An attempt is made to collect hatchery information from all known hatcheries in these 22 monthly States. Approximately 65 hatcheries are contacted each month. Revisions are generally the result of late or corrected data and are usually less than 1 percent at the U.S. level. Hatcheries are mailed a questionnaire and given adequate time to respond by mail. Those that do not respond by mail are called by phone.
Diligent effort is made to ensure that all hatcheries are accounted for in the estimate.
An allowance is made for all non-reporting hatcheries. This time period corresponds with the placements of poults which will reach maturity and be available for slaughter during the calendar year. Only regional and U.S. level estimates are published due to the limited number of hatcheries involved. Regional placement data in the report refer to placement of poults from hatcheries located in that region, not the actual location of the birds after placement. Poults exported out of the U.S. and poults imported from outside of the U.S. are not included in the report.