I LOVE LUCY

Discouraged by the baby chick's rate of growth, the Ricardos and Mertzes exchange their five hundred little birds for two hundred laying hens, guaranteed to produce salable eggs.

After the first two weeks, the hens have laid exactly six eggs and, by calculation, that's eighteen dollars per egg. Ricky is disguisted with the whole enterprise and gives the hens one more day to shape up. Ricky: "I should have raised something I knew about, like sugarcane."

Deciding to improve on Mother Nature, Lucy and Ethel buy five dozen eggs, and the gals quickly stuff them in their blouses, pockets, and shirts. When they've crammed the last one out of sight, Ricky comes home, wanting to rehearse with Lucy the tango routine for the upcoming PTA show.

All goes smoothly until the final spin lands Lucy in Ricky's arms, eggs first. When he learns of the deception, he intends to get out of the egg business immediately. However, Little Ricky and his friend Bruce Ramsey have grown so fond of the hens, they decide to hide them so Ricky can't get rid of them.

The next day when Ricky is about to round up his lazy brood, the chickens are nowhere in sight. Finding a few in the Mertzes' closet, Ricky accuses Fred of being a chicken thief. A battle results and continues until Betty Ramsey phones, informing the feuding foursome that she has found chickens all over her house.

Little Ricky confesses just as Bruce arrives with a basket brimming with freshly laid eggs. The Ricardos and Mertzes are back in the egg business.

Special Notes: The tango/eggs routine resulted in the longest laugh ever recorded on "I Love lucy" - sixty-five seconds. The routine was not rehearsed with real eggs because Lucille Ball wanted the experience to be fresh when the cameras rolled; hard-boiled eggs were used for the run-throughs.