Help!!! My Egg Has Blood but the chick is breathing inside!

[RoxysAnimals]

I don't know what to do, the egg has blood and I pulled it back and can see the chick breathing!

 

[junebuggena]

You tried to help way too early. You can try to dab a bit of pain reliever free antibiotic ointment on the membrane to keep it moist. It's very normal for a chick to rest for a very long time after that first pip. The blood vessels and yolk don't begin receding until after that first pip, and it takes several hours for everything to recede. It's not unusual for a chick to take over 24 hours to hatch after that first pip. As long as the chick is getting air, there is no rush to get it out of the egg. You need to be patient, and just let them hatch in their own time, when they are ready. Helping too much, and too soon can seriously harm the chick.

 

[RoxysAnimals]

I did NOT help him at all. I only pulled back the flap back that was already over. He just shoved himself out, and is now dead.

 

[junebuggena]

Poor thing. Sometimes they just pip in the wrong spot, hit a vessel and there's nothing you can do.

 

[RoxysAnimals]

Yeah. I opened up the egg after he died and the air cell hadn't been pierced at all, and when he was pushing himself out he was backwards in the egg.

 

[JetCat]

something caused that damage to the egg, it was crushed into, not pipped out of.

 

[beetandsteet]

Yeah. I opened up the egg after he died and the air cell hadn't been pierced at all, and when he was pushing himself out he was backwards in the egg.

Malpositioned chicks have a much less chance of hatching--they cannot internally pip into the air cell; their external pip is also their internal pip. It happens every once in a while. My last hatch had several malpositioned babies in it (genetic issues I think), none made it but one; he was weak at birth and his yolk was not quite fully absorbed (but is a big young cockerel now

). Hope you have/had a good hatch