96 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
“How Can I Tet, A Lavine HEN?” 
I am asked this question very often, and in reply would say that 
from a scientific point of view it is impossible to tell the laying hen 
except with the X-ray. When J say this I do not mean that you cannot 
tell in the vast majority of cases, but there are occasionally hens whose 
formation is such that no known method will tell you whether she is a 
laying hen or not. I give in the last chapter my original ‘‘System” 
and the later supplement, which caused a great many questions to be 
asked, which I trust have been satisfactorily answered in this book. 
I was at a place in San Francisco lately where this subject was 
brought up. There was a small party present, all of whom had my 
“System.” One of the party worked in a large meat-market, where 
they bought and dressed live poultry. He said that occasionally he 
dressed a Hen that showed no indication of being a laying hen, but 
upon being opened an egg would be found in her. I told him the hens 
that he had described were those that laid a very few eggs and laid them 
only in the spring. Their pelvic bones expanded only while the hen 
was being delivered of the egg. This hen has practically but one egg 
under process of development at a time, consequently her abdomen 
does not have to expand to make room for only one egg. Whereas the 
hen that lays 150 eggs per year has a number of eggs developing at the 
same time, and her abdomen expands in proportion to her needs. The 
200-egg hen has a still larger number of eggs developing and she requires 
more room for them, hence her abdomen expands in proportion. The 
250-egg hen has a still larger number of eggs of all sizes developing and, 
her abdomen expands still wider than the 200-egg hen. When the hen’s 
abdomen expands, her pelvic bones, being literally a part of and con- 
tinuation of her abdomen, must expand and contract with it. When 
she is through laying for the season her abdomen contracts, and the 
pelvic bones must come closer together, which they do, although there 
are exceptions to this rule. We will take the 145-egg hen, for example 
of the sanguine temperament. She will be four fingers abdomen and 
3/z-inch pelvic 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 the breast-bone. This hen we might call a ‘‘normal hen.’’ Her 
pelvic bones will, in all probability, expand and contract in conformance 
with her condition of laying. If she is in the flush of laying, her pelvic 
bones may be about 134 inches apart; later in the season, when she is 
not laying so frequently, her pelvic bones may close to about 114 inches; 
and when she stops laying for the season her pelvic bones may close to 
about 114 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, closely built 
and firm. We drop her and take another 250-egg type hen. The per- 
formance of drawing the hand along the keel is for the purpose of picking 
out the future breeders that may later bag down, indicating weak ovaries. 
