Intended U.S. placements of broiler pullet chicks for the hatchery supply flock for March 2011 were 6,733,000, a 1-percent increase from the 6,673,000 pullet chicks placed in March 2010, according to the “Chickens and Eggs” report issued this week by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The March pullet chicks combined with the previous eight months give a 7-to-15-month cumulative total of 63,181,000 hens in October 2011. The 63,181,000 cumulative potential pullet placements represent a 3 percent increase compared with the number for October 2010.
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Note: All generations of layers which would lay eggs to supply a hatchery are included: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, pedigree, foundation, and similar. Any pullet chicks used for research purposes, vaccine production, and specific-pathogen-free layers that are in broiler-type hatchery supply flocks are also included in the data.
