THE CALL OF THE HEN. 59 



pelvic bones as in Fig. 24. She would read three fingers abdomen; 

 in good condition Yie-mch pelvic bone. We look on Chart 3 at Yie- 

 inch pelvic bone, and find that this hen is a 180-egg type. 



CHART 3. 



Three-finger Abdomen. 



Vis pelvic bone 180 eggs 



V pelvic bone ^ 166 eggs 



3 /ie pelvic bone 152 eggs 



l /4 pelvic bone 138 eggs 



5 /ie pelvic bone 124 eggs 



/s pelvic bone 110 eggs 



7 /i6 pelvic bone 96 eggs 



V* pelvic bone 82 eggs 



9 /ie pelvic bone 68 eggs 



6 /s pelvic bone 54 eggs 



n /i pelvic bone. 40 eggs 



*/4 pelvic bone 26 eggs 



13 /ie pelvic bone 12 eggs 



7 / pelvic bone eggs 



We will drop her and take another. She may be another three- 

 finger-abdomen hen, like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like Fig. 

 19, and her pelvic bone may be J^-inch thick, like Fig. 28. She would 

 read three fingers abdomen; good condition; J^-inch pelvic bone. We 

 will look on Chart 3 at J^-inch pelvic bone, and find this hen is an 82- 

 egg type hen. 



We will take another hen. She may be a three-finger abdomen, 

 like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like Fig. 19, and her pelvic 

 bone may be % of an inch thick, as in Fig. 29. We will read her as a 

 three-finger-abdomen hen; in good condition; %-inch pelvic bone. We 

 will look on Chart 3 at %-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 26-egg type 

 hen. 



We will pick up another hen. She may be a three-finger capacity, 

 as in Fig. 14; she may be three fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 22, 

 and her pelvic bones may be Vie of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. We would 

 read this hen as a three-finger abdomen; three fingers out of condition, 

 and V i6-inch pelvic bone. When a hen is three fingers out of condition 

 she is in a serious way. She may have been sitting or laying heavily 

 and have been underfed. In either case, good care and plenty of the 

 right kind of feed will bring her back into condition, provided she has 

 not contracted tuberculosis (going light) or some other wasting disease. 

 I will cite two cases out of hundreds that have come under my obser- 

 vation. 



One was a Barred Rock hen that I intended to set on duck eggs; 

 she was six fingers abdomen, in good condition when I put her on the 

 nest, and l /*-'mch pelvic bones; that indicated that she was a 235-egg 

 type hen. She was on the nest two weeks before the duck eggs arrived 

 and four weeks on the duck's eggs, making six weeks setting. Owing to 

 stress of other work, and being confined in an out-of-the-way place, 

 she was somewhat neglected, and when the ducklings were hatched she 

 was three fingers abdomen and three fingers out of condition, thus 



