‘ 4 Observing, the Hen! ’ ’ Barred Rocks Win 
C ULLING THE LAYERS.—The practical dairy¬ 
man lias long been able to size up a cow and 
arrive at a pretty accurate idea of Iter producing 
capacity by noting a number of external points 
which, taken together, form a picture that reveals 
to the cow-wise much of the animal's ability to ful¬ 
fill the chief mission of her lift*. A relation between 
body type and performance has been discovered, and 
the ability to recognize this type in the animal before 
him is a most valuable asset to the man who would 
keep boarders out of bis herd. It is plain that sim¬ 
ilar ability would be of the greatest value to poultry- 
men, since the comparatively short productive life of 
the hen makes it important that no more of it than 
need be should be spent before it is ascertained 
whether or not she is a profit maker. If the un¬ 
profitable hen can be culled from the Hock before she 
has eaten a lot of expensive grain and, possibly, 
transmitted her constitutional inability to make prof¬ 
itable use of grain to numerous offspring, a big leak 
in the poultryman’s income can be stopped. A great 
deal of study is now being given to this subject, both 
f This Bird Laid 273 Eggs. Fir/. 57) 
in the poultry departments of our agricultural col¬ 
leges and among practical poultrymen everywhere. 
The hen is being analyzed as never before. If she 
carries discoverable marks of efficiency, or lack of it, 
the poultry experts are going to find out just what 
they are and how they can be read so as to classify 
the bird as good, poor or indifferent, without waiting 
for a trap-nest to reveal her record. As the scales 
and tally sheet form the ultimate court of appeal in 
the case of the dairy cow, so the trap-nest must re¬ 
main that of the poultry yard, but, where hundreds 
or thousands of fowls must be handled yearly, a less 
laborious and time consuming, even if less accurate, 
method must be brought into use. 
MARKS OF EFFICIENCY—Of the ear marks of 
efficiency carried by the hen, the amount and distri¬ 
bution of yellow pigment in her skin forms one of 
tbe most readily observed and characteristic. The 
yellