Marking Eggs

[Czech's_chicks]

I am ashamed to say that I had probably about 4 dozen eggs stacked up everywhere

I have no idea which end were the fresh ones and which were the oldest so I boiled the whole lot of them and started over with the 4 that gathered so far today.

I remember there being a taboo against marking eggs for hatching, but what about eating? I could use pencil but it's too light and can get rubbed off...so I used a sharpie. Think there will be a problem with that? It's only 4 eggs, so far so I can always dispose of them and start over with pencil, but I just wanted to get some opinions.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use a Sharpie to mark hatching eggs. I'ved used a soft pencil. To me, marking hatching eggs is not taboo. It is good sense.

Some people are worried about the solvents soaking through the egg shell and harming the embryo. In my opinion, those solvents are so light and volatile, they will have evaporated long before they get through the membrane around the inside of the egg. The solvents, while liquid, carry the ink. Look on the inside of an egg shell that has been marked with a Sharpie. If the solvents get through the porous egg shell in liquid form, they will bring ink inside the egg shell. How much ink do you see inside the egg shell?

People can worry about that if they wish, but it is way down on my worry list. So far down that I never quite get there.

If you don't want to use a Sharpie on the eggs themselves, keep them in egg cartons. Mark the egg cartons so you know where you started and just keep adding them in sequence. That way, you will always know which ones are older.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

I've used both a pencil & sharpies to mark my eggs - never had a problem with either - at least I know the oldest from the newest ones!

 

[flgardengirl]

I use colored pencil. You can use a silver pencil to mark dark brown or olive eggs. The silver will show up on even my darkest Marans eggs.

 

[Tracydr]

Czech's_chicks :

I am ashamed to say that I had probably about 4 dozen eggs stacked up everywhere

I have no idea which end were the fresh ones and which were the oldest so I boiled the whole lot of them and started over with the 4 that gathered so far today.

I remember there being a taboo against marking eggs for hatching, but what about eating? I could use pencil but it's too light and can get rubbed off...so I used a sharpie. Think there will be a problem with that? It's only 4 eggs, so far so I can always dispose of them and start over with pencil, but I just wanted to get some opinions.

You can use a grease pen. It's fine for hatching eggs.​