Most people remember their first hatch for the chicks. They remember their second for the moment in the middle when they couldn't remember what came next: whether candling was day 7 or day 10, when to stop turning, and whether the humidity goes up or down for lockdown. And first time hatchers face a daunting technical challenge alone!
That's the gap the Broody Hatch Planner fills. Tell it what you've set and when, and it works out every job for those eggs on the day it's due, with a short explanation of why it matters to improve your confidence through knowledge. It's free with any Broody order, and free with a Broody account, wherever your eggs came from.
Advice changes by species
A chicken hatch runs 21 days. Ducks and turkeys take 28, geese about 30, guinea fowl 27, pheasants and partridges 24, and quail just 18. Lockdown, the last few days when you stop turning and raise the humidity, moves with them. The planner knows each species' timings, so a duck hatch never gets a chicken's calendar, and a breed with its own timing, like Muscovy ducks at 35 days, gets its own.
What it plans for you
The set date. Today, yesterday, tomorrow or another day. If posted eggs are still resting after the journey, plan them for tomorrow and the count starts when they go in.
Temperature and humidity. The figures to hold for your species, with a drier or more humid setting if your room calls for it. At lockdown it tells you exactly what to raise the humidity to.
Turning. A morning, lunchtime and evening turn to tick off if you turn by hand. If your incubator turns for you, it reminds you to switch the turner off at lockdown.
Candling. The evenings to candle, with a guide to what you're looking at: veins, an even glow, or a red ring.
Under a broody. She does the work, so the plan is what to watch for and when to leave her be.
Hatch day, and the stragglers. When to expect chicks, and how long to give the late ones before you call it.
A nudge the evening before
The night before each step (setting, candling, lockdown, hatch day and recording your results) we send one email listing tomorrow's jobs across all your hatches. Chickens and ducks on the go at once? Still one email. It's on by default, and one switch turns it off. You can also add every date to your calendar in one go.
Record how it went
After hatch day, tell the planner how many hatched by dragging the healthy, empty and didn't-make-it markers along a row of eggs. It starts you from a sensible spread rather than a row of zeros. If you like, say what you saw in the eggs that didn't hatch; it's the most useful note you can leave yourself for next time.
If the eggs came from a Broody seller, your report goes into their hatch record, so they can see how their eggs do in other people's incubators and keep their quality up. Your own notes stay yours: sellers never see them.
Free, wherever your eggs came from
Buy hatching eggs on Broody and the Hatch Planner comes with your order: when the eggs arrive, the order page offers to plan the hatch for you, breeds and all. Hatching your own, or eggs from somewhere else? Sign up for a free account and plan them too.
It isn't a guarantee. How you hatch, and how it goes, is down to you and the eggs. But nobody should lose a hatch because they forgot which day was lockdown.
Plan your hatches perfectly every time with the Broody Hatch Planner
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