THE CALL OF THE HEN. 149 



matings often lay only 100 or 125 eggs on the average. In 

 your opinion, what causes this decrease in the number of eggs? 



8. How many eggs should a hen lay the first year to 

 justify you in keeping her the second year as a breeder or as a 

 layer? 



9. In breeding for egg-production, would you prefer to 

 breed from males that mature early and from females that 

 lay early, or would you select the opposite kind? Why? 



10. Should you breed from the fall and winter layers, or 

 should you select for breeders those that wait until spring to 

 lay? Why? 



11. Should you breed from the active, alert birds, or 

 the inactive, lazy ones? Why? 



12. Should you breed from those that are early to rise 

 and late to retire, or from the opposite? Why? 



13. Should you breed from the heavy eaters or feeders, 

 or from those that eat comparatively little? Why? 



14. Other things being equal, would you prefer to breed 

 from a male bred from a high-laying hen, or from one bred 

 from a medium layer? Why? 



15. What is meant by "stamina" and "vigor" in poul- 

 try? 



16. Which has the most to do with determining the 

 number of eggs a hen will lay the breeding, the feeding or 

 the housing? Why? 



17. What difference would there be in the prob&ble 

 number of eggs laid by a hen with lots of "capacity," a six- 

 finger abdomen, with a thick pelvic bone, 1 inch in thickness, 

 and a hen with but little "capacity," a two-finger abdomen, 

 with a rather thin pelvic bone, 5 /ie of an inch in thickness, 

 both hens being in good condition? 



18. Everything else being equal, which moult first, as a 

 rule, the good layers or the poor layers? 



19. What, if anything, has the width or the distance 

 between the pelvic bones themselves got to do with egg- 

 production? 



20. Do we feed hens for the purpose of feeding eggs into 

 their bodies, or do we feed them to develop the eggs which 

 selection and breeding or Nature has placed within the hen? 



