University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 1/1995 Charles Allen: Still hatching new ideas When Charles C. Allen Jr., Delaware '40, was 5 years old, his family moved from its small truck farm near Bridgeville, Del., into the town of Seaford so they could have electricity. The family didn't really need the electricity, Allen says, but the chickens-at least the eggs they hatched from-did. Today, when Allen, president of Allen's Hatchery Inc., surveys the success of the family's three agricultural businesses-which have a combined total of 2,300 employees-he sometimes marvels at how it all began. Allen's Hatchery alone has 27 company farms with approximately 100,000 chickens on each. There are an additional 600 contract farmers who grow chickens for them. Then, there is the Allen Milling Co., which manufactures the feed for the chickens to eat, and Allen Family Foods, which processes and transports the chickens to market. It's a long way from the day when Allen's mother-whom he describes as a "progressive woman with ideas who just wouldn't stand still"-convinced his father to buy their first egg incubator. That first machine held 250 eggs, and used kerosene lamps for heat. To exercise the yolks, the eggs had to be turned by hand three times a day. In today's modern poultry business, the eggs are turned automatically by machine, and the chickens live their lives in climate-controlled houses where other machines see that they are automatically watered and fed. Allen, who lives in the house in which he was born, is also an international business traveler. While he enjoys nothing more than having coffee and a chat with the employees who keep the family trucking fleet in operation, he is equally at home discussing the merits of quality Allen products with an importer in Hong Kong. "I always thought I'd be a farmer but I never thought it would be so involved," he says. "In 60 years, I've seen lots of changes to the poultry business." The Allens hatched their first chicks in 1919, and, as such, hold the title as the oldest poultry operation on the Eastern Shore. Today, it takes a mere 10 weeks to go from a freshly laid egg to a chicken dinner. More than 3 million eggs are set each week in the family's three hatcheries. They emerge 21 days later as baby chicks that are either raised on Allencompany farms or by contract growers. The eventual output ranges from 2.2 million to 2.5 million birds a week. It takes 16,000 tons of feed each week for the breeders, broilers and roasters. Allen, the eldest in the family, has two brothers, Jack and Warren. Each brother has a son and, together, the six make up the Allen family corporation. Charles' son, Charles C. (Chick) Allen III, Delaware '71, is president of Allen Family Foods, the processing and sales part of the business. A grandson, Charles C. Allen IV, is currently a junior at UD majoring in animal science. In addition to his role in the poultry business, Allen is responsible for overseeing the family's farming operation. The truck farm where his father grew tomatoes, lima beans and corn to feed the horses and mules has grown to 3,600 acres on which the family grows corn, wheat, barley, soybeans and sorghum. He also oversees the maintenance part of the family's trucking business. The Allen family sells fresh chicken year-round in markets in Boston, New York, Providence, Syracuse, Washington and Baltimore, among others. It takes 50 trucks each day to move the dressed poultry from the family's plants to the markets. In addition, there are 19 feed trailers needed to move feed from the mill to the poultry farms. As a result, there are Allen family trucks on the road day and night. Allen married his high school sweetheart, the late Mary Elizabeth Huston, while a student at UD in 1940. While here, Allen lettered in football and played baseball. He remains a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. After graduation, the newlyweds moved to Maryland and ran a feed and flour mill for six years. Because it was considered an essential civilian service, Allen was not drafted, although his brothers were. When they returned from the war, the three went into the poultry business together. Step by step, they increased their hatchery business, adding milling, then processing and, eventually, marketing. Allen doubts that he or his brothers will ever appear in television commercials like their competitor Frank Perdue. "A good product will sell itself," he says. "Our best advertising is putting a nice bird on the shelf." Allen is an active supporter of many University scholarship programs. In 1994, he established a Life Income Trust that will result in scholarship assistance to undergraduates in the College of Agricultural Sciences after his death. This is in addition to the Allen Family Scholarship, already awarded to students in the College of Agricultural Sciences. -Beth Thomas