8. Delaware
Number produced: 244.30 million
Pounds produced: 1.76 billion
Value of production: $946.34 million
Delaware is not very populated as it has a population of less than a million, so who would have thought that the state was home to above 200 million chickens in a single year! Chickens grossly exceed human beings by a ratio of more than 200 to 1. No wonder one of the nicknames for Delaware is the Blue Hen State.
Newsworks reports the hilarious story that marked the beginning of the chicken industry in the state. It’s actually pretty fascinating that a woman casually ordered 50 chicks for the purpose of consuming the eggs that they lay but due to a simple accident, 500 chicks were delivered instead. Instead of returning them, the woman took care of them, raised them, sold them when they were ready and voila: the industry we see today.
