marking eggs

[chefchick]

I set some eggs last Sunday mostly to see if my roo is fertile enough yet to get serious about my RSL hatching project, before seperate him and my SLW hens. So I put about 3 doz mixed breed random eggs in my hovabator- (no fan, but I have had good luck with it before) Temps are good 99-100 the whole time. Humidity is good 45-50% accoring to my handy dandy probe thermomter/hygrometer, and I use a regular thermometer on my eggs as well. I candled on SAturday and put a dot on the ones I was sure were growing. I only found a couple non fertile ones, and two blood rings. The very dark brown ones and the green ones, I just left in because I can't tell. Some of them were moving around really good, so I know they were doing good. Last night, I went to show hubby the progress, so I used my tiny superbright led light and just shined it on some of the eggs in the carton, didn't even pick them up, and the embryois on a bunch of them seem to have died. The veins look to be settling and they are no longer moving. I never gave it a thought when I was marking them, but do you think it could have been because I used a magic marker? I am puzzled...I am doing everything else right for a change. (I am usually a constant peeker

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[chefchick]

I forgot to add... I had also set some quail eggs with them- none were fertile so I removed them all when I candled them. They were the oly eggs I really handled for more than a few seconds each

 

[Sally Sunshine]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

You need to raise temps for a still air incubator.... please go to the temp section of my notes.
Also refer to the collecting eggs section in regards to fertile eggs.

 

[heronz]

I use a pencil to mark them.
Be careful not to push to hard on the pencil because you can poke a hole in the egg.

 

[chefchick]

I cehcked them again carefully last night and most of them are still good. I even got a cool video on my flip recorder. Will try to post later.