I like your paper towels on top of the shavings. I've gotten a supply of old, soft towels that are "past it." I line the old, metal horse trough--it had a leak--with them. I layer dirt, then the shavings, then I use the towels like diapers, until the chicks are big enough to handle the shavings, alone.
I keep them clean and bleached in plastic bags in my horse-supply storage med cabinet in the barn. They serve double duty. I have them "at the ready" should I have a horse injury, which, fortunately happens maybe once in a blue moon. Just though I'd share.
The chicks are adorable!! We are incubating almost all our chicks, too. I kept one of my free EE roosters from 2012, and I'm ordering him 5 EE pullets next month. My RIR x Welsummer/EE layers are mostly laying olive green eggs that are baby blue on the insides of the shells. I'm wanting a deeper shade of blue.