Mother Hen's Family - The Wonder Of Birth (1953)

[Music] this is a story about a mother hen and her baby chicks the story begins with some grown-up chickens the boy feeding them is Jerry sometimes his dogs scamp watches Jerry we don't see any baby chicks here these are all full-grown chickens how quickly they gobble the food every morning Jerry and scamp feed the chickens Jerry likes to watch the hens pecking at their food drinking water and scratching in the dirt this is the father chicken what is he called that's right a rooster doesn't this rooster look handsome with his fine shiny feathers he has a big red comb on top of his head and red waffles below his cheek yes Jerry has one rooster or father chicken and ten hens or mother chickens Jerry's favorite is a white hen he calls fighty fighty but just a minute yt isn't here no she isn't here at all Jerry tells scamp we've got to find whitey where shall we look first maybe she's in the hen house Jerry looks into the nesting boxes in the hen house look whitey is not there maybe she got out of the chicken yard let's go scamp they look under the house whitey isn't there scamp even looks inside his doghouse but fight he is not there then suddenly there's whitey but what is she doing coming out of the garage jerry has found something a nest a nest with eggs in it one two three four five six seven seven eggs yes whitey has laid seven eggs Jerry can hardly wait to show his dad the eggs that whitey has laid your rights as dead seven eggs that means she's been laying about seven days Jerry wants to know will she lay any more eggs we'll see says dad will mark every egg so we can keep track of them carefully bad marks each egg one then two and so on Jerry watches closely as all the eggs are marked seven of them now you check the nest each day says dad and we'll find out if whitey will lay any more eggs the next day Jerry looks at the nest there are eight eggs so he marks the new one number eight the next day after that Jerry looks again this time there are nine eggs and the next day whitey is sitting on the nest and she won't get off well well says dad looks like whitey is going to set cheery isn't sure what that means do you know dad explains that a setting hen is the hen that his sitting needs to keep them warm so they will hatch she doesn't lay any more eggs while she is sitting and after a hen is setting says dad we never touched the eggs here's how we can keep track of Whitey's eggs will you as a calendar today is the day whitey started to set so Jerry marks the day it's the first of May how long will it be before the eggs hatch 21 days says dad so Jerry counts today is the first day so we count 21 days in all and the eggs should hatch on this day a 21st day Jerry wants to know will any egg hatch in 21 days no says dad then he shows Jerry the eggs they gathered from the other chickens this morning let's see what's inside one of these eggs we've all eaten eggs and we know what they look like inside this is the way most eggs look the kind we eat but what about the eggs under whitey are they any different whitey tucks the eggs under her to keep them all warm her feathers are all fluffed out to cover the eggs she sits quietly watching with her bright eyes is she thinking about her eggs Jerry is watching and wondering their whitey is leading her nest to eat now Jerry can get a close look of course we all know what eggs look like inside but whitey has been sitting on these eggs keeping them warm do you think that makes any difference let's pretend that we can see inside the eggs we'll make believe that we have taken away part of the shell do you see anything something wonderful is happening something is growing inside the egg we'll have to use a pointer to point it out see it now see it the pointer is at the head of the body it's the beginning of a baby chick so that's what's happening inside the egg a tiny tiny chick is beginning to grow and so as each day passes Jerry marks it off on his calendar and each day whitey sits on the eggs and keeps them warm with her body sometimes but not very often whitey leaves her nest to get something to eat but she never stays away from her nest too long because if she did the eggs would get cold do you think anything is happening the eggs are now four days old and inside each egg if we could see we'd find a growing chick four days old do you think it looks like a chick do you see its heart beating now the pointer shows us the part that will grow into a leg all the parts will grow day by day how many days have passed now let's see nine days have passed today is the tenth day today the baby chicks have been growing inside the eggs for ten days ten days inside the egg and this is the way the chick looks is it beginning to look more like a chick the pointer shows us the eye of the baby chick now we can see the leg and there's the wing see it move yes the baby chick is alive and now we're looking very close close to the beak do you think the beak of the baby chick is beginning to look like the beak of whitey the mother will some of the chicks look like whitey when they grow up will some of them look like their father the rooster I'll just have to wait until they hatch says Jerry so Jerry marks off each day until look it's the 21st day maybe the chicks will hatch today so off they go to look deadlifts fighty off her nest the eggs don't look any different to Gerry can you see any difference maybe it will be easier if we watch just one egg do you see a little hole in the shell do you hear anything look something is moving inside it looks like the baby chicks beak look now the chick is cracking the shell all around and out he tumbles he can't stand yet his legs seem too weak and he's still wet from the moisture inside the shell but now after a little while he's dry and strong enough to stand and that's the way of baby chick hatches by tease chicks hatched a little while later whitey takes her family outside my Jerry is proud the old rooster looks proud too but probably the proudest of all is quite II yes she has hatched 9 eggs into 9