Best Way to Mark Eggs for Hatching?

[D13]

So recently one of our Blue Cochin hens went broody for the first time, which was super surprising to me as she's not even a year old yet.
Anyway this time I wanted to mark the eggs to keep track of them better, but wasn't sure what to use. My first thought was a Sharpie, but I wasn't sure if Sharpies have some sort of toxin that could poison the chicks through the shell.
She's in a nice cozy little hay nook as of right now (and is doing a very good job of incubating so far), and I want to use something that doesn't rub off too easily.

Any suggestions? - D13

 

[Kiki]

I use Sharpies all the time with no issue.

 

[wrathsfarm]

I use an Ultra Fine Tip Sharpie and draw a circle all the way around the egg to quickly see what eggs don't belong.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Over the years I've used various things. I'm so old we used to use fountain pens at elementary school. So I used fountain pen ink to mark hatching eggs a few times. Worked well.

We had wax crayons. I used them a couple of times. They worked but did rub off and were hard to see after a while. I did not use them after trying them. Too hard to see.

Mostly what I used back then was a pencil. Instead of writing with the sharp point I'd rub the flat side of the lead to form a black band. #2 lead, the hard stuff, went on light and did rub off a bit so not a good choice. However a soft #1 or #0 pencil lead went on dark and lasted.

Then I got older and Sharpies were invented. That's what I use now, a fine point Sharpie. Easy to see and lasts well.

I've read that about a Sharpie poisoning the chick. The way I look at it the dangerous chemicals are in the volatiles. That's the part that evaporates quickly and leaves the ink behind. The volatiles evaporate so quickly they are not going to penetrate the eggshell, then penetrate the membrane surrounding the egg white, then penetrate the egg whites to reach the embryo on the yolk in sufficient quantities to do any harm. I try to pay attention to the warnings you read on here about anything but I also try to ignore the ridiculous ones.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My broodies recently hatched two eggs I let them have and I'd marked them up pretty good with a wide-tip Sharpie. I marked them all around from top to bottom and side to side, so I could easily spot them from non-hatching eggs. I also wrote their expected hatch date on them. Didn't seem to hurt a thing.

 

[D13]

Thank you for all your suggestions; I now know what to use! This was all very helpful, thank you!

 

[Akashby1972]

Thank you