Broody hen smashed hatching egg

[LaurEliz]

Hello. I hope someone can help me with this ASAP, and thank you in advance to anybody who does.

I have a broody cochin sitting on seven eggs. It is Day 21. Two have started to hatch earlier today, hours ago. I can hear them chirping and see that they're hatching.

To keep this story short, the hen was off the nest, saw me get near the nest, and quickly ran back to it. She clumsily got in it and I heard her crack one of the eggs. it was the first one that had pipped.

The egg went from a little more than this:

To this:

The membrane wasn't affected at all: all progress you see in the broken membrane is from the chick. It's just the shell. The chick still cheeped and moved around the last I checked after this happened.

My main concern is that now the chick will become shrink-wrapped.
Does anybody have any advice for what would be best for this chick?

Currently, I just have the egg under the hen still and haven't done anything else to it for fear of making it worse.

Thanks again, guys!

 

[Warriorgal]

Keep wet sponges or straw nearby to maintain humidity

 

[Rose Quartz]

uh... I would leave it where it is for now unless you have an incubator. it might be able to kick free when it's ready.

Did it pip the wrong end?

you will probably have to help this one out, but I would wait until there are other chicks before you do anything.

 

[LaurEliz]

uh... I would leave it where it is for now unless you have an incubator. it might be able to kick free when it's ready.

Did it pip the wrong end?

you will probably have to help this one out, but I would wait until there are other chicks before you do anything.

It does appear to have pipped at the wrong end. It is still currently alive and moving almost an hour after it was stepped on. The membrane seems to not be dried out any more, by just leaving it under my fluffy cochin hen.
I have helped a shrink-wrapped chick out that I hatched in an incubator before (and it survived and had no other complications) and started to try and help this one in a similar fashion but I saw the tiniest blood vessel so I stopped and put it back under the hen.

 

[Rose Quartz]

It does appear to have pipped at the wrong end. It is still currently alive and moving almost an hour after it was stepped on. The membrane seems to not be dried out anymore, by just leaving it under my fluffy cochin hen.
I have helped a shrink-wrapped chick out that I hatched in an incubator before (and it survived and had no other complications) and started to try and help this one in a similar fashion but I saw the tiniest blood vessel so I stopped and put it back under the hen.

glad it isn't your first time helping.

do you have a ballpark on how long ago it pipped? with it not going into the aircell it will probably be closer to 48 hours from the pip to when it's ready to come out.

 

[LaurEliz]

I went out to check on them before I left for work around 1:30 and I did not see any pips, but I also did not move them around at all to check for pips. When I came home a little after 6:00 this one had pipped. It was the first to pip (one more has since then.) It had just barely cracked the shell, however. It is now almost 4 in the morning, so I'd say it was around ten hours at the very least?

 

[Rose Quartz]

I went out to check on them before I left for work around 1:30 and I did not see any pips, but I also did not move them around at all to check for pips. When I came home a little after 6:00 this one had pipped. It was the first to pip (one more has since then.) It had just barely cracked the shell, however. It is now almost 4 in the morning, so I'd say it was around ten hours at the very least?

good. check on it at supper time... today... and see how the inner membrane looks, maybe set up your old incubator if you still have it so you aren't disturbing your broody. or you could wait longer until supper time tomorrow (the 27th) if you're worried about your broodies reaction. loosing one might be better than her smashing the entire nest full of eggs.

 

[LaurEliz]

good. check on it at supper time... today... and see how the inner membrane looks, maybe set up your old incubator if you still have it so you aren't disturbing your broody. or you could wait longer until supper time tomorrow (the 27th) if you're worried about your broodies reaction. loosing one might be better than her smashing the entire nest full of eggs.

Agreed. Believe me, I was being very careful to not disturb her while I was checking on this one. She's an absolute mess. It's her first time being broody, too and there were bumps in the road before this. She broke one egg (unfertilized, as it luckily turned out) earlier and had to be moved away from the rest of the flock because they kept attacking her as she was sitting on the eggs. She's had it rough. Thank you so much for your advice. I was a bit panicked because I thought I knew what to do but I would've felt very bad if I didn't even try to get a second opinion and I ended up messing things up somehow worse than they already were.

 

[LaurEliz]

Just an update: It lives!

And it has a sister/brother:

 

[Unexpected chicken lover]

Congratulations!!!! Precious!!!