Billy, Gertie, Bill and Clint Hickman were awarded “Farmer of the Year” in 2008.

Today, the company owns three farms in Arizona – two near Buckeye in an unincorporated area called Arlington and one on the Ak-Chin Indian Community south of Phoenix. It also has a farm in Grand Junction, Colorado, and a free-range flock of 60,000 chickens in Valley Center, California.

Together, the five farms produce more than 12 tons of eggs each day, supplying scores of stores and restaurants throughout Arizona.

The futuristic Arlington farms are the company’s largest locations, containing nearly 2 million hens, and Clint takes every precaution to protect the chickens’ health.

As Clint drives into the Arlington North ranch, inmate workers spray disinfectant on his SUV’s tires.

“Vehicle tires are the biggest transmitter of diseases in flocks,” he says. “If there was any type of avian influenza or virus in the United States, we’d be totally locked down.”

The smell of manure hangs thick in the air, but Clint is used to the potent nitrogen-rich waste. In fact, he sees the organic fertilizer as a moneymaker.

“We sell every pound of it,” he says. “You’re producing eggs, and you’re producing manure.... One is with the other.”

The north farm has three hen houses and is adding a fourth. After the economy recovers, the Hickmans plan to have a total of eight hen houses at Arlington North.

Clint enters one of the hen houses, stepping into disinfectant chlorine pellets before putting on a lab coat, hat and shoe covers. He seems prepared for surgery. The faint purr of machinery and cluck of chickens waits behind a coded door.

Inside the factory, more inmates supervise the efficient, automated cleaning, packaging and shipment of eggs. Further inside the complex, about 158,000 chickens fill a sterilized room.

Seven double-sided aisles line the building, each longer than two football fields. Chickens sit in cages on one of the aisle’s six levels. Separate conveyor belts transport their food, waste and eggs. 

No eggs have fallen, no feathers have floated down. The concrete floor is perfectly clean despite the noisy hens occupying the space. Clint expects the building to be pristine.

“If we get everybody in these types of habits now, it’s going to be no big deal if something happens in the future,” he says.

The company’s attention to detail hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last fall, the Arizona Farm Bureau awarded the Hickmans the 2008 Farmer of the Year. In February, Bill and Gertie Hickman were inducted into the Arizona Farming and Ranching Hall of Fame.

The family was an “obvious pick,” says bureau spokeswoman Julie Murphree.

“We try to highlight best farm practices, like families bringing innovations,” she says. “It’s wise to share it with others, so we can plant efficiencies across the industry.”

Murphree says Hickman’s “very modern, clean facilities” exemplify the company’s innovations. But even more important is the family’s dedication to producing quality food for the community.

Hickman’s donates to food banks and works with local organizations such as Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park. It was one of the zoo’s founding sponsors in the early 1990s, says Mickey Ollson, zoo founder and director, who now purchases Hickman’s  eggs to feed the zoo’s exotic birds.

Ollson isn’t surprised by the company’s success, especially in recent years. “It’s particularly pleasing for me to see the kids. I’ve known them since they were babies,” he says. “It’s a wonderful American success story, and everybody wants to emulate that.”