Documenting Breeding, Egg Laying & Hatching

I mark the eggs with the date laid and use an index card once hatched for the other records for weights etc and enter it into herp care software a couple of times a month just as a backup. I had all of my cards get a soda spilt on them last summer and lost alot of info.

When the eggs are laid I mark them with the lay date and the parents. When they hatch they get their own AnimalID and I enter them into my web database. The database contains the weights, photos, and other information about the animal. My website then uses this information to display the animal information on my website automagically =).

I found combining the two make website maintanence a lot easier and backups are are simple as storing a text file somewhere.

I record each date of laying and hatching in my journal with a circle around the date for laying and a square for hatching. I list for each week how many weeks each clutch is. It makes the waiting easier and I love updating the next week each Sunday night. I have a word processing document for each pairing listing important info from laying through selling.

I get a new notebook every year...and sometimes a new pen! Maybe I'll upgrade one day, but I doubt it. For those of you that write on your eggs, what do you use? I mark mine with a sharpie just to keep them right side up, but I wouldn't want to write very much on them with a sharpie...I guess?

I wouldn't want to write a whole lot on the eggs themselves either. I would think a thin sharpie would work fine.

I mostly use pen and paper myself, plus post-its on the egg cups.