If a company wants to produce 490,000 eggs per week with an average production rate of 80%, how many laying hens are needed?

To determine the number of laying hens needed to produce 490,000 eggs per week at an average production rate of 80%, it is essential to understand how egg production is calculated based on hen numbers and their production rate.

First, if the average production rate is 80%, this means each hen produces eggs only 80% of the time. Therefore, to find the total eggs produced per hen per week at full capacity (which is generally about one egg per hen per day), you would multiply 7 days by 0.8, resulting in an average of 5.6 eggs per week per hen.

Next, to find out how many hens are required, you can divide the total number of eggs needed per week by the average number of eggs produced per hen per week.

490,000 eggs needed per week, divided by 5.6 eggs per hen per week, yields:

490,000 ÷ 5.6 = 87,500 hens.

This calculation confirms that to produce 490,000 eggs at an 80% production rate, a total of 87,500 laying hens are required. This option accurately reflects the necessary hen count based on the specified production rate and egg demand.