Malpositioned chick pipped shell but not membrane?

[Yorkshire Coop]

If it has zipped round the egg itself and there is no blood I would finish the zip off for it.

 

[HeidiGetsChicks]

After over 4 hours of it zipped with no progress I assisted. It had a band of leathery membrane stuck hard to its feathers and connecting the two halves of the zip, which I think was its main issue.

I have a few ideas of what I did wrong in the incubating process to cause it. I'm so grateful I read the post about assisting; I never dreamed I'd assist this much especially on my first egg ever to hatch!

The rest haven't pipped yet. I miscalculated....I counted day 1 as the day I put them in the incubator at 4pm. So day 22 is just starting. If more aren't zipped by 9am I'm gonna head to the store and buy this one a couple buddies so it's not alone while waiting (hopefully) for the rest of its siblings.

I'm feeling kinda shitty to have done anything incorrect to cause this chick distress...I had thought we weren't supposed to let humidity get much above 75% so I kept opening it to let some humidity out (I know, I know, I'm so sorry!) as it was zipping and moisture was climbing. Also the incubator got unplugged while I was tending to this chick so the temp dropped to 97 degrees for the other eggs. Hours later after plugging it back in it still wasn't back up; I added warm water and brought it back.

I'm sad about beginner's mistakes and trying not to think about the fate of the remaining eggs. We have one chick, we'll buy more buddies so it's not lonely, hope for the best and learn from mistakes.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Don’t worry and don’t beat yourself up about it

I’m glad to read the chick is out and doing ok. Still time for your other eggs as 21 days is just a guide.