This timeline tells the story of H&N International, our founders, employees and contributors over time. Starting small with a great idea, the Heisdorfs grew our brand to a world-spanning genetic company over the last decades. And not just our brand! H&N is still true to the core idea that once started it: providing the best. And help others grow great, too!
Three historical societies in the Seattle area have made it their mission to preserve articles and artifacts that tell stories about the area’s past and upcoming. Poultry played an important role. And in the poultry business Art and Mary Heisdorf became famous. Thanks to the three historical societies our H&N International Museum can display unique items The Redmond Historical Society: (link); display poultry farms between 1910 and 1930 Kirkland Heritage Organisation (link) Woodinville Heritage (link)
Arthur Joseph Heisdorf had many talents. He was a chicken breeder, a scientist, successful businessman, an early adopter of computing technology, ingenious marketeer and a visionary thinker! He was a geneticist by profession and received his B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1936.
Art Heisdorf was born in Wisconsin 30th December 1912. Both his great grandparents came from Germany in 1863 and married in Wisconsin. Young Heisdorf was determined to breed chickens, and that by all means. In his memoirs Art Heisdorf recalls his mother’s reaction when he decided to raise 25 Wyandotte chickens in a corner of his bedroom, likely his very first flock.
The foundation of our company was laid early in 1936, when the future founder of H&N, Mr. Arthur Heisdorf started his career as a geneticist for Kimber Poultry Breeding.
One of the hot spots of poultry breeding during the first half of the 20th century was the State of California, and Art Heisdorf was attracted by John Kimber, a leading breeder of White Leghorns, who offered him a position in the genetics team of Kimber Farms. Art Heisdorf had a broad interest that went beyond poultry science and used every opportunity to learn more from university professors who spent time at Kimber Farms analyzing pedigree data. When Art Heisdorf quit to start his own company in the State of Washington, he already had an impressive collection of books and journals for his library. He established a veterinary laboratory to pursue poultry health research parallel to genetic research and development.
John Kimber offers young Art the position of a geneticist at Kimber farms for 18US$ a week. In his memoirs Art recalls that Kimber’s offer felt strange, because Kimber had previously turned down a request of information for Heisdorf’s undergraduate thesis – and seemingly rather harsh. But Art took the job offer and for the next nine years worked at Kimber Poultry Breeding Farms in Niles, California (Text).
Arthur marries Mary Gertrude Meister from Seattle; Mary Meister, like Art himself, was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Seattle where she and Art then married. Also Mary’s father was born in Wisconsin but his father and mother were both born in Germany.
1945 the Heisdorfs start their own poultry business in Kirkland, Washington, USA. Initially they had 12.000 birds – and a wire taping machine to record trap nesting results. Meticulous data collection was at the very start of business – each bird had a wing band and each egg in the trap nests would be documented by egg size, color, shell texture, size and shell strength.
Mary Heisdorf supported Art from the beginning and contributed in her own way to create a strong family feeling in the team working at H&N. Art established the “Mary G. Heisdorf Memorial Scholarship” to honor his wife, partner and co-founder of Heisdorf & Nelson Farms in Kirkland, Washington. Mary always was an integral part of the business, helping Art first on the farm and in the hatchery, then with the financial end of the business, and finally receiving visitors from around the world who became distributors of their products.
Mr. Heisdorf left Kimber Farms to start his own poultry breeding company near Seattle, WA – U.S.A. He started selling Kimber strain Leghorns. At the same time he began importing samples of stock from leading breeders from America as well as from Europe and Japan. He crossed them with Kimber Leghorn and found one that “nicked” (combined well) with the Kimber Blood. That was the foundation of “Nick Chick” Leghorn.
The brothers Bert and Cliff Nelson, former colleagues from the Kimber farm, briefly become partners, then amicably part again as the Heisdorfs’ bought them out. Cliff then went back to California, but Bert Nelson remained and was mentioned as staff member later in a brochure.
Assumed publishing of the red Brochure. The booklet is hand signed by “McClary” inside on the first bookend, it may have been his personal copy handed to him when he joined H&N in 1952. In the brochure McClary is not yet mentioned. Other sources mention “a brochure of 1954” which shows team member Eleanor Beem as “IBM expert” but not “manager”, despite she was actually managing the data. Like Eleanor many women operated the first IBM computers and did the data processing with punch cards.
Just five years after founding and thanks to Art Heisdorfs pioneering revolutionary new breeding technique to select the pure line families of chicks based on the performance of their commercial offspring the company employed almost 200 workers. And in 1950 started franchising their birds to distributing hatcheries. Of course, Mary was on the board of directors, as she had been a partner in every way to Arthur since the founding day.
Many publications had already made Art Heisdorf and his staff members famous for their application of the revolutionary theory of reciprocal recurrent selection (RRS) to a set of White Leghorn lines which had shown superior combining ability. This method relied on selecting pure line families based on their combining ability and was focused on long-time improvement of commercial laying hens, while minimizing loss of genetic variation. Other geneticists remained skeptical about the superiority of RRS over pure line selection and was a case of serendipity that Art Heisdorf was lucky to start with unrelated lines which could express over-dominance effects.
