Average hatchability was 85 percent for chicks hatched during the week, NASS said. Average hatchability is calculated by dividing chicks hatched during the week by eggs set three weeks earlier.
Broiler growers placed 165 million chicks for meat production during the week ending May 19, 2012, a decline of 4 percent from the comparable week a year earlier, according to NASS. Cumulative placements from Jan. 1 through May 19 were 3.27 billion, down 4 percent from the same period in 2011.
