Trace every chick back to its egg lot, setter tray and hatch result.

Hatching runs on a fixed clock. Eggs go into a setter on one day, move to a hatcher on another, and chicks come out on a third. If a lot hatches badly, the answer lies in an earlier step that nobody wrote down. That is common.

Egg lot and hatch tracking for hatcheries starts at the receiving dock, because the breeder flock behind each egg decides most of what follows. A first pilot can trace one setter load, from eggs arriving at the dock through candling, transfer and pull to chick dispatch.

Hatching eggs arrive from breeder farms on trays and trolleys, with a flock reference, a lay date and a count. The egg room stores them, and fumigation and cold room readings are logged. Eggs are loaded into setters by lot, trays are marked, and temperature and humidity are checked through the day. Candling at transfer removes clears and early deaths, then the eggs move to the hatcher. Chicks are pulled, counted, graded, sexed where needed, vaccinated by spray or injection, and boxed for dispatch.

Farm customers place orders for a day, a breed and a number, and a delivery vehicle carries boxes with their own chick counts. After the pull, a breakout of unhatched eggs shows what went wrong, such as infertile eggs, early or late deaths and pips. Breeder farms want feedback by flock. Farm customers want a chick quality figure for each placement, and invoices are raised from boxes delivered, not from eggs set.