CHAPTER XXXIX 
HOW TO TELL HENS THAT ARE LAYING 
HERE are several ways of telling whether fowls are laying, 
but the most obvious, and indeed the surest, is the comb 
ofthe bird. If the comb be bright red, fiery red if possible, 
and of a fair size, that bird is laying or on the eve of laying. If the 
comb be pale and shrunken the bird is unmistakably not laying. 
These two indications of the laying and non-laying hen are 
practically infallible, but one may occasionally see a bird lay with 
a small red undeveloped comb, and perhaps one may on rare 
occasions see a hen continue to lay after the comb has turned 
from bright red to pale red. I have occasionally found pullets 
in their first season begin to lay with small undeveloped combs, 
but in such instances the comb is always red, if not very red. 
Speaking generally, any experienced poultryman with an eye 
can tell at a glance what proportion of birds in any given pen are 
laying, and even the novice will make very few mistakes in this 
connection. Another method is to feel the pelvic bones. If 
they are close together the bird obviously cannot lay, but if they 
are wide apart the chances are that the bird is laying, or at any rate 
it is capable of laying. Many investigations have been made 
from time to time on the external characters that indicate egg- 
production, and Professor D. B. Keats of Cornell University contri- 
buted a paper to The Journal of American Investigation in Poultry 
Husbandry which summarises excellently the various external 
signs that go with egg-laying. Among them I should like to 
emphasise the fact that birds of the yellow-legged variety that 
lose the colour and develop almost colourless shanks are always 
prolific layers. I have discovered this for myself, and I note that 
Miss Bell, the famous breeder of Leghorns, has also stated that no 
better indication of a heavy layer can be found than the fading 
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