Can I turn the eggs like this...?

[SeptemberQuail]

I have around 30 eggs (all in total from both my hens that are laying; I know they're fertile, male's mounted them both.) and the incubator is almost ready (it's a homemade styrofoam cooler incubator). After we prepare the final touches and make sure the temps alright, we should be putting the eggs in soon.

I have a fat permanent marker that is instant drying but I don't trust it all that well, but I've been marking half my eggs with those, but have stopped recently.
I was thinking of buying a sharpie today but forgot (apparently sharpie's are safe for eggs), and I have no crayons.
And I have coturnix quail eggs, so using a lead pencil will be hard as it'd be hard to make out where it is with all the brown blobs.

So instead of writing an X and an O, and turning it one by one, can I just put my hand in the incubator, on top of the eggs and just gently move my hand so the eggs roll along with it? I saw it being done on a video before as an example of an incubator the person had made; just that they weren't incubating the eggs (can't find the video source).

Thanks. ^-^

 

[Quyen Le]

I rolled the eggs and some of them got cracked

 

[sumi]

I don't think that'll be sufficient. You'll have to roll them many times a day if you do that, whereas if you are turning them completely you can do them minimum 3x a day. How long have you been storing the eggs and have you turned them?

I used an eye make up pencil to mark my hatching eggs.

 

[SeptemberQuail]

Oh, we're just testing our incubator tonight, humidity remains at 40% and temperature ranges from 35 to 39 degrees celcius, so far; We're adjusting the light amount with a dimmer and seeing what works best to maintain proper temps, so far it's at 38.0 currently.
If all goes well we should be putting the eggs in tomorrow afternoon (since I have school to attend to).

What I've used for around 15 eggs (for my first eggs that my quail lay) I marked them with a regular permanent marker, so not fine tip. It's instant drying, but doesn't say is non-toxic, I've stopped marking them on my other eggs recently, but I'm just wondering, do you think that marker is safe though?

Otherwise I think I can go with the eye-liner. :3
But one more thing though, that I'd like to ask.
Since my incubator is a styrofoam cooler, I'd need to turn each egg individually and I'd need to open the lid, meaning that the warm air would escape -- how long can I leave the lid on exactly so I can turn the eggs? ^-^