Figure 9. Man-hours of Labor Expended per Day for Production units of 

 Various Sizes During the First Phase of the Production Period 



10 15 20 25 



FLOCK SIZE IN THOUSANDS 



30 



35 



ogy. The number of nian-hours expended per day per thousand broilers 

 decreased with increases in size. It appears that a family unit could care 

 for a flock of approximately 35,000 birds in this phase. With 35,000 

 broilers, two-thirds of the growers would expend from 6.3 to 13.7 man- 

 hours daily. 



Table 3 shows the average number of hours expended for different 

 chores by the 43 contract growers classified by size of flock. The propor- 

 tion of time used for feeding during the first phase tended to increase 

 with increases in size. The proportion of time spent on brooding tended 

 to decrease, reflecting use of central heating systems with increased size. 

 The proportion of time for other chores was extremely erratic with in- 

 creases in size. Hand watering of broilers required the greatest amount 

 of time followed by feeding. These two chores required about two-thirds 

 of the labor input for flocks of all sizes. 



The use of labor was shifted considerably in the second phase. This 

 resulted from the shift to automatic waterers and the end of brooding 

 chores. Figure 10 illustrates the total number of man-hours expended 



22 



