One of Les Blank's industrial films, which follows a Holly Farms "broiler" chicken from factory incubation to the county | dG1fYWRJZDJjNFB2YlU
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Holly hatcheries produce 410,000 chicks every day of the year, except for those grown for
00:13Christmas and Thanksgiving when turkeys predominate.
00:25After the perfect chicks are selected, they will be delivered to grow-out farms where
00:29they'll be grown by farmers who closely adhere to specifications set by Holly Farms in details
00:35such as building construction, sanitation, and feed allotments.
00:44The first week of a chick's life is spent mostly huddling together beneath the brooders
00:48which provide a 95 degree temperature underneath.
00:52This temperature is gradually dropped until the desired 60 degrees is reached, which will
00:57be maintained for the remainder of the growing period.
01:04Harvest time at the grow-out farm comes 8 1⁄2 to 9 weeks after delivery of the chicks.
01:11Averaging 3 1⁄2 pounds, these broilers have been grown under the close supervision of
01:15a staff of the company's field service personnel and veterinarians.
01:27While this processing plant at Temperanceville, Virginia has a capacity of 12,000 chickens
01:32an hour, its largest plant in Wilkesboro, North Carolina produces twice as many, providing
01:38jobs for 1,200 employees.
01:52At various points on the processing line, the birds pass through flames, replacing grandma's
01:57tweezers in the removal of pin feathers.
02:02It took grandma a good hour to kill, pluck, and prepare a chicken for cooking.
02:06Here it takes an average of about a seventh of a second per bird.
02:13Automation is used where practical, such as for evisceration.
02:18Through all phases, inspection by government-employed USDA personnel as well as the company's own
02:23inspectors assures absolute wholesomeness for each of the more than two million birds
02:29that pass through the company's plants each week.
02:32Basted generously with a tasty, tangy sauce that anyone may prepare, the portable barbecue
02:38pit spreads the word that properly barbecued chicken is a treat that anyone can duplicate
02:44on his own grill.