64 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



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 observation. 



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 Y^inch 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 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 indicating a 138-egg type hen. Six 

 weeks later she was laying, and had developed to six fingers 

 abdomen, which was her normal condition. 



Another case was where a gentleman was in a class that 

 took instructions. After the close of the meeting he brought 

 a hen that was three fingers out of condition. He said she 

 was his best hen, and asked me how many eggs she would lay. 

 She was three fingers abdomen, three fingers out of condition, 

 and J /i6-inch pelvic bone. Her head and actions indicated 

 perfect health. I told him she might lay 180 eggs her first 

 laying year, if her condition had been the same as it is at the 

 present time; but if she was my hen I thought I might be 

 able to make her lay 280 eggs. "You don't feed her half 

 enough." He replied, "That is the only hen I have that 

 lays a white egg. I got her when a pullet, before she com- 

 menced to lay. She has been laying about a year and has 

 laid 176 eggs. I had a small lot of hens at the time that were 

 so fat they were dying, and I cut down their feed and have 

 fed them sparingly ever since, so they would not get too fat 

 and die." I went to his place, and found he had three types 

 of hens: the typical meat type (one with pelvic bones l l / 8 

 inches thick), some with pelvic bones l / z inch thick, and this 

 hen that laid the white eggs, whose pelvic bones were Vie 

 of an inch thick. I told him to segregate his hens into three 

 lots, and feed them according to their type. Give the egg- 

 type hens all the grain they could clean up each day in the 

 scratching-shed, with a dry balanced mash before them all 

 the time; the dual-purpose hens should be fed all the grain 



