THE CALL OF THE HEN. Ill 



We will take the 145 egg hen, for example, of the san- 

 guine temperament. She will be four fingers abdomen 3-8 pel- 

 vic bone, when in normal condition, with pelvic bones of good 

 shape. We draw our hand along her breast bone (keel) from 

 front to rear and find her abdomen does not drop down the 

 least bit below the rear of her breast bone. This hen we might 

 call a normal hen. Her pelvic bones will in all probability ex- 

 pand and contract in conformance with her condition of laying; 

 if she was in the flush of laying her pelvic bones may be about 

 one and three-fourths inches apart: later in the season, when 

 she is not laying so frequently, her pelvic bones may close to 

 about one and a half inches; and when she stops laying for the 

 season her pelvic bones may close to about one and one-fourth 

 inches. This will very likely be repeated each year. ,;^. 



Now we will select a hen of the 250 egg type. We draw 

 our hand along her keel, as with the last hen; we find she is all 

 right, close built and firm; we drop her and take another 250 

 egg type hen. In drawing our hand along her keel (breast 

 bone) we find a slight bagging down in the rear. The abdomen 

 seems to drop below the rear of the breast bone slightly. We 

 will say this is a pullet, perhaps six or eight months old. She 

 is well developed and you call her one of your best hens; you 

 are proud of her and have decided to set every egg she lays. 

 Don't you do it. This pullet should be put in a yard with 

 others of her formation, after she is sixteen months old and 

 trap nested. She may stop laying any time and never lay an- 

 other egg, or she may continue to lay another year or so. In 

 any case she has been such a continuous layer that her frame 

 has become set to that form and her pelvic bones, as it were, set 

 and will contract very little. They will indicate that she is 

 laying when in fact she may not have laid for years. I have 

 kept such hens until they were six years old, and some of 

 them have never laid an egg after they were about 16 months 

 still others after they were two years old. This is where a trap 

 nest will save you money. When you select your hens by the 

 charts 44 and 45 at 16, 28 and 40 months of age the ones that 

 bag down the least bit should be put in a yard by themselves 

 and trapnested to discover the ones whose ovaries have broken 

 down and will lay no more. This is not difficult to discover as 

 the hen that is over the 205 egg type lays more or less at all 

 times during the first two years of her life, if not stimulated to 



