That looks like an "away from air sac pip", it's a common malposition.
From the article by @Pyxis:
"Facing Away From Air Cell
Picture by @casportpony - the outlined area is the air cell, the duckling has pipped away from it.
In this malposition, the chick ends up positioned away from the air cell, meaning that it cannot internally pip into the air cell like it normally would. That means that when it tries to internally pip, it will have to externally pip instead. Now, the chick may end up hitting a blood vessel and bleeding out when this happens. If that's the case, there's really not much to be done. However, a lot of the time they are able to externally pip. But because they didn't get to internally pip, they still have a lot of absorbing to do. Don't start to worry that they are not progressing until it's been 30 to 48 hours from the external pip. The good news is most of the time they can hatch themselves in this position, so you will likely not have to do a thing. If help is needed, you will still want to open the egg over the air cell, even though the chick is not in there, the reason being that it's a place that you can safely open to assess how far along the veins are, etc. Then from there, you will progress in the assist. But you will nearly never have to do this. Chicks in this position have nothing that is stopping them from hatching. Only shrinkwrapping could cause issues for a chick like this."
Guide to Assisted Hatching for All Poultry
Preface
If you need immediate instructions on how to assist a hatch, you may skip this section and go to the next one, where the instructions are.
To start with, I want to address the fact that some people think assisting during a hatch is wrong. I respect the decision to not help during a...
- Pyxis
- Comments: 212
- Reviews: 125
- Category: Hatching Eggs & Raising Chickens
