Help! Crack at wrong end without pip

[Wellsfamily7165]

I'm at day 20 and have an egg that has cracks going around the very end of the pointy end of egg but there's no actual pip. I tried to get picks but not the greatest, the black spot is not a hole, just spot on the egg. This egg was very active good portion of the day but haven't seen any movement for several hours now. I don't know if I should just wait and see what happens or if I need to intervene in some way? I don't wanna jump the gun and create more issues but don't wanna lose the chick if I can save it. Any advice would be very much appreciated

 

[My15Ducks]

Do you see any bruising around the cracks? If it has actually cracked the shell it should be able to breathe. Otherwise you can make a pin sized safety hole above its beak.
Unfortunately I’m more experienced with duck eggs. I had 2 duck eggs that tried to hatch on the wrong end. One was able to externally pip and hatch without assistance. The other wasn’t able to pip, just bruised the shell. I made a safety hole, and then fully assisted the hatch 2 days later. Both survived

 

[Wellsfamily7165]

Do you see any bruising around the cracks? If it has actually cracked the shell it should be able to breathe. Otherwise you can make a pin sized safety hole above its beak.
Unfortunately I’m more experienced with duck eggs. I had 2 duck eggs that tried to hatch on the wrong end. One was able to externally pip and hatch without assistance. The other wasn’t able to pip, just bruised the shell. I made a safety hole, and then fully assisted the hatch 2 days later. Both survived

I don't see any bruising. Maybe I'll try to candle it and see if i can tell whats going on in there and try doing the safety hole. I appreciate the response

 

[Wellsfamily7165]

I candled and couldn't see a thing except nice big air sac at other end but went ahead and made safety hole right at pointy end where the cracks were hoping the beak must be there. How long should I wait before doing anything more to intervene if it looks like I'll need to?

 

[My15Ducks]

I candled and couldn't see a thing except nice big air sac at other end but went ahead and made safety hole right at pointy end where the cracks were hoping the beak must be there. How long should I wait before doing anything more to intervene if it looks like I'll need to?

How long has it been since the cracks appeared? It’s on day 21 now, right? Is it chirping, moving, or clicking at all? I think if there is no progress in the next 12 hours it would be safe to start enlarging your safety hole very slowly. Stop if there are active veins. Alternatively you could open up the air sack end of the egg (after double checking to make sure the chick hasn’t pushed itself into the air sac). Opening up the air sack is pretty safe because it allows you to check for unabsorbed yolk and see the veins.
Here’s a picture of an egg that I opened up the air sac end. It wasn’t quite ready to hatch so I left it to absorb longer and then continued assisting. I know it looks king of gruesome but it was fine.

Let me look for the article on assisted hatching and post it here.

 

[Wellsfamily7165]

Thank you, yes it's day 21 and it's been cracked for at least 24hrs now. I was considering trying to open the air end but wasn't sure how long I should wait before attempting. Trying not to jump the gun but feel like something is wrong because it stopped moving shortly after I noticed the crack and haven't seen it moved or heard anything from inside that time which has been over 24hrs at this point. I'm gonna give it go and hope the lil baby is OK. I really appreciate your help!

 

[My15Ducks]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/
Here’s an article that talks about opening the air cell end. Of the egg.

Fingers crossed for your baby!!! I agree, I would open the air cell now because I’m concerned that you aren’t seeing signs of life. You can also try tapping on the shell and see if that gets the baby to move or make noise

 

[Wellsfamily7165]

Thank you, thats extremely helpful!

 

[Wellsfamily7165]

It's alive but I didn't tear any membrane away because as soon as I got it a little wet I could tell there's still blood and yolk in there. It's in there with feet at air cell and head at pointy end. I moistened the membrane and returned it to the incubator. It's moving its feet alot but appears to be all its able to move because of its position which would explain why I could no longer see any movement

 

[My15Ducks]

Glad it’s still alive! Did you get a picture? Make sure to keep the humidity up and the membrane moist so the yolk doesn’t dry out