Hatching issue

[LaurenRitz]

I don't know whether this is the right place. I'm hatching in an incubator, and have run into a situation I've never seen before.

Previous hatchees in this batch played egg football, which is relatively normal, but this one ended up face down and pipped that way. I noticed it this morning but let it go. It's worked out before, no problems.

I just came home and it had rocked so I could see the hole. It's filled with blood, I suspect the chick hit a vein. The chick is alive, and started screaming when I took it out of the incubator. I broke off a few small pieces of shell (shell only, no membrane) but I can't see the beak or any movement.

Today is hatch day, so not late by any means, but the blood bothers me. Obviously the chick can breathe, and it's not audibly distressed.

Just leave it and hope?

 

[kattabelly]

If the chick seems to be alive and isn't audibly distressed, I'd leave it at least for a while. Assisting too early is more likely to cause problems than intervening just in case there's some kind of issue you can actually help with.

 

[LaurenRitz]

If I could see it chewing and the hole wasn't full of blood I wouldn't even be concerned.

 

[kattabelly]

If I could see it chewing and the hole wasn't full of blood I wouldn't even be concerned.

If you're really worried you could maybe try using a bit of clean tissue or a cotton bud (do you call them q tips?) or something to blot the blood through the hole, if there's that much. It might give you an idea of whether something is still actively bleeding.