By Jolene Farley
A feather in the cap of Carl Ruud, Blue Ribbon Hatchery started on the Ruud family farm southeast of Hills.
Blue Ribbon eventually moved into Hills and expanded to Luverne, becoming one of the most successful businesses in the area and a major employer.
In the fall of 1934 Ruud moved the hatchery business from his father's farm into Hills and started a partnership with Morton Kolsrud. In 1946 when Kolsrud decided to sell out, Bud Bush decided he wanted in, according to Bush.
Bush had worked at the hatchery during high school until being drafted into the Air Force to serve overseas. He arrived back from active duty and began working at the Hatchery again.
The original hatchery building in Hills was located north of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, according to Bush.
Eggs had to be turned every three hours so a house was soon constructed close to the hatchery building. This house is still standing.
After turning them for 18 days, the eggs were moved to the top of the incubator into hatching trays. Each tray held 200 chicks. On days 20 and 21 workers would break the shells on eggs that were not yet hatched.
After the chicks hatched, they were sexed. The sexers worked for the Hatchery from about January through June and guaranteed a 98% accuracy rate for the sexing of baby chicks. Each chick was picked up and looked at individually to determine whether male or female.
The hatchery started out selling live chicks. Some were sold a day old, others kept until they were more mature. If farmers didnÕt want the chicks until warmer weather the hatchery would house them. Day-old chicks were put on rollers that held 1,000 chicks each and divided for their destinations.
Blue Ribbon Hatchery eventually housed more than 1,000 hens in a laying house on the business property. They supplied eggs for the hatchery, and soon the hatchery began to process eggs.
A 40-by-120-foot underground storage warehouse was built for egg storage. The warehouse, with the help of refrigeration, kept the eggs at the proper temperature until they could be shipped to various destinations.
"We shipped carload after carload to New York," said Bush. "The volume ... it was tremendous," said Bush. "You can't believe the thousands of eggs sold."
When the hatchery outgrew the original building, the business purchased the building next to present-day OrvÕs Station in Hills and installed new Jamesway Incubators that could each handle 100,000 eggs.
The hatcheryÕs egg business kept expanding, and soon it was shipping eggs to Luverne for processing. When a plant came up for sale in Luverne, Blue Ribbon purchased it.
The primary egg market for Blue Ribbon was in New York City, but they also sent eggs to Chicago, Denver and many other destinations.
The hatchery maintained egg buying stations in West Sioux Falls, Parker, Canistota, Salem, DeSmet, Lake Preston, Bushnell, Garretson, S.D., and Jasper.
The eggs would be shipped into Hills or Luverne to be processed, then shipped to the open market, according to Bush.
When the original laying houses couldnÕt produce enough breeding stock, Blue Ribbon contracted with area farmers to raise pedigreed chickens for them. The stock had to be blood-tested and state-banded.
Blue Ribbon eventually diversified into the seed and feed business, farm chemicals, and equipment sales.
They invested in bulk fertilizer trucks and liquid fertilizer tanks to spread fertilizer in the fields. They also purchased Hiboy Spraying equipment to apply chemicals to crops throughout the year. Grinder and mixer trucks were used to grind and mix feed for area livestock.
The Blue Ribbon Hatchery bought the International Harvester building and the Sjoseth Chevrolet building in Hills to house and work on equipment. A large warehouse was also built in northern Hills.
The business also constructed an 80-foot dry storage building on Main Street in Hills for storage of feed and farm chemicals.
By 1967, Ruud wanted to retire and the hatchery business had become increasingly complicated.
Big producers in the southern United States were growing, building bigger and bigger houses, and fewer and fewer farmers in the Hills area raised chickens.
"It used to be you couldn't drive down a road that (each farm) wasn't full of chickens," said Bush. "But the price got so bad everyone discontinued chickens."
All the property, equipment and vehicles the business amassed over the years were sold at auction.
Bush has fond memories of the Hatchery where he worked, then co-owned for 28 years. "It was just my life," said Bush. "I have such great feelings."