Breech Hatching?

[millejn3]

I have been hatching eggs for about 10 years but have never seen this before. I have 2 Black Copper Maran eggs that are pipping on the small end of th egg. Both are still alive but have not made any more progress than a small hole. I know this isnt good but was wondering if anyone else have exsperienced this.
Does this sound crazy? If need be I will post pictures but they really are pipping on the small egg of the egg! I have never seen this before.

 

[Andy J]

I had one egg do this in all my years of raising chickens.I had to help it out;but it didn't live.

Andy

 

[My Little Sister's Farm]

It probably won't live because there are actually genetic problems that cause these things. It isn't caused by improper setting either. Did you know that if a chick tucks it's head under the wrong wing "in ovo" it will also not hatch. This is usually a genetic thing, that is why when one of the students in a class I had in college experimented with hatching eggs set small side up 0 pipped at the top. She had a bad hatch rate, but they all settled "big side up" when laid on their side at 18 days.

I don't suggest ever helping a chick out of it's shell unless the eggs were really expensive because you will end up with weaker chicks, higher mortality, and higher probability of disease when you do that.