Source: Lisa Keefe, Meatingplace.com, March 24

Commercial hatcheries in the 19-state weekly program set 208 million eggs in incubators during the week ending March 19. They registered a 1 percent increase over the number of eggs set the corresponding week a year earlier.

Average hatchability for chicks hatched during the week was 84 percent.

Meanwhile, broiler growers in those states placed 170 million chicks for meat production. Placements were up slightly from the comparable week a year earlier.

Cumulative placements from Jan. 2, 2011, through March 19, 2011, were 1.85 billion, up 1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

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