moving egg with crack instead of pip (hatch day)

[BOchickmama4]

Hello everyone, I am new to BYC and this is my first time hatching eggs!

I started off setting 5 eggs from my own chickens in the incubator, I candled them at day 9 and all of them had clear living embryos in them.
and then i candled them again on day 16, a week after the first candling and 4 had clear embryos in and one looked very behind and wasn't moving, but i decided to candle that egg again when i put them into lockdown on day 18, and when i did so that one looked the same, so I took that one out.

Then yesterday, day 20, my first egg pipped!!! But the pip is on the pointy end of the egg. And now, 22 hours later she's still there not looking much different. I have read that chicks who are facing away from the air cell can take longer to hatch. I am worried the membrane is drying out. When should I be concerned?

Then at around 6am on Day 21 the second egg pipped, this time in the right place!

Around an hour ago I noticed that another one of the eggs had a small crack (that didn't look like a pip or a zip) in the place a normal egg would zip, and the chick is alive and cheeping to me while pushing at the shell. This really confuses me as i've never read about this happening anywhere?!? Has anyone else experienced this?

Any help would be very much appreciated!


Malpositioned chick pipped on the wrong end:

The egg with the crack:

 

[ObsessedwithChicken]

I had shipped eggs that all the air cells were totally detached and the ones that tried to hatch pipped on the small end and didn’t hatch. When 2 other eggs did the same thing after several hours of not progressing I helped them out of the shells. 1 of the 2 is okay but has a bit of trouble with a foot as it didn’t have alot of room to grow in the shell because of the air cell. The other chick is really not doing well, it can’t even stand on it’s own because it was growing in such a tiny area.
Your eggs that are pipping at the small end probably won’t hatch either.

 

[ObsessedwithChicken]

I just saw the date of your post was a few days ago, that was the day mine were hatching. How did your hatch go in the end?

 

[Yardmom]

Just want to add for future readers. Eggs can pip on the pointy end and have healthy chicks. Once the chick pokes through the shell it needs the time for internal pip plus the time for normal external pip in that position while it absorbs the yolk etc These chicks are often the first to pip external, but the last to zip. Try to be patient and not help to soon.

 

[ObsessedwithChicken]

Just want to add for future readers. Eggs can pip on the pointy end and have healthy chicks. Once the chick pokes through the shell it needs the time for internal pip plus the time for normal external pip in that position while it absorbs the yolk etc These chicks are often the first to pip external, but the last to zip. Try to be patient and not help to soon.

I didn’t help mine until 3 died in their shell as they pipped but didn’t progress any further. Mine had totally detached air cells so I knew my hatch rate was going to be very low. I wouldn’t help normal hatching chicks.

 

[BOchickmama4]

Thanks for all your replies!
The eggs I incubated were from my own hens and when I candled them at day 9 and 16 the air cells definitely didn't look detached.
And my first egg hatched at 8:14pm 25th Mar! this one did what they should do when hatching, She or he is called Chickpea!
and then 3 hours later i was getting close to assisting the malpositioned chick out as it was nearing 31 hours after pipping, but i decided to hang on and wait a bit longer.
but soon after she started unzipping!!! And we welcomed her into the world at 11:58pm that night! And she made it out on her own with the encouraging from Chickpea.
And I moved them into the brooder in the morning when they looked very fluffy and keen to get out of the incubator!
And at 1:24pm later that day Fluffy hatched! this was the one who did the weird crack-like pip.
But sadly soon after we lost the 4th one who pipped
but now i have 3 happy and healthy chicks in the brooder!!!
This was my first hatch ever and I am fairly happy with the outcome.
thanks again for all your support!
so sorry about your losses

Chickpea:

Pumpkin (the Malposisioned)

Fluffy

All three! (Left to right: Fluffy, Pumpkin, Chickpea!)

 

[CasaCasarrubiasChickens]

Following thread. New to BYC. I have a broody on 7 eggs and our first one has pipped today— day 21.

 

[BOchickmama4]

Hello! This is what they look like now!!!!
Pumpkin:

Chickpea:

Today is their 7 month birthday

 

[HollandFarm]

Hello! This is what they look like now!!!!
Pumpkin:View attachment 3667831
Chickpea:
View attachment 3667830
Today is their 7 month birthday

So beautiful and such a great story for us who are new and experienced some of the same!! I’m sorry for the losses you experienced but thank you for sharing! Curious because I don’t see an update picture of Fluffy, did he/she make it?