Assisted hatch - uh oh, too early?!

[Nooby-bator]

I am on day 24 of my first hatch. I have had 29 successful chicks hatch from day 20-21 and 6 eggs remaining. I candled and listened to the remaining eggs and all but 1 appeared dead. That one was chirping away loudly around 8 hours ago. I listened to it now and it sounded very weak and only on occasion. Being a first time hatcher ’hero’ I thought this was where I needed to step in and help. I removed the shell from the air sac and saw it had internally pipped but seemed very weak. I removed the top membrane but some of the second membrane came off and the chick clearly wasn’t ready as there’s some bleeding veins that have been damaged. Now I have a 1/4 opened chick who is bleeding a little and I am assuming it’s not ready to be hatched. I just put him back in the incubator and told myself ‘this is why we wait until day 26!!’. Is it likely that I’ve just killed this little guy or is there something I can do to increase his odds of hatching?

 

[NatJ]

Have you already read this article? It's a good starting point:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

Now I have a 1/4 opened chick who is bleeding a little and I am assuming it’s not ready to be hatched. I just put him back in the incubator and told myself ‘this is why we wait until day 26!!’. Is it likely that I’ve just killed this little guy or is there something I can do to increase his odds of hatching?

Yes, putting him back in the incubator was the right thing to do. I don't have much personal experience with assisting eggs, but based on the article (link above), I think he does still have a chance.

I am on day 24 of my first hatch. I have had 29 successful chicks hatch from day 20-21 and 6 eggs remaining. I candled and listened to the remaining eggs and all but 1 appeared dead. That one was chirping away loudly around 8 hours ago. I listened to it now and it sounded very weak and only on occasion. Being a first time hatcher ’hero’ I thought this was where I needed to step in and help.

Unless that egg was put in the incubator on a later day than the others, I would worry that the chick might have some kind of problem. (I would be concerned just by the fact that it stayed in the egg for 3 days past when the others hatched, and still wasn't ready.) If it has other problems, it might die regardless of whether you helped or not.

But I have also read of later hatchers that did fine, so yours might turn out to be one of those.