Worried that I may have killed a chick that is very close to hatching.....

[Ebz5003]

I have a 20 day old egg that has been sitting under broodies and was successfully candled as of last night. Looked like a big air cell and still had veining and there was movement. Today, I noticed it has a faint crack and small ( pip hole maybe) near the narrower end of the egg. Since it stayed like this for hours, no sounds or anything coming from it, I tried making the hole a tiny bit bigger, and broke through the inner membrane, where it looks like there's blood. I then tried candling and noticed that the crack ( which goes around the egg) and the hole are far from the aircell. Does this mean that these cracks I found are not from the chick trying to break out/ that the chick is in trouble? Does the chick always break out of the shell near where the aircell is??I realize now I was stupid for trying to make that hole bigger and hope I didn't kill it....

 

[HonkABC]

Sometimes they pip in the wrong end of the egg. You said that the crack went around the egg, which does not sound like a pip hole.

 

[Ebz5003]

Sometimes they pip in the wrong end of the egg. You said that the crack went around the egg, which does not sound like a pip hole.

There is also a pip hole, which is close to this crack around the egg

 

[Susan Skylark]

As long as he hatches in a few days you didn’t hurt anything, the bleeding (if any) should stop and won’t affect the chick much. If it was longer than a couple days infection might kill the developing egg but a little hole or crack at this stage is fine.