THE CALL OF THE HEN. 127 



Approximately 280-egg hens that measure as high as 2 5 /s inches in the 

 flush of laying will show about 3 /g to J/ inch less when not laying and 

 this shrinkage in measurement will apply to all other grades in about 

 this proportion. 



SELECTING FOR FALL MARKETING. 



We do not like to kill birds about to begin laying, that are laying, 

 or really good ones that are just through laying, particularly when there 

 are plenty in the flock that do not come under any of these heads. 



In this alone the cost of this method, when once well understood, 

 can be saved several times in a single season with a good-sized flock of 

 birds. 



While the exceptionally heavy layers can be told readily and at 

 almost any time, laying or not, and an absolutely worthless bird can 

 be told the same way, there is a time, just when the real good layer is 

 resting and the common to poor layer is doing her best, when they come 

 for a short time only close together in pelvic appearance. 



While it is not safe to kill a bird that measures IVs inches or over, 

 it is possible for a very fair layer to not be much wider than that at the 

 close of laying out her litter. Some good layers, that in the flush of 

 laying will measure 1% to 2 inches, at the close of their laying period 

 will sometimes close up to about IVs inches. A very poor layer in the 

 flush of her laying time might be 1 J4 to IVs inches, so care must be taken 

 at this period not to confound the two conditions, which do not exist 

 at any other time. This is referred to in the Introduction. To wholly pre- 

 vent this when it is desired to save every at all good layer it is well 

 to make two or possibly three examinations, a week or so apart. In 

 this way there will be no danger of confounding the one about to begin 

 laying with the one about to quit, and the poor layer can be told from 

 the good one. 



When killing a whole flock at two or three years old, as many do, 

 no hen measuring IVs inches and under is worth keeping; particularly 

 is this true if the birds have been well fed and stimulated to about their 

 full capacity. No hen of any value for egg-production will have an 

 egg in her at this time and measure so small unless she is a slow, in- 

 frequent layer at her best. Sometimes this kind of a hen with the very 

 small measurements will be found laying an occasional egg late in the 

 season. 



SELECTING ROOSTERS. 



We have said how important it is to have males of the right for- 

 mation to mate with the great layers for breeding purposes; we need 

 not emphasize this; it is so evident that we cannot trap-nest a rooster, 

 and equally so that years of trap-nesting hens can be ruinously upset 

 in a day by crossing with an inferior male, that it would reflect upon 

 our estimation of the reader's intelligence to say more about it. 



I have found Leghorn roosters that measured 1% inches, but they 

 are rare and priceless. A good matured bird should measure IVs inches 

 and a pretty fair one 1 inch. I would not use one that measured less, 

 if I could possibly help it. Many fine-looking birds measure only y% 

 inch, but such ones will ruin the offspring of the best layers and should 

 be discarded, whatever their qualities in feather, tip of comb, or any- 

 thing else. 



