The Mose Johnson Room
Soon after the death of his father, Mose Johnson's mother presented him with a baby chick to keep him company. The memory of this unlikely friendship never strayed far from Johnson's heart. With a $15 investment, Johnson and his wife, Mable, purchased one rooster and five hens, all single-comb white leghorns. The first chicken coop was fashioned from an old piano crate. Soon he built hen houses along both sides of the road on his ranch, stretching about a mile long. Several brooding houses, each holding about 5,000 chicks were built. After a severe storm in 1909, Johnson built an incubator which could hold 10,000 eggs. News of this incubator spread, prompting over 20,000 visitors annually to behold the City of the White Leghorns.
The M. Johnson Poultry Ranch shipped baby chicks by rail and through parcel post to every state in the Union as well as Mexico, Central and South America, Canada and China. At its peak, the Poultry Ranch stock consisted of 15,000 pedigreed breeding hens and an annual production of 50,000 brooder chicks, with an incubator capacity for 250,000 eggs every three weeks with an annual shipment of more than a million chicks per year - making it the largest poultry farm in the world.
The M. Johnson Poultry Ranch shipped baby chicks by rail and through parcel post to every state in the Union as well as Mexico, Central and South America, Canada and China. At its peak, the Poultry Ranch stock consisted of 15,000 pedigreed breeding hens and an annual production of 50,000 brooder chicks, with an incubator capacity for 250,000 eggs every three weeks with an annual shipment of more than a million chicks per year - making it the largest poultry farm in the world.
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