Let's Visit A Poultry Farm (1948)

[Music] aren't these baby chickens cute Betty thought so too as she watched these chicks at the store in fact she wanted to take one home home she promised to take good care of it but her father didn't think the idea was too good after all they couldn't take care of a baby chick in their City Apartment chickens should be raised on a farm where they have a house and yard of their own with plenty of fresh air and lots of warm sunshine but father could see how much Betty liked the chickens so a few days later we find him taking her to visit his friend Mr Miller at his chicken farm What a fine day for a trip to the country soon Betty and her father are driving past farms in Green Fields father explains that Mr Miller sells the eggs his chickens lay to the grocery stores but some Farmers save the eggs to hatch more chickens why is Betty so excited oh it's Mr Miller's farm and house and big barn and here's freckled Farm dog but Betty can't wait to see the chickens in the house they live in Mr Miller's son dick offers to show Betty around the farm when he isn't in school dick helps take care of the chickens and does other Farm chores as well first first thing dick says we have to be very quiet otherwise we'll frighten the chickens just listen to these chickens these are white legghorns Farmers like to raise them because they lay so many eggs Mr Miller provides the chickens with clean straw on the floor while dick keeps the drinking fountain filled with cool clean water well what are those poles dick says they're called roosts see how this chicken stands on the roost when the chicken goes to sleep it squats down on the roost isn't that a strange way to sleep chickens are birds that depend on people like dick and Mr Miller to take care of them the Millers make sure the chickens get plenty of good food did you ever see food like this it's called Mash dick says it is really a mixture of many different foods that help the chickens lay more eggs now it's time for dick to feed the chickens grain they eat that too watch him scatter the grain so each hand gets her share look at Betty she's helping dick scatter the grain for this feeding see how the chickens use the claws on their feet to scratch for the grain what's that noise dick says the hen cackled because he just laid an egg as you know eggs are one of our most important foods this one is still warm from the heat of the hen's body a good hen lays more than 200 eggs a year one of Dick's important jobs around the farm is collecting the fresh eggs look how pleased Betty is as she helps sck collect eggs they use open wire baskets so that air can get in to cool the eggs eggs will not stay fresh if they remain warm Betty and Dick take the eggs into the storage room where they're left to cool in The Wire baskets let's watch dick clean the eggs that were collected earlier today most of them are cleaned with a brush but dirty eggs like this one are cleaned on the machine now dick packs the clean eggs these are to be sent by truck to the city the truck will stop here today see how carefully he packs them so the eggs won't break when they're in the truck this truck comes to the farm twice a week and usually the driver brings supplies for Mr Miller what did he bring today oh look he's carrying a sack of grain for Mr Miller's chickens this feed was raised by a grain farmer dick helps the driver load the heavy egg crates onto the truck the driver will take the eggs to the city where they will be put into smaller packages and sent to grocery stores Betty is learning how important Mr Miller and all the other farmers are to us the city people buy the eggs and other farm products Mr Miller uses the money he gets from selling the eggs to buy clothes toys and many other things made by people in the city now that the truck is gone dick is going to show Betty the young hens they are kept on another part of the farm young chicken hens are called pullets they need plenty of green grass in addition to the regular food dick is telling Betty that these pullets were bought at another kind of poultry farm called a hatchery at this Hatchery they keep the very finest chickens because the eggs these chickens lay are used to hatch baby chicks and are not sold as eating eggs the mother chicken is called the hen the father chicken the rooster he's larger than the hens and has a big red comb on his head inside the Hatchery the chicks are hatched in machines called incubators some of which hold f thousands of eggs the incubator keeps the eggs just as warm as they would be under a mother hen the eggs are kept in the incubator for 21 days before they begin to hatch the incubator trays are turned every few hours so that the chicks will grow properly the warmth of the incubator slowly changes the whites and yolks of the eggs into baby chickens watch what happens at the end of the 21 days a little chick is beginning to Peck its way out it pecks and pecks until it cracks the Shell with its tiny beak soon the shell breaks and the baby chick climbs out this little baby chick takes its first look at the world dick finished telling about the Hatchery saying that some of these baby chicks will soon be pullets just like those in Mr Miller's pullet pins now let's visit another part of Mr Miller's Farm why just look these chickens are different dick proudly explains that these are his chickens and that he is a member of a 4 Club his chickens are Rhode Island Reds they're a different color and much larger than the white leg horns the Rhode Island Red chickens lay eggs and are good to eat down by the farm pond dick shows Betty another kind of poultry yes ducks look at the baby ducklings waddling around close to their mother why they're going swimming chickens don't like to swim but these tiny ducks are right at home in the water they will stay close to the mother duck until they're old enough to take care of themselves turkeys are poultry just as chickens and Ducks Betty can see that the turkeys are much larger than the chickens this is the Father's called a gobler and he's proud of his brightly colored feathers look at him strut dick and Betty have finished their tour of the farm and it's now time to go home Betty is telling her father all about the chickens and how she helped to collect the eggs what she had learned about the Hatchery the Rhode Island Reds the Ducks and the turkeys the next morning Betty has eggs for breakfast and when mother says that they're going to have fried chicken for dinner bety realizes how much we depend on Mr Miller and all the other farmers who produce the food we eat every day