Hi, everyone! I've run into a bit of a problem, and I need your advice.
I woke up this morning to check on my hatcher and noticed that my last egg (a couple days late now) had cracked. Upon further inspection, I noticed blood around what "looked" like an external pip hole. I probably did something wrong here, and opened a hole at the top of the air cell to get a look down into what was going on. It appears that the chick MAY have pipped and then been kicked into another egg (I still have a "dud" in there that was too dark for my little candling experience), or the side of the incubator by movement from the other chicks.
So what I have now is... a baby chick inside of a cracked egg. There is a small pool of blood around its beak where it looks like there was some impact. I wet the membrane with warm water and a Q-Tip, wrapped it in a moist paper towel, and turned the egg so that its beak is at the highest point. I figured that if there was any fluid or excess blood, having the beak raised up would help keep the fluids from pooling around it?
The membrane is broken at the site of the pip/crack. The baby chick appears to be "gasping" or taking very deliberate, heavy breaths. It is not making a sound... only big, deliberate breathing. I find this alarming, because I have not witness this kind of "hatch behavior" before, but I also lack a lot of experience...so maybe this is normal?
I want to remove more shell from the top to get a better look at what's going on, but I probably shouldn't meddle?
I have removed the active chicks and put them into the brooder. Humidity and temp are holding perfectly.
