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.

 

[Ebz5003]

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.

Thanks for the info. The egg got smashed by one of the other hens
in the nest box last night, and the chick ( dead) looked to be a couple days behind in development, so I'm guessing something wasn't right and it had already died, and then the shell was pecked...or tried to hatch early and then was crushed and killed. I will probably go with an incubator from now on.