THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



47 



Figure 33. Crooked Pelvic Bone. "B. B." Position Two. 



man, but every poultry-woman has seen cases where a hen 

 has gone on the nest and after a couple of hours commence to 

 cackle her head off. Presently we hear the whole flock take 

 up the chorus and going to see whjat the trouble is we find the 

 hens holding an "Old Maids' Convention", and declaring they 

 will never lay another egg, it hurts them so much to do so. 

 On examining them we find the Pelvic Bones so crooked they 

 come together like the horns on a Jersey cow, and when the 

 hens lay, instead of the vent dropping down between the pelvic 

 bones allowing the egg to be released in an easy manner in 

 a few minutes after the hen goes on the nest, the egg is forced 

 to be delivered between the Pelvic Bones and Tail Bone, thus 

 prolonging the agony of the hen sometimes for hours, when 

 if she was built right as in Fig. 34 she would be relieved of the 

 egg without pain in a few minutes. And instead of wasting 

 vitality in getting relieved of the egg she would be rustling 

 around for material to build another one land thus add at least 

 20 per cent to her egg producing value. This matter of crook- 

 ed Pelvic Bones is more frequent in some breeds than in 

 others and is a serious matter that is very easily remedied by 

 breeding only from birds with the straightest Pelvic Bones, 



