The Chicken Life Cycle

The chicken life cycle begins with an egg. A hen, called a brooding hen, lays the egg in soft hay, and then sits on the egg to keep it nice and warm. The hen also turns the egg each day to make sure it is growing healthy. Inside the egg, there is a pocket of air called the air sac. The baby chick uses this to breathe. It gets food from the yellow yolk while it is growing. After a few weeks, the baby chick inside the egg gets strong enough to break itself free. It uses something called an egg tooth to make a hole in the egg. When the chick comes out, it learns how to walk and soon becomes an adult chicken.

Baby chicks can be hatched without a brooding hen too! It happens in a machine called an incubator. The incubator keeps the eggs warm to make sure they grow into healthy baby chicks.