Show-Me State Times

For nearly nine decades, Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon, Missouri has remained a family-run business, supplying poultry for various purposes including showing, meat production, eggs, pets, and enjoyment. The hatchery is now operated by the fourth generation of the Smith family.

Cackle Hatchery was established in 1936 by Clifford Smith and his wife Lena. The business expanded quickly to three locations within a year but soon faced economic difficulties. Jeff Smith, current CEO and a member of the founding family, recounted how his grandfather sought ways to keep the business afloat during challenging times.

“My dad (Clifton) had moved away, and my grandad called him and said, ‘I know you want to get back in the business. Do you want to move back to Lebanon? I’ve got a couple of ideas that could keep the hatchery going and keep it viable.’”

The company shifted its focus toward specialty breeds and hobby birds. This strategy helped attract new customers interested in backyard chickens and rare varieties. Today, Cackle offers more than 230 types of poultry shipped directly from its facility.

“Backyard chickens are a high-demand item,” Jeff Smith said. “More people want to learn about livestock and how to raise them, giving them a feeling of self-reliance. Most of our business is through direct retail sales, but we also have a lot of feed stores and farm-and-home chains that buy chicks wholesale from us and sell them directly on their store floors.”

In 1964 Clifton Smith and his wife Nancy took over operations at Cackle Hatchery. Under their leadership, the company grew significantly. Currently, the hatchery ships over 2.5 million chicks and other baby poultry each year.

“We get between 250,000 and 280,000 eggs every week from our 87 breeding farms,” Smith said. “They’ll be staged in our egg room, and then we dig out all the breeds, separate them and figure out what day they need to be hatched. Once we clear that out, we get them into our 80 incubators and start the process all over again.”

“We spend 24 hours in the shipping process,” Smith said.

The fourth generation joined Cackle Hatchery’s management team in 2023 when Jeff’s son Nathaniel became chief operations officer.

“We’re very proud to have been able to expand and keep our operations where it all began, on Commercial Street here in downtown Lebanon,” Smith said. “That’s uncommon for a business like ours. I’ve had many people, when they contact us, think they’re going out to a farm, and they are really surprised that we’re in the middle of a small town.”

Cackle is among only twelve remaining hobby hatcheries nationwide. During peak season from March through September it employs up to 120 people.

Media coverage has brought additional attention over time.

“We’ve had several TV crews come down and do stories about our operation – Larry the Cable Guy was one of the more famous visitors,” Smith said. “We also host the annual Cackle Hatchery Fall Festival every October, and that’s a great opportunity to show the public the poultry process and what people use our birds for. We also have events like an egg magic show and a hardboiled egg eating contest which are becoming very popular.”

Innovation has played an important role at Cackle Hatchery as well; proprietary software developed by staff helps streamline hatching operations.“For me I look at this as my mission field,” Smith said.“I’ve gotten this opportunity to run a small business and impact a lot of employees over the years.We have customers from across the United States who are loyal to us – some who have bought birds from us for decades.They have all these funny stories about their birds that they send in letters or e-mails to me.It’s interesting that we’ve been able to impact the lives of a lot of people through poultry.”