84 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



five and six fingered abdomen hens it will be four fingers abdo- 

 men, one-sixteenth pelvic bones; five fingers abdomen, 

 three-sixteenths pelvic bones; and six fingers abdomen five- 

 sixteenths pelvic bones. Very few will want to keep hens as 

 long as this. They will be five years and about four-months 

 old when you will sell them. Most people here sell them about 

 the time they commence to moult, after they are two years old, 

 but I selected the hens used at the California State Poultry Ex- 

 periment Sation, to test this method as far as the egg laying 

 qualities were concerned, and the hens 1 selected as hens that 

 would pay at four years, made a good paying record. 



The reader will understand that the way we have just 

 been selecting the paying hens is the \vay we select when we 

 have large numbers. This is the way I selected sixteen hun- 

 dred hens in six hours at the poultry farm of the Ukiah State 

 Hospital, Mendocino Co., Calif., and at other State hospitals 

 and poultry plants. We do not have to stop to figure out the 

 percentage of loss of each bird. You can take any combina- 

 tion of figures you wish, as 1-4 in., 3-8 in., 1-2 in.. 5-8 

 in., for sixteen-months old birds; 1-16 in., 3-16 in., 5-16 

 in., 7-16 in., for twenty-eight months old birds, you can 

 figure out the percentage of loss each year, and take a com- 

 bination of figures that will suit your purpose. You have 

 only to carry four figures in your mind. The percentage of 

 loss each year is computed by good poultrymen to be from 

 10 per cent to 20 per cent in egg production on plants that 

 are run for hatching eggs. If you forced your hens with an 

 excess of meat and condiments the loss will be according to 

 how you feed them, and no one can tell what it may be but 

 yourself. Some poultrymen get all there is in a hen out oi 

 her the first season then sell her. 



