If her cousin hadn’t owned a feed store, Patrice Chandler might never have discovered her passion for raising chickens. After moving to Mississippi 18 years ago, Chandler paid a visit to her cousin’s store where some baby chicks had just arrived.
“I saw them and thought I’d give it a try,” recalls Chandler. Before long, she was hooked. “The first time one of my hens laid an egg, I knew I was doing something right.”
Today Chandler owns seven roosters and 13 hens on her 35-acre farm in Ruleville, MS. She recently built a new, state-of-the-art hen house, or rather, her husband Frankie built it to her precise specifications. “I’ve learned over the years what doesn’t work, so I was pretty demanding,” she confesses.
She takes pride in the fact that she’s the first person to be permitted to sell fresh eggs at her local farmer’s market. She follows rigid requirements, including bringing the eggs to market in a cooler filled with ice and equipped with a thermometer.
Her sales are so successful that sometimes she runs out of eggs for herself. “Occasionally, I have to wait to make cornbread until one of my hens lays an egg,” she laughs.
Another source of pride for Chandler is her students at Cleveland Mississippi Career Center. As a registered nurse, she teaches a class that encompasses all of the careers in healthcare, including animal health. She’s also teaching classes about the nutritional aspects of poultry (meat and eggs) and the physiology of egg formation in the hen. She recently ordered 25 chicks for her students to observe and is using the Purina Mills website as an educational resource.
Chandler is very particular about what she feeds her chickens. She says it was the illustration on the Purina Mills® Layena® SunFresh® Recipe bag that initially caught her eye, but it was the ingredients that sold her on the feed. She was impressed that Layena® 
SunFresh® Recipe is all-natural with no animal by-products and that the ingredients are very clearly spelled out on the bag.
“Raising chickens is my passion, so I like knowing that I’m using a good feed from a respected company,” says Chandler. “I want to have healthy chickens, and I want to produce high-quality, good-tasting eggs for my customers. I like how the marigold extract in Layena® gives the yolks a deep yellow color.” Plus, her chickens enjoy eating it.
“I’ve noticed that my chickens eat more eagerly since I’ve switched to Layena®,” Chandler says. “And, maybe it’s my imagination, but I think their feathers have a luster that they never had before.” She also recommended Layena® SunFresh® Recipe to a friend, and he insists his hens are laying more.
“I just want my chickens to be the best,” says Chandler.
Purina Mills® ® SunFresh® Recipe