86 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
the same dealer was paying but $1.50 for birds of the same age. Now, 
what do you think of that? And Mr. Hogan says these cockerels were 
not descendants of the beef type of hens, but were hatched from eggs 
laid by hens selected as the egg type. They were not especially fed or 
in any way prépared for market. They cost 22 cents each for feed, 
and thus the profit on the bunch was $21.76. 
“In speaking of this matter, Mr. Hogan made the point that if all 
poultrymen would pay especial attention to producing fine broilers for 
market—that is, in preparing the broilers that they are obliged to produce 
in order to have a corresponding number of pullets—they would benefit 
themselves greatly. Not only would they get a better price for the birds, 
but they would greatly increase the demand. as many people who now 
care nothing for the common dry-meated birds would become pleased 
consumers of the improved broilers. The Poultry Journal man knows 
by personal experience that the broilers turned out by Mr. Hogan are 
ae delicious when properly cooked, and far ahead of the ordinary 
article.” 
CHAPTER XIII. 
SELECTING THE SETTING HEN. 
“How can I select the best hen for the purpose when I want to hatch 
chickens with hens?” 
The writer is asked the above question very often. It is a serious 
matter with the poultryman when he has a small number of choice eggs 
he wishes to hatch and gives them to a hen that is apparently setting 
well only to have her spoil most of them. He very naturally lays the 
cause to mites or lice, or both. While it is true that the nests and sur- 
roundings must be kept free from mites and the hens kept clean from 
hen lice, the trouble is not all here by a good deal. Sometimes a great 
deal of the fault lines in the hens. Some are born layers, some are born 
mothers, and some are born too lazy to get off the nest at the call of 
Nature. The hen born a typical egg type is of no use as a setter, neither 
is the hen that is born a typical meat type; she is too lazy to care for her 
chicks, even if she is fortunate enough to hatch any and not kill them 
all by standing on them. She is too stupid any way, and the typical 
egg-type hen is too nervous and has no time to attend to them. She 
thinks of nothing but manufacturing eggs. So we will have to. look 
for a hen between the above types, which we have in the dual-purpose 
type, with the following characteristics: 
First, she must have prepotency large; that gives her the mother 
instinct; next, she should be in normal condition, as indicated by her 
breast-bone: that is self-evident, for a hen out of condition lacks more 
or less of the animal magnetism, that is an aid to successful incubation. 
I need not mention good health, as indicated by good red comb and 
wattles, as everyone knows that. The hen should be four fingers ab- 
domen, since anything heavier is more or less liable to break the eggs 
and anything less than that would not be large enough to cover sufficient 
eggs. If the hen is a three-finger abdomen hen, her pelvic bones should 
be about 7/16 or 1 of an inch thick; if she is a four-finger abdomen hen, 
her pelvic bones should be about % or °/ig of an inch thick. If you 
