Where Do Chicks Come From

Where Do CHICKS Come From?

Tris is an egg, You've seen eggsbefore, but this one is different. Inthree weeks, a chick will hatch outof this egg.

An egg begins as a tiny white spot inside the mother chicken, the hen. There may be many tiny eggs inside the hen at onetime. A yellow yolk grows around each egg. ALBUMEN FORMS AROUND FERTILIZED EGGS YOLK BEGINS TO GROW SHELL DEVELOPS UNFERTILIZED EGGS Then the father chicken, the rooster, mates with the hen. His sperm joins the growing egg. This is called fertilization. Soon, a clear jelly-like egg white, or albumen, grows aroundthe yolk. Finally, a hard shell forms. The egg is ready to be laid.

The hen lays the egg. Over the nextfew days, she lays several more eggs. The hen sits on top of the eggs tokeep them warm. As soon as the eggsare warm, the chicks start growing.

Inside the warm egg is everything a chick needs to grow. The yellow yolk contains liquid food. The albumen contains water and a little more food. A thin white skin grows around the yolk and albumen and sticks to the inside of the shell. It holds the albumen together to cushion the growing chick. At one end of the egg is an air space. This is where the chick will take its first breath. The egg you eat for breakfast could never grow into achick because it was never fertilized. Otherwise, all partsinside the egg are the same.

The hen has warmed her eggs forthree days now. Insidé, the chicksare growing.