Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
DUBUQUE HATCHERY
Dubuque Hatchery. Dubuque Hatchery was located on Central Avenue south of the DUBUQUE COUNTY COURTHOUSE in Dubuque for nearly fifty years. It sold baby chickens, supplies and feed. The business also bought eggs from local farmers. Hours were extended on Saturday to accommodate farm families who came to town. Between the 1940s and 1970s, nearly every one of the several thousand farms in Dubuque County raised chickens. By 1994, the broiler chicken business was making a comeback on hobby farms, but the chick business remained with no more than one hundred customers.
The hatchery stopped raising chicks about 1970 choosing instead to purchase them from larger hatcheries. The feed business suffered when larger farms purchased directly from the manufacturer. The hatchery which had sold baby chickens, supplies and feed, and purchased eggs from local farmers was closed in 1994.
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Source:
Dickel, Dean. "Owners Plan to Close Dubuque Hatchery," Telegraph Herald, July 21, 1994, p. 2