A step-by-step guide to setting up breeds and ad-hoc farms, then recording and scheduling eggs received from an outside supplier.

Overview

In Benevia Hatchery, eggs you receive from an outside supplier are tracked the same way as your own production: through a flock that is linked to a breed and to the farm the eggs came from. Before you can record incoming external eggs, two building blocks must exist in the system — the breed and the source farm. Once those are in place, you create a flock (marked as a partner source) and then a hatch plan that schedules when the eggs are set and when they hatch.

This tutorial walks through the full process in four steps:

All of these live under the Hatches area of the app (the “Hatches” link in the top navigation bar).

Key terms

Term What it means
Breed The bird type. Carries a short ID code (e.g. NVB, BM, DAKAN) and a default incubation length in days. Referenced everywhere eggs and chicks are counted.
Farm The organizational or physical source of eggs. Your own operation appears as “Company”; outside suppliers are separate farm records. An ad-hoc farm is a one-off / on-demand source.
Flock A group of birds (or received eggs) tied to one breed and one farm. Its Ownership field states whether the eggs are Owned, from a Regular Partner, or from an On Demand Partner.
Hatch Plan Schedules a batch of eggs: the set date (into incubation), the hatch date, the breed, the source, and expected/actual counts.

Step 1 — Define the Breed

Breeds are managed from the Hatches area. Make sure the breed you are receiving exists before you create the flock, otherwise the Breed field will return “No results found.”

  1. Click Hatches in the top navigation bar.
  2. On the Flocks / Flock Production / Hatch Plans bar, click the ⋮ (three-dot) menu on the far right, then choose Breeds.
  3. Review the existing breed list (Name, Note, Id, Incubation Days). If your breed is missing, click the + next to “Breeds.”
  4. On the New Breed screen, complete the fields, then click Save.

New breed fields

Field Notes
Name Full readable name, e.g. “Novogen Brown.”
ID Short code used across the app and in flock IDs, e.g. NVB. Keep it consistent — this is what you type when searching.
Incubation Days Days from set to hatch. Defaults to 21 (typical for chicken breeds); adjust for other species.
Description Optional free-text notes.
Production Template (right panel) Optional but recommended. Add a row per week with a Projected Lay Rate and Projected Hatch Rate. These feed the Egg / Chick Availability projections. Use “Add Row” for each week.
Flocks / Products tabs Read-only views of the flocks and products already linked to this breed.

Step 2 — Set Up the Source Farm (including ad-hoc)