The total number of chickens on hand on December 1, 2018, excluding commercial broilers, was 528 million birds, up 3 percent from last year. The total value of all chickens on December 1, 2018 was $2.28 billion, up 7 percent from December 1, 2017. The average value increased from $4.16 per bird on December 1, 2017, to $4.33 per bird on December 1, 2018.
Layer numbers during 2018 averaged 391 million, up 3 percent from the year earlier. The annual average production per layer on hand in 2018 was 279 eggs, down 1 percent from 2017. Egg production during the year ending November 30, 2018 totaled 109 billion eggs, up 2 percent from 2017. Table egg production, at 95.3 billion eggs, was up 3 percent from the previous year. Hatching egg production, at 13.9 billion eggs, was up 2 percent from 2017. Click to view USDA’s Chickens and Eggs – 2018 Summary.
United States egg production totaled 8.56 billion during February 2019, up 3 percent from last year. Production included 7.48 billion table eggs, and 1.08 billion hatching eggs, of which 1.00 billion were broiler-type and 80.3 million were egg-type. The average number of layers during February 2019 totaled 398 million, up 2 percent from last year. February egg production per 100 layers was 2,154 eggs, up 2 percent from February 2018. USDA’s March Chickens and Eggs can be view by clicking the link.
Broiler-type chicks hatched during February 2019 totaled 750 million, up 2 percent from February 2018. Eggs in incubators totaled 694 million on March 1, 2019, up 2 percent from a year ago. Leading breeders placed 7.96 million broiler-type pullet chicks for future domestic hatchery supply flocks during February 2019, up 4 percent from February 2018.
