48 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
will be in good condition. Next go through movements as in Figs. 9 
and 10 and hold her and examine her pelvic bone as in Fig. 11. Her 
pelvic bone may be one-sixteenth (4/16) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. 
Now look on Chart 1. Your hen is one-finger abdomen, in good condi- 
tion, and her pelvic bone is one-sixteenth ('/15) of an inch thick. You 
CHART 1. 
One-finger Abdomen. 
'/1_ pelvic bone.........0.....0006- 36 eggs 
1/, pelvic bone.............-.-0045 32 eggs 
3/16 pelvic bone..... 6... 2.2.25 08- 28 eggs 
1/, pelvic bone..... Naas. saad ened 24 eggs 
5/16 pelvic bone..... opal RUE in tay, 20 eggs 
3/s pelvic bone..... saa cit tein lane 16 eggs 
7/1 pelvic bone..... Bis en Dae tenes 12 eggs 
1/, pelvic bone.............. .... 8 eggs 
9/1, pelvic bone............-. .... A eggs 
5/, pelvic bone.. ............ .... 0 eggs 
will see that she is a 36-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 will 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 Fig. 7, with 
head as in Fig. 6 (she may also be a one-finger abdomen 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 Figs. 9 and 10, and measure thickness 
of pelvic bone, as in Fig. 11. Her pelvic bone may be three-eighths 
(?/s) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 27; in that case she would read like this: 
One-finger abdomen; good condition; three-eighths (3/s) pelvic bone. 
Now, look on Chart 1, and you will find she is a 16-egg type hen. 
We will drop her and take another from the crate, ed go through 
the same movements as before. This hen may be a one-finger abdomen 
hen also, in good condition, with pelvic bone 14 inch thick, as in Fig. 
28, and by consulting Chart 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 a one-finger abdomen, as in Fig. 12. When we examine 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 Chap- 
ter V.); her pelvic bone may be 1/16 of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. This 
hen will read different from the other hen that was 1/16 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 food 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 it’s up to her owner to right the wrong, and 
when we do right the wrong, the hen will come back into condition, and 
her abdomen will then measure two fingers instead of one finger. We 
