Intended U.S. placements of broiler pullet chicks for the hatchery supply flock for August 2013 were 7,490,000, 2 percent above the 7,338,000 pullet chicks placed in August 2012, according to the “Chickens and Eggs” report issued this week by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
The August 2013 pullet chicks combined with the previous eight months gives a 7-to-15-month cumulative total of 61,573,000 hens in March 2014. The 66,573,000 cumulative potential pullet placements represent a 1 percent increase when compared with the 61,094,000 hens in March 2013.
| U.S. Broiler-Type Hatchery Supply Flock Pullet Chicks Hatched and Cumulative Potential Placements | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pullet Chicks Hatched | Potential Placements, Cumulative 7-15 months earlier | |||||||||||
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||||||
| –000– | -%-* | –000– | -%- | –000– | -%- | –000– | -%-* | -000- | -%- | -000- | -%- | |
| January | 6,557 | 99 | 6,673 | 102 | 6,303 | 94 | 64,111 | 102 | 60,874 | 95 | 60,546 | 99 |
| February | 7,284 | 104 | 7,025 | 96 | 7,156 | 102 | 63,679 | 101 | 60,656 | 95 | 60,850 | 100 |
| March | 7,058 | 106 | 6,753 | 96 | 6,589 | 98 | 63,323 | 100 | 61,094 | 96 | 61,573 | 101 |
| April | 7,044 | 103 | 6,524 | 93 | 6,222 | 95 | 63,209 | 99 | 61,342 | 97 | ||
| May | 7,721 | 92 | 7,472 | 97 | 7,565 | 101 | 62,941 | 98 | 60,934 | 97 | ||
| June | 7,211 | 101 | 6,800 | 94 | 7,011 | 103 | 62,557 | 97 | 60,676 | 97 | ||
| July | 6,444 | 97 | 6,071 | 94 | 6,569 | 108 | 61,937 | 96 | 60,591 | 98 | ||
| August | 7,233 | 99 | 7,338 | 101 | 7,490 | 102 | 61,566 | 96 | 60,370 | 98 | ||
| September | 6,657 | 93 | 6,686 | 100 | 60,870 | 96 | 60,054 | 99 | ||||
| October | 6,289 | 91 | 6,265 | 99 | 60,412 | 95 | 59,843 | 99 | ||||
| November | 6,890 | 91 | 6,767 | 98 | 60,492 | 95 | 59,994 | 99 | ||||
| December | 6,438 | 95 | 6,668 | 103 | 60,731 | 95 | 60,221 | 99 | ||||
| Annual Total | 82,826 | 98 | 81,042 | 98 | **62,144 | 97 | **60,554 | 97 | ||||
| Source: Chickens and Eggs NASS/USDA * Comparison with one year earlier. ** Annual Average | ||||||||||||
Note: All generations of layers that 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.
Also, in the current issue of “Chickens and Eggs,” NASS reported that the actual number of layers in the broiler-type hatching egg flock on September 1, 2013 was 51,766,000 hens, a 5-percent increase from 49,502,000 hens on September 1, 2012.
