2. Egg hatchability, that is the number of eggs that hatch into 

 satisfactory quality chicks for growing-out into broilers, is assumed to 

 be 72 percent. 



3. Of all the chicks distributed to production facilities, an assumed 

 4.2 percent are lost to mortality during the growing-out period. Table 2 

 gives the capacities and outputs for the model hatcheries and processing 

 plants. 



Operating the hatcheries at 100 percent of capacity on an annual 

 basis provides a quantity of chicks equivalent to 260 days of processing. 

 However, 100 percent of annual capacity for processing was established 

 at 247 days.-^ Consequently, hatcheries would operate at 95 percent of 

 annual capacity in supplying chicks to the growing-out operations for 

 the processing plants. 



Hatcheries schedule 2, 4. or 6 days a week for egg setting and hatch 

 removal. Generally, the numlier of scheduled days increases with in- 

 creasing size of hatcheries. Several reasons explain the variation. First, 

 by increasing the number of scheduled hatch-removal days, the day to 

 day fluctuations in the work load are minimized. Second, the quantity 

 of chicks scheduled for a day's hatch should be sufficient to fill the faci- 

 lities of one or more broiler producers to prevent age differences in the 

 individual flocks. For purposes of this study, the number of days per 

 week of egg setting and hatch removal is based on flock sizes ranging 

 from 10,000 to 25,000 Ijirds. This range includes most commercial broiler 

 flocks in New England. Third, the operating schedule of a hatchery has 

 a major influence on the organization and resources reqviired for distri- 

 buting chicks. A hatchery that removes hatches six days a week has es- 

 sentially continuous distribution which enables a high utilization of its 

 fixed distribution resources. Taljle 2 gives the number of hatch-removal 

 days adopted for the model hatcheries. 



Hatchery Labor 



Labor is required to perform a minimum of 11 production opera- 

 tions in a broiler chick hatchery. The labor input required for these 

 operations is determined by the methods used and the volume of eggs 

 set or chicks hatched. Jol) analyses and time and motion studies were 

 made in hatcheries to derive input-output relationships for each opera- 

 tion."^ Most of these operations were found to ])e performed with similar 

 methods. Major differences existed in the methods employed for traying 

 eggs, washing trays, and counting and boxing chicks in conjunction 

 with the debeaking operation. 



In addition to these operations, a number of service operations may 

 l)e conducted. However, operations of this type are generally limited to 

 debeaking or vaccination of chicks or both. Labor standards were also 

 determined for each of these two operations. ^ 



3 Op. Cit., p. 8. 



■* See Appendix A for a description of labor productivity standards. 



5 See Appendix A. 



