Chickens No Longer Will Feather Their Nests in Petaluma
Petaluma, long noted for its poultry industry, is losing its last commercial hatchery.
After an estimated 12,500 Leghorn chicks hatch from their eggs Saturday, the H&N; Hatchery will close its doors for good and move to Turlock.
“The whole industry has changed,” hatchery manager Ray Nicholl said. He said that farms were moving away from urban sprawl and that more and more were relocating in Southern California to be closer to the state’s biggest market.
This small Sonoma County town, where the chicken incubator was invented in 1878, once had 30 hatcheries that produced millions of chicks for 3,000 egg producers in the area.
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