Dr. Cecil Mc Clary with a Ph.d. in Genetics is employed as part-time consultant.
Purchase of Hollywood Hills Farm, close to Seattle (take image from red booklet).
Original scrapbook from Hollywood Hill (courtesy of Woodinville) show Fotos when clicking on book .
First Franchise Contract signed.
First Management Guides – many of the materials are not dated, it is therefore impossible to allocate them precisely on the timeline. With regards to the coloring at least one guide may be attributed to the early 60ies. On the other hand, with franchises needing clear support on correct procedures management guides were handed out early.
The breeding program was changed from one of pure line breeding to that of
recurrent reciprocal selection. It involved the selection of pure line families based on the
performance of their commercial offspring’s.
This was a revolutionary departure from
the basic poultry breeding technique being used at that time. The company now incorporates as Heisdorf &
Nelson Farm Inc.
The next step was to develop franchise distributor hatcheries in the U.S.A and
globally. Parent Stocks were supplied to franchise hatcheries so that they could produce H&N “Nick
Chicks” too.
A research laboratory was added. This was one of the first privately owned facilities devoted exclusively to the study of poultry diseases and research.
The Kirkland Historical Society is the oldest of the three heritage organisations. Their Newspaper Archive contains a good decade of Newspaper Articles, the volume opened here showing Dr. Donald Zander (East Side Journal; Kirkland Historial Society) over a microscope.
In 1957 the company and it’s franchises produce over 30 million eggs and 8 million chicks per year. In 1957 the Seattle Daily Times reports that “demand for the Heisdorf Strain of birds has come from every civilized nation where egg production is on a commercial basis”.
Electronic processing of data initiated by the breeding program has begun. Licensing agreement was reached with Lohmann & Co., Cuxhaven, Germany to distribute “Nick Chick” breeding stock in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and demand also comes from a small city in the very north of Germany.
As H&N keeps growing the team gets many new talents on board: Gerald Cruea, banker from Kirkland Washington becomes General Manager of H&N International; Dr. Donald van Zander with a Phd in Poultry Pathology is employed as Director of Disease Research (source: white Brochure) .
Gerald Cruea is mentioned as staff member in this brochure. But in it he states that the data collection still gets done by “mostly working with punch cards”, therefore it is assumed that this brochure could be of 1957.
This high-end publication has a chicken embossed on the cover, but again no publication date can be stated. Dr. Cecil Mc Clary and Art Heisdorf are shown checking on data. Data is now also magnetic taped, not just punched on cards. The IBM IBM 726 with tape drive came out in 1953, and Heisdorf’s where early computer adopters, however we cannot exactly say when they started upleveling to the novelty.
Donald Van Zander and Cecil Mc Clary appear already slightly aged on the images displayed here; Geneticist Alan Bargmeyer is not mentioned yet, as he went to college 1959 and joined H&N after graduating, presumably in the early 1960ies, which is why this brochure may have come out earlier.
Entered into agreement with Lohmann &Co., Cuxhaven, by which Lohmann became exclusive sales distributor for Continental Europe and Africa; breeding farm established in Germany and Franz Pirchner employed as geneticist.
Art Heisdorf talks about RRS at 3rd Pacific Northwest Poultry Breeders Roundtable at Vancouver B.C. (Article in Red Booklet).
Cruea, van Zander and Mc Clary are all mentioned. And, for the first time, also a German Geneticist: Max von Krosigk. He appears with Art Heisdorf in the old movie “Traits with Tradition” and is shown to operate an IBM computer with punch cards.
This movie explains Art Heisdorfs breeding method and its benefits. We cannot state a definite date, but judging from the material, hair styles, cars, clothing - and the IBM computers visible this movie dates back to the late fifties of the last century. It was obviously shot with great pride soon after Lohmann became a distributor.
A breeding farm and testing program was established in Cuxhaven. This marked the beginning of the Lohmann poultry breeding program and the start of a business relationship that lasted until 1978.
This edition of the SCOPE, Heisdorf and Nelson Newsletter announces a new franchised Hatchery in Birchwood Washington, it’s parent company being Industrias Avicolas, Empresas Mesquital del Oro, Hermosillo, Mexico.
The East Side Journal (Kirkland Historical Society) lists a couple of American employees to be transferred to Germany, Cuxhaven, in order to support proper procedures and teaching of their new distributors.
This is probably one of the very first brochures mentioning Lohmann – and Brown Nick, another successful breed succeeding Nick Chick.
"Article in „Business Week“ – “Science takes over the hen house” reprint (create a collage of article reprint and cover page so neither cover nor reprint are fully visible and readable); also geneticist Bargmeyer recalls: “(…) genetic selections were mainly done on computers (…). In many ways, the company’s investment in data processing brought applied computing technology to Redmond decades before high-tech boom of the 1980 and 1990s.
