We have a fully developed bob white quail chick in the egg at day 24. At day 20, we increased the relative humidity to 70% and the temp is set at 99.4 F. There is still no signs of hatching, would it be possible to conduct a c-section on the egg to assist with hatching and determine if the chick is still living?
You can try holding the fat end up to your ear. Give it a gap and see if you get a response. You should hear tapping if the chick is trying to pip. Or, if you can't hear anything, you can float the egg in water as close in temperature to your incubator as possible (but don't obsess about it as a small change for a very short period won't harm the chick). If the chick is alive you should see the egg jerking as it floats. Just be very sure there is no external pip as otherwise you will drown the chick.
