in their place. A worker delivers trays of chicks from the hatcher to the 

 deheaking operators. The operators grade and deheak the chicks, then 

 drop the chicks into a chute that leads to the box. The chicks are auto- 

 matically counted in the chute by the covinter. The worker who delivers 

 the trays or a second worker secures lids on the full boxes, ties two boxes 

 together and moves them to the shipping area. This worker also removes 

 empty trays to the wash area and loads chutes with empty boxes that 

 feed into the deheaking machines. 



A standard output for deheaking by the first method is 1,000 

 chicks per man-hour. In order to compare the two methods, the opera- 

 tions performed have to be identical. The standard output for the com- 

 bined operations of hatch take-off, grading, counting, boxing, and de- 

 heaking by the first method is 750 chicks per man-hour. For the second 

 method, labor productivity varies depending on the numl)er of machines 

 and workers used. Standard outputs per man-hour are 1,070 chicks for 

 one machine and three workers, 1,280 chicks for two machines and five 

 workers, 1,200 chicks for three machines and eight workers, and 1,280 

 chicks for four machines and ten workers. 



Vaccination 



Vaccination of chicks is generally performed concurrently with de- 

 heaking by another crew. Two methods were observed, injection and 

 ocular, and the ocular method prevailed. For the ocular method, a work- 

 er removes a chick from the box, squeezes a drop of vaccine from a plas- 

 tic bottle onto an eye of the chick, and replaces the chick in the box. 

 The standard output per man-hour is 1,000 chicks. 



51 