"Brown Nick” was introduced to meet the growing worldwide demand for brown egg layers.
"This image shows Mary Heisdorf surrounded by her team proudly cutting a ribbon as the new general offices in Overlake Park Redmond are opened (image by courtesy of Kirkland Historical Society, East Side Journal).
H&N had begun pioneer work on the eradication of Lymphoid Leukosis. The following years, Mycoplasmosis gallisepticum was eradicated from all H&N grandparents in the U.S.
This edition of the SCOPE reports that Dr. Dietmar Flock joins the team. In his article on the anniversary edition of the “Facts that Figure” (Link to article) Flock recalls how he met Art Heisdorf and how they agreed a work contract on a tiny slip of paper. More was not necessary, and Flock later drove H&N genetics for many years to come.
A program for Mareks disease vaccination began.
This edition of SCOPE gives various overviews and various short noticed information that shows how busy and bustling the company had become. H&N International had long before turned into a major brand.
H&N was sold to Pfizer; Lohmann already was the licensee for Nick Chick, dominating Europe and Middle East. Pfizer decided to discontinue that agreement and have their own sales staff step in and take over internationally – in hindsight “a huge mistake” as Alan Bargmeyer, former General Manager of H&N recalls. Many pharmaceutical companies tried to diversify their own portfolio in the same way. Pfizer, according to Bargmeyer failed to understand that live stock sales is different from selling vaccines.
Art Heisdorfs personal short history of H&N International written by himself. The memories dating back to his early childhood show how passionate he was about chicken breeding. The written memoirs of Art Heisdorf end with the transition to Pfizer.
H&N Inc. sold to Tatum Farms, Georgia.
Article by Eric Lacitis, Seatle Times.
H&N was acquired to Lohmann & Co. AG, also the holding company of Lohmann Tierzucht and Hy-Line International. This acquisition renewed the relationship between the Lohmann organization and H&N. At this point the company acquired its present name, H&N International.
Introduction of “Super Nick” (sold in Japan under the name “Elbe”) to satisfy the needs of market demanding larger white eggs.
Öztavuk in Bursa, Turkey looks back on a long poultry tradition. The company is
H&N oldest customer and started off as an egg producer in 1967 and then switched to just breeding layers
and broilers. The company has become a countrywide institution - a true epitome of chicken. (
Mary Heisdorf passes away.
The Mary C. Heisdorf scholarship was founded 1st June 1989. (
Art Heisdorf passes away at age 80.
Prodavi starts the partnership with H&N.
Significant demand for tinted
eggs exists in Japan and China, so the “Coral” was introduced to supply this demand.
“Silver Nick” a brown egg layer with white feathers was introduced to meet the needs of an important niche market in Europe.
Irvine’s have been producing chicken in Southern Africa since the 1950’s and the company has since grown from a single room into a home to producing over 1,5 million day old chicks per week across Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana. With roots in Zimbabwe, Irvine’s has expanded to cater for Africa’s growing appetite for the finest poultry products.
Founding of H&N North America, President Brian Joyer.
Worldwide demands for adaptable parent stock and compatible layers keep rising. H&N International becomes a self-sustained company and stand-alone brand again within the EW Group.
In 2020 H&N International celebrated its 75th anniversary. One of the oldest genetics in the world, with a proven track record of 75 years in the business stepped back into the limelight.
2020 saw a relaunch of our online presence, with more interactive formats and faster access to knowledge. Digital and analog contents complement one another to appeal to our target audiences and allow us to always maintain close ties with our valued customers.
And the journey goes on – As we continue to grow, we stay true to our core ideals and values by remaining focused on the successes of our customers as well as their customers. Such is the gold standard of H&N International.
Art and Mary Heisdorf used IBM computers before NASA used them to get to the moon, even before NASA was founded! And small things mattered greatly to them as they do to us. Time for an expedition of a different kind to an every-day-object that H&N birds create so perfectly beautiful and strong. Shell strength in close up, realized with images from renowned science photographer Stefan Diller.
H&N International is also offering software! KAI Farming Assistance for rearing and egg production of table and hatching eggs. With the proud heritage of scientific data processing over decades H&N literally grew parallel to computers evolving. We believe Art and Mary would have loved KAI for its professional, industry leading approach and user-friendliness. See for yourself what KAI can do, it’s free: (read).
In 2020 we found the personal scrapbook, in 2022 there was another treasure, resting on a shelf in the farthest corner of a locker room: the old movie with Arthur Heisdorf.
H&N regularly awards the best flocks of layers and parent stock. The “Arty” is proudly named after our founder who approached chicken breeding as a serious artist, studying hard for the best results, documenting every step, communicating the values of his work and sharing it with many others.
and our story goes on! For more recent news please visit our Newsroom . Invite a friend to our museum and get a free hologram for your cell phone.