May, 1932] 



Economic Study of Poultry Farms 



31 



45 



Week Beginning 



Figure 9 — Weekly egg production curves on two farms with 



high fall production. 



SSI 



53 

 ■"5« 



£ ^ e s a S ■? -^ i 



Week Beginning 



Figxke 10 — Weekly egg production curves on two farms with 



low fall production. 



It is interesting to note that all four flocks rise rapidly in production 

 in February, reach a peak some time in March and then slowly decline. 

 From February on, the production in all flocks tended to follow similar 

 curves. This would seem to indicate that date of hatch, management 

 and history of production previous to March 1 has little or no effect on 



spring laying. . . . 



Individual farms fluctuated more widely in production than is shown 

 in the curve of average production in Figure 8. The averaging of all 

 farms tends to smooth the production curve. In the case of Flock 3, 

 the variation was from 12% to 72% — a spread of 60%. 



Flock 6 consisted largely of early hatched pullets. These birds laid 

 heavily in July, August and September, then declined in production 

 and went through a molting or rest period of about two months, when 

 they dropped as low as 20%. The flock began to pick up m production 

 in December, reaching a peak of 52%) about the first of March. 



Flock 4 also early hatched, declined in production from July to 

 September, after which it averaged about 36% for over four months. 

 In February and March, it increased in production and held at over 

 60% for a period of 13 weeks. 



