Hey thanks guys! Well I didnt really want to do these tests. my birds have finally started to lay consistently. so I saved almost every egg they laid. so thats why some of them are so old.
The flipping of the eggs I know is not the smartest thing... I need to come up with an auto turner storage fridge of some sort.
okay the marker. I mark all my eggs with different colored sharpies but haven't always. I first used a plain pencil but I couldnt hardly see it on the quail eggs. then I got multiple pens of quail and I didnt want to mix them up. I started using crayola nontoxic washable markers but found buy the time I needed to read them it was rubbed off. so then I started researching, I needed further information, there had to be a better way. I found an experiment where a guy colored a few eggs solid with a sharpie and they hatched. so I have been using different colored sharpies for a little over a year now. I now use the same color as thier bands. PERFECT!
Sharpies are nontoxic, dosent bleed into the egg, and dont effect the egg at all n im a guna prove it
I slightly washed about 1/3 of these eggs with a damp paper towel but I did not touch the black eggs.
to be honest Im not very hopeful about the outcome... I find I have better results when I dont expect things to go well.