THE CALL OF THE HEN. 97 
In this connection I wish to say that in selecting breeders I found that the 
best way to eliminate the hens that would begin to bag down behind 
was to follow directions as given below. Of late years I have not had 
this trouble to contend with. It is always the heavy layer that breaks 
cowie which indicates weak ovaries, and we do not want to breed from 
such. 
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 can call her one of 
your best hens. You are proud of her, and have decided to set every 
egg she lays. Do not use her as a breeder. 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 another 
égg, 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. 1 have kept such hens until they were 6 years old, and some of 
them have never laid an egg after they were about 16 months, still 
others after they were 2 years old. This is where a trap-nest will save 
you money. When you select your hens by 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 trap-nested 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 over-production her first year. ‘‘A little learning is a dangerous thing,” 
is an old saying applicable to this case. When a man says, ‘Don’t 
kill that laying hen,” he should furnish you with an X-ray outfit that 
will enable you to comply with his request. . 
The writer has used the pelvic-bone proposition for over forty years 
in selecting the laying hen, and has found the following to be a very good 
method in selecting the hen that is not laying: 
The hen that scores 130 eggs her first laying year would measure 
about 7/3 of an inch between her pelvic bones after she stops laying for 
the season. The hen that scores 150 eggs her first laying year would 
measure about 1 inch between her pelvic bones after she stops laying 
for the season. The hen that scores 200 eggs would measure about. 
114 inches between the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. 
The hen that scores 250 eggs would measure about 114 inches between 
the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. The 250-egg hen 
does stop more or less after her second and sometimes after her first 
season, if not cared for right; but if feed and environment are right 
she may continue to lay more or less until 3 years old, when her frame 
may become set. When she is done laying her pelvic bones may remain 
2 inches apart. As hens grow older their pelvic bones become thicker 
during the winter months when they are not laying. The thickness 
varies according to their type, the typical egg type changing little or 
none, while the more ptonounced the meat type becomes the more the 
pelvic bones change, owing to the increase or decrease of flesh on the 
abdomen (flank) of the fowl as it takes on or loses flesh, as indicated by 
her breast-bone. 
