Running a hatchery
Track a set of eggs from receipt through setting, candling, hatch, and chick transfer.
Last updated 2026-07-11
Running a hatchery
A hatchery egg set is saved as a Lot in PoultryDesk. It is one set of eggs in a setter or hatcher cabinet, tracked from the day the eggs arrive to the day the chicks are transferred out. You can always see the set's fertility, hatch rate, and chick yield.
Before you start
Make sure your site and the cabinet (recorded as a house) exist, and that you have eggs to work with.
Receive the eggs
Open the Hatchery module, choose Receive eggs, and enter the supplier reference, the count, the breed, and any condition notes. This adds the eggs to your inventory so you can track them.
Set the eggs
Open the cabinet, choose Set eggs, and enter the count being set, the day-zero date and time, and an optional photo of the fill plan. This opens a new egg set, labelled as a Lot in the app. The set count cannot exceed the eggs you received.
Candle
On the candling day, open the egg set and choose Candle. Enter the clears, infertiles, dead-in-shell, and the viable count. You can enter more than one candling result. The viable count cannot exceed the set count.
Record the hatch
On hatch day, open the egg set and choose Record hatch. Enter the live-chick count, the late-deads, and the culls. The live-chick count cannot exceed the viable count from candling.
Transfer chicks out
Choose Transfer chicks and pick the destination - one of your own broiler or layer flocks, or an outside customer - then enter the count. This draws the chicks down from the egg set's balance.
If you transfer chicks into one of your own broiler or layer flocks, PoultryDesk opens that flock automatically, so you do not have to place it separately.
Close the lot
Once all chicks have been transferred or culled, choose Close lot. Closeout is blocked while chicks still await transfer.
Correct a set
Before closeout, a manager can correct the set facts - eggs-set count, breed, cabinet, set date - by editing the set. The correction is recorded rather than overwriting the original. It is blocked once the lot is closed, or if the corrected count would fall below the live chicks already hatched.
What you get
- An egg-set dashboard showing fertility percentage, hatch percentage, chicks per egg set, and the setter-to-hatcher transfer date.
- Egg balance per supply and chick balance per egg set in the inventory ledger.
- A full timeline of every entry for the egg set in the audit trail.