A cross-sectional study was conducted between August 1995 and November 1996. Sixty California egg-producing ranches were chosen at random; 39 ranches agreed to participate in the study. The surface of the manure pile in one house on each ranch was sampled by drag swabbing. The drag swabs were tested for Salmonella using a most probable number procedure that had a detection level of one to five Salmonella per drag swab. In 12 ranches (32.4%), the drag swabs were negative for Salmonella; the remaining had Salmonella counts in the range of 1 to over 1700 per swab. Twenty-two different serotypes were found. Salmonella heidelberg and Salmonella cerro represented the majority of the typed isolates. Salmonella enteritidis (SE) was found on only one ranch. This study found SE to be rare in California egg ranches, which implies that these ranches are not a major source of S. enteritidis.