Carefully Cracking Open An Egg That Didn't Hatch To See If Its Still Alive

In this video I show you how to crack open an egg that didn't hatch during incubation (another words it did not hatch on day 21 to 22). Typically, you don't want to crack open any eggs until day 24 just safe. Sometimes chicks are late bloomers, by cutting open the egg the mortality rate increases dramatically, therefore you want cutting open eggs to be the ultimate last resort.

Basically, what you want to do is to locate the air sac then take a sharp knife and carefully chip away a small piece of the shell. Then peel up additional pieces. Don't jab your knife in or you risk damaging the chick -if it's still alive, or else puncturing the internal membrane causing rotten goo to pour out all over your knife and hands... Both of those two things are very bad.
After you have a small cut in the shell and have peeled back a small piece of the shell away from the incision, peer into the egg and watch to see if the internal membrane is moving up and down (breathing). If it is, return it to the incubator or hen immediately. If you see a beak sticking through do the same. (Unless, you are positive that though there is a beak through the internal membrane, that the chick is not breathing)
However, if there's no (breathing) beak sticking through or no breathing, cut the egg open a little bit more by peeling back the shell further. If there's still no signs of life slightly tilt the egg and see if the fluid rolls forward.

A word from experience: many eggs do not have any smell externally or even when you have cut into the shell -not puncturing the membrane. A lot of eggs that are under Broody hens that die during incubation do not stink unless they die in lock down and have been sitting there a long time...

Now that you've determined the egg is dead you may dispose of it however desired. Personally, I further cut the internal membrane and pour out the the fluids and embryo to see what stage it died in, and try to identify a cause of death if possible. If you want to do that, simply cut a careful slit in the membrane and pour into a bowl with ease.