Castro Valley, California experienced an odd kind of boom different from that of any other in Northern California. Early in the 1900s, 373 families lived in only 57 homes. When other areas of the San Francisco Bay were profiting from the business of the failed and successful remaining miners from the Gold Rush, Castro Valley was becoming overrun with a very different kind of animal-the chicken.
Early in the 20th century, the White Leghorn Chicken grossly outnumbered the residents of Castro Valley. As chicken ranches began to spring up all over the valley, it was not an uncommon sight to gaze upon a hill speckled with white dots that gave the appearance of scattered snow. Throughout the Bawking 20s some 12 hatcheries laid claim to several thousand chicks being hatched each week. During World War II, modernized hatchery incubators meant the production of 30,000 chicks in one week. These chicks were rationed and shipped all over the nation.
Castro Valley California Is Not Just for the Birds
As with all good things, the chicken boom of the first half of the 20th century finally came to an end. Land began to be portioned off and ranches could not ignore the profit they were promised by selling off parts of their large property. The post-chicken housing boom of the 50s and 60s saw some 11,000 homes built in a 20-year period. Residents soon realized that this land that was great for hatching was a wonderful place to raise some of your own.
Today, the people of Castro Valley still know what their ancestors knew some hundred years ago. Sons and daughters of the chicken boom are raising families and enjoying their life in this pleasant town outside of its busier neighboring cities. Those who cannot lay claim to ancestry in Castro Valley are trying to change that for future generations as property values are currently soaring and land is a hot commodity. The chickens have flown the coop and much wiser investors and homeowners are swooping in on this wonderful town.
