Hickman’s Family Farms masters modern egg production

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Eat them with bacon, sausage and hash browns, or put them in omelets, frittatas, casseroles, cakes, pies, cookies and breads, sauces, salads, meat loafs and a myriad of other culinary treats.

What other food is more versatile, or loaded with the vitamins and minerals everyone needs?

In the time-honored slogan made famous by the American Egg Board, it’s the “incredible, edible egg!”

And no one in Arizona knows more about producing eggs than the Hickman family, which operates one of the nation’s largest and most successful egg farms.

The Hickman’s saga is a classic American success story. In 1944, Bill and Gertie Hickman started raising chickens and selling eggs to local restaurants from their home in Glendale, Ariz., beginning with fewer than 500 birds.  Before long, they had a large, commercial egg farm that continued to grow in Glendale until the 1990s when a new facility was opened in Buckeye that housed more than a million of bird.

In 2002, Hickman’s expanded again, building a massive, modern egg farm on Murphy Rd. at the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway in partnership with the Ak-Chin Indian Community, which owns the 36 acres the egg plant sits on, as well as the adjacent Ak-Chin Farms. Today, Hickman’s Family Farms is run by four of Bill and Gertie’s children: Glenn, Billy, Sharman and Clint.

A mutually beneficial relationship.
“We obtain our feed from the Ak-Chin Farms,” explains Jerry Hall, plant manager, “and they in turn use our composted waste materials as fertilizer.”

The waste materials include egg shells and manure. Water for the chickens and other farm uses comes from wells on the Ak-Chin property and waste water is processed and recycled to irrigate AK-Chin crops.

A tour of the Maricopa facility, for city folks, at least, is an amazing lesson in modern farm management, efficiency, technology and productivity. There are more than 1.5 million white Leghorns laying eggs in five barns, where each hen lays one egg, on average, every 27 hours. In a recent four-week period, the Hickman’s hens in Maricopa laid 21 million eggs.
And, thanks to modern technology, very few of those eggs are broken or lost in the process.

With the help of computer-controlled jet fans, each of the five barns is kept at the ideal temperature of 78 to 82 degrees, year-round, and the hens live and work in what to them must be considered a sort of “high rise” condo operation. Their “cages” are really enclosed spaces, on multiple levels, in which they can easily obtain water from a fountain system and feed, which is delivered in trays attached to the cages six times a day, with the
contents controlled by a nutritionist.

Not free-range, but stress free
But wait! What about “free range” chickens and organic eggs? How do the Hickmans respond to the allegations that chicken farms are inhumane and crowded?

“We believe chickens are more productive and less stressed in a controlled environment,” Sharman Hickman says. “When you think about it, chickens in this kind of barn are
almost stress-free. They don’t worry about coyotes, foxes, snakes or other predators, or the heat, and they’re not competing with each other for food or water.”

Hickman’s does provide organic eggs, however, for the 2 to 5 percent of consumers who demand them.

The laying hens start out life at Hickman’s Farms as chicks. At about 18 weeks, they’re ready to begin laying eggs. A typical hen lays eggs for two years, before “retiring.” When the chickens lay their eggs, they fall just below the cages onto a belt that carries them to the processing center. The eggs first go through a hot water bath where all foreign materials are removed, and then move on to an electronic candling machine, where each egg is inspected inside and out as light is projected through the shell. If there are any abnormalities in the white or yolk, the candling machine rejects the egg and it’s added to a bucket of rejects that ends up in the compost pile.

Grading is by the size and color of the egg, and the size is usually determined to the age of the layer: The bigger the egg, the older the hen. Leghorns account for the majority of the
farm’s production, because most consumers still prefer white eggs. Rhode Island Reds produce brown eggs at the Buckeye plant.

“There is no important difference in nutrition or content between brown and white,” Hall says. “It’s merely a matter of consumer preference.”

In addition to eggs in cartons, Hickman’s Farms also produces hard-boiled eggs and liquid egg product.

“Personally, I believe the entire industry will move gradually toward a liquid product,” Hall says. “It’s a natural evolution toward saving time for the consumer.”

That trend toward saving time is complemented by an industry trend to become more productive. Today, the entire Maricopa facility requires only a staff of 40, working two shifts a day.

The ground adjacent to the Hickman’s Farms Maricopa facility reminds a visitor of a truck stop, but without the refueling islands and restaurant. Rigs from Basha’s and Safeway line up, diesel engines chugging, ready to back up to the packing plant to receive the day’s production. “Eggs produced today can be on local market shelves tomorrow,” Hall says.

Quality and consistency are bywords at Hickman’s Family Farms, and these standards are backed up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which maintains an inspection station at the plant, and provides the familiar USDA approval stamp on each carton and bulk container, which are shipped to retailers around the state, as well as to New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Utah, California and Hawaii.

A carefully controlled environment
Despite the diesels idling outside, the inside of the Hickman’s facility is more like a laboratory than a truck stop. From the moment a visitor enters the main office, he is aware of the stress placed on keeping the environment germ-free. Entering the plant from the outer office and reception area, one steps into what looks like a litter box. It contains a special material that neutralizes whatever visitors may have tracked in on their shoes.

Later, before entering the processing facility, visitors must don hair nets, special shoe coverings and full-length white coats which are snapped tightly shut. No one from the outside is permitted to walk along the hen cages, a restriction that helps ensure that no foreign matter or microbe contaminates the chickens or their food.

So, despite the appeal of fuzzy little yellow chicks and their clucking, red-combed adult counterparts, no public tours are conducted at the farms. Instead, Hickman’s provides an
inside look via classroom materials offered to teachers and a comprehensive public relations campaign, complete with TV clips and instructional videos, on its website: hickmanseggs.com.

“And then there’s Funky the Chicken,” Sharman Hickman says, in reference to the sneaker-and-shades-bearing mascot who makes public appearances and adorns each Hickman’s product container.

Rumor has it that Funky is pals with Roxie, the Shamrock Farms cow, and maybe even with Uncle Ben, Mrs. Butterworth and Aunt Jemima.