3. The Sears catalog did not offer eggs, but it did offer chickens
Farmers and urban dwellers with lots large enough to maintain their own hen-houses for fresh eggs for their tables had only to turn to the Sears catalog to order chickens, both laying hens and what were referred to as dual-purpose chickens. The birds were shipped as day-old chicks, and a variety of breeds were offered, including Leghorns, Plymouth Rocks, and others. Sears labeled their chickens under the brand Farm-Master (as they later labeled appliances Kenmore and tools as Craftsmen). Sears was in the business of selling live chickens well into the 1940s, though by then the majority of the business was to farmers, as the supermarket and the in-home refrigerator made the keeping of laying hens unnecessary for most American homes.
Along with the live chicks, Sears of course offered everything necessary to their care and feeding, including ready-made coops as well as the materials to build one’s own, feed and vitamins to ensure healthy chickens and eggs, and the means of keeping their homes and bodies clean and healthful. Among these was an Emulsion of Kerosene, which had many uses, among them the application as a pesticide on both plants and animals, for the reduction of “lice, red spiders, scales, and mealy bugs”. Thus farmers large and small could obtain all that they needed for the raising of chicks and the production of eggs from a single source, with prices for the live chicks dependent on the lot size of the order. It could be as little as $.12 per chick.