THE CALL OF THE HEN. 51 



be a one finger abdomen hen as in Fig. 12. Then hold her as 

 in Fig. 8. Her breast may be as in Fig. 19, if so she will be in 

 good condition. Next go through movements as in Fig. 9 and 

 10 and hold her and examine her Pelvic Bone as in Fig. 11. 

 Her Pelvic Bone may be one sixteenth (1-16) of an inch thick 

 as in Fig. 24. Now look on Chart No. 1. Your hen is one 

 finger abdomen in good condition and Pelvic Bone is one six- 

 teenth (1-16) of an inch thick. You will see that she is a thir- 

 ty-six egg type hen. That means that if this hen is one of a 

 large number on a commercial poultry plant she is capable of 

 laying three dozen eggs her first laying year if she is fed and 

 cared for properly, barring accidents and disease. So we call 

 her a 36 egg type hen. 



We will drop this hen and take (another from the crate 

 and go through the same movements, hold her as in Fig 5 or 

 /, with head as in Fig. 6 (she may also be a one finger abdo- 

 men hen as in Fig. 12) then examine for Condition as in Fig. 

 8. Her condition may be good as in Fig. 19, then hold as 

 in Fig. 9 and 10, and measure thickness of Pelvic Bone as in 

 Fig. 11. Her Pelvic Bone may be three eights (3-8) of an inch 

 thick as in Fig. 27. In that case she would read like this: One 

 finger abdomen, good condition, three-eights (3-8) Pelvic 

 Bone. Now look on Chart No. 1 and you will find she is a 

 16 egg type hen. We will drop her and take another from the 

 crate and go through the same movements as before. This hen 

 may be a one finger hen also, in good condition w'ith Pelvic 

 Bones 1-2 inch thick, as in Fig. 28, and by consulting the 

 chart No. 1, we find she is an 8 egg type hen. 



We drop her and take another from the crate. She may 

 be a hen with one finger abdomen as in Fig. 12. When we ex- 

 amine her condition, We find she is like Fig. 20, which 

 indicates that she is one finger out of condition, (the subject 

 of condition is explained in chapter 5), her pelvic bone may be 

 l-16th of an inch thick as in Fig. 24. This hen will read differ- 

 ent from the other hen that w>as l-16th Pelvic Bone. This 

 hen is out of condition. She may have been in condition up to 

 a few weeks previous to our examination of her, the cause of 

 her lack of condition may be improper feed or care or both, 

 or it may be due to moulting or she may have been broody. In 

 any of these cases, it would not be the hen's fault that she was 

 out of condition and she should not be held responsible for it. 

 Her condition indicates that there is something wrong and 



