Do you keep detailed records of all your hatches?

I have a candling notebook, an incubation notebook (with charts to record daily temps/humidity/outside weather) and a hatchability/mortality notebook and chart. I also give every batch of eggs an ID# according to breed. Hubby shakes his head and often asks me why I bother. Honestly, I can’t imagine not keeping notes. I find this stuff fascinating and FUN. I’m curious who else does this.

yup! I have a similar record keeping system. Every incubator batch has a number, and I keep track of everything! I also keep notes on what stock I've bought and who I got it from, their leg bands etc. My family thinks I'm a bit crazy too, but I know I won't remember the details later, and sometimes it's useful to look back and see patterns. For example, my poor buff orpington rooster froze his comb quite severely in that brutal cold snap in February. The fertility of the eggs dropped during that time to about half of what it had been. Then as he healed, the fertility came back up and the last batch I hatched in May was excellent. So now I know first hand what an impact frostbite has on fertility.
A good record book is a breeder's best friend!

Yay! I knew I wasn't alone.

I do slack more with my chicks because I havn't found a good, inexpensive way to mark them yet. Legs bands seem so pricey and you'd need quite a few different sizes. I'm considering trying zip ties once they're alittle older and just keep a careful eye on their growth.

We have incubation records for every hatch of chicks we have ever hatched going back almost 23 years and a yearly summary of each year as well as number of fertile eggs in a hatch as well as infertiles and weekly numbers hatched for every mating and breed/ variety of poultry I ever hatched from. This is only thanks to my husband who is my hatcher, candler and keeper of the incubators. Very interesting read years later So lucky me.

Heather

I keep good records of the custom stuff, but, grin, not my own. I tend to make pair or trio matings early in the year, and it's real obvious with that few eggs how things are going. I make scarse notes, Jack, mated with Mary has all fertile eggs but the hatch rate is poorer. Jack had the wheezies for two weeks, hatch rate was poor for several weeks after that. Switched to Ben in with Mary, all eggs fertile, hatch rate pending...that sort of thing. Jack times Mary produces some recessive whites.

The temperatures of the barn and outside, I tend to write on the eggs...if I set 4 eggs, all have notes on them, very cold when gathered, or very hot day, that sort of thing. Egg may have been out all night, found very early in pen the next AM. I'll know at candling whether that egg was stressed before setting. Sometimes I write the genetic data on the eggs, lav/lav on E^R mated lav+/lav+ on E/E...then I know how to band the chicks.

Would anyone be willing to share their charts they use? Or do you just write it all out on a paper?
I have records of eggs set, candling at 10 days, 18 days and how many hatched.
I do not keep records of highs and lows of the incubator, figure I paid enough for them they will do what they are supposed to do, but would be a good idea to see why a hatch might have failed?
I am all for charts and such so if anyone does chart them please share yours with me.

I used to keep a detailed notebook, more about breedings than hatchings. Who was bred to whom and what it produced. Growth, type, lacing and how many males and females and what fertility was for certain breedings. Notes about future breedings and possible combinations and then if I did them or if I changed my mind.
I have been very slack since moving here and I don`t even have a notebook at all. Will have to start doing it again after this year as it will start to get more complicated again.

Hidden- my husband just has an Excell chart he made that prints off each week and it then goes in a binder. As far as incubator noes he hand writes that in his hatching notebook.

Heather

I have my poultry binder. A section for the australorps and another for the aussie ducks. I track the hatches by date and mark fertility and hatch percentage from that. Any notes if anything particular happened. Also where eggs were from and then later the bands so I can track who is who.
Our "breeding" flock is pretty much set so I'm starting to track who eggs or chicks go to.
The binder is also great to print or otherwise keep articles or information handy.

Wow viczoe, 23 years is pretty impressive.

I mostly use notebooks and handmade charts. (couldn’t figure out MS excel if my life depended on it) My candling scribblings look something like this:


Hatch ID # EE1 – Day 7 Candle - June 14/2011

Egg # -- veins/spiders -- air cells -- movement -- misc

1 -- yes/yes -- good size -- yes -- good veins
2 -- no/no -- n/a -- no -- clear/removed
3 -- yes/faint -- good -- no -- possible bloodring/recheck



Ok, that didn't really work. lol Too hard to reproduce on here. For my temp/humidity chart I just print out a blank calendar page, fill in dates, then mark days 1-21. Works great for recording the data daily. My hatchability/mortality chart I can share since I print it off page 11 of this pdf:

(dialup users please beware)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I keep a notebook of things like eggs and poultry I've bought, from whom and leg band info. I want to become a bit more organized on that. I like Heather's idea of printing off a chart and adding to a binder, so maybe this winter I'll work on a better system.
I do have a hatch sheet I made in excel that I tape onto the incubator to help keep track of what's hatching. It is still a work in progress. I find I need more room for notes as my pages are filled with scribbles, but if anyone is interested, here it is:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks for the links guys, I really like those charts.