The company was founded in 1920 by Arthur Perdue with his wife, Pearl Perdue, who had been keeping a small flock of chickens. The company started out selling table eggs, then in 1925, Perdue built the company's first hatchery, and switched to selling layer chicks to farmers instead of eggs.

The company's now-famous slogan, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken®,” helped make PERDUE® a household name.

Our chickens are fed an all-vegetarian diet that includes grains – primarily corn and soybeans (in the form of soy meal), mixed with vitamins, minerals and amino acids to ensure a nutritionally balanced diet.

For 103 years, Perdue Farms has remained family owned and the Perdue family is committed to continuing that legacy into our second century. Two generations of the Perdue family work in the company today and the family is committed to keeping Perdue Farms a family owned, values-driven business.

In 1920, Arthur W. Perdue completed his plan for going into business for himself. He gave up a promising career as a railroad agent on the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland to manage his backyard table-egg business.

PERDUE Family History English and Irish (of Norman and French origin): nickname from Old French par Dieu 'by God', which was adopted in Middle English in a variety of more or less heavily altered forms (compare e.g. Pardoe and Purdy ). The surname represents a nickname from a favorite oath.

If you dream of becoming an eagle, you follow your dreams and not the words of a bunch of chickens. Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.

7 Common Idioms That Come from Chickens

• Fly the coop. When a chicken is accused of having flown the coop, it means that the chicken has escaped from their coop and is now flying or roaming free.
• Pecking order.
• Put all your eggs in one basket.
• Walk on eggshells.
• Mother hen.
• No spring chicken.
• Rule the roost.

The main ingredient of all chicken feed (over 85%) is grains and grain by-products, protein-producing seeds, and meal made from them such as canola or soybean meal.

Mash is a loose, unprocessed form of chicken feed that is commonly fed to baby chicks since it is very easy to digest. However, mash varieties of chicken feed are suitable for chickens of any age. Mash can also be combined with hot water to create feed with a porridge-like texture that many chickens love.

PERDUE Name Meaning English and Irish (of Norman and French origin): nickname from Old French par Dieu 'by God', which was adopted in Middle English in a variety of more or less heavily altered forms (compare e.g. Pardoe and Purdy ). The surname represents a nickname from a favorite oath.

Perdue Farms is the parent company of Perdue Foods and Perdue AgriBusiness, based in Salisbury, Maryland. Perdue Foods is a major chicken, turkey, and pork processing company in the United States. Perdue AgriBusiness ranks among the top United States grain companies. Perdue Farms has 2021 annual sales of $8 billion.