Preparing to set call and pekin duck eggs! Hatch day should be March 4, 2021 if all goes well!

[WVduckchick]

I thought this one #4 was dead so forgive the peek hole mess. I believe it's malpositioned. Any idea by pics? It's still alive. Possibly shrink wrapped
View attachment 2620320

That’s a fairly heavy blood vessel, and looks like I see some yellow under it. Can you see the beak? Is the beak thru the membrane?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Update : 1, 2 and 3 all have visible bills. I believe they're not quite ready and still working but very close. I'm still not sure about #4. I believe I see the bill but to be completely honest, I'm not sure. The thin membrane over the chick is still intact and I'm not sure about clearing it's bill. The others cleared their own bills.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I'm not sure about the beak. I thought it was maybe far top left but I'm not 100% sure. It's something firm (lightly touched with cotton swab)
#4 current

 

[HeatherKellyB]

That’s a fairly heavy blood vessel, and looks like I see some yellow under it. Can you see the beak? Is the beak thru the membrane?

I noticed that yellow too! Now, I'm thinking it's the down but I'm not certain. I haven't opened up the entire air cell yet so if this might be helpful in finding the beak I'm happy to try it

 

[WVduckchick]

That last pic looks better. I thought I was seeing yolk too, but it does look like down. It should be the back of its neck.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

That’s a fairly heavy blood vessel, and looks like I see some yellow under it. Can you see the beak? Is the beak thru the membrane?

The beak doesn't look to be through the membrane, at least it's not where I'm able to see.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

That last pic looks better. I thought I was seeing yolk too, but it does look like down. It should be the back of its neck.

Should I slowly and gently turn it over?

 

[WVduckchick]

Should I slowly and gently turn it over?

I don’t think so. Looks fine from what I’m seeing. Shaw, what do you think?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I thought the beak was below and to the left of that heavy vein up top. Either way, it's not freed from the membrane but there are so many veins that I don't want to clear it. This one externally pipped but the pip is pointing downward. So that makes sense that we're seeing the back of the neck.

You can just barely see the external pip facing downward in this picture

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Not sure what happened to my last post so I'll try again. My apologies if it shows up twice. Whenever they're shrink wrapped, do you just keep watching for them to stop chewing and yawning and then open the air cell then slowly chip away shell and lubricate it? #1 was my first pip internally and externally. It's trying to chip away at the shell but maybe once a minute, I'll see it chew for a second then back to talking. I believe they're all shrink wrapped unfortunately. Poor babies. This is disappointing and I'm sure extremely frustrating for them.