtons (LO), Black Copper Marans (BCM), and Americaunas,  I had 4 LO eggs that were not fertile, the BCM eggs are a dark chocolate brown making it really hard to candle them, and both Americaunas looked good.  Out of my Polish eggs, 6 of them were not fertile.  More time passed and we got to Day 18, the critical day of lockdown, you candle again, remove the eggs from the automatic egg turner, shut the incubator and wait the 3 more days til Hatch Day.  And then it happens...you get your very first wiggle, or in some cases even a Pip (where the chick makes its first crack in the exterior shell) and you wait some more as hatching is a very tiresome job.  Then you get a zip (called this because the chick literally unzips its shell before popping out).  Well my incubator due to hatch first, was late, and only 3 chicks hatched. 2 BCM and 1 Americauna. The next 24 hours are very critical to chicks and unfortunately only 1 BCM survived. I was disappointed by this and have decided to take a break from hatching until I can get a cabinet incubator, that helps maintain temperature and humidity better than my little table top incubator.  My second incubator with the Polish was very successful with 22 chicks hatching out of the 36, and 20 made it past the first 24 hours.  Then it happened. The most devastating thing I think my cats could have done( I think they had help from Riley our golden retriever as the doors were all closed and barricaded)  they got in to "the chicken room" and ATE my chicks.  Only 2 survived.  Now I am definitely taking a break from hatching until we can set up the basement as my hatchery.  Apparently you can't count them after they hatch either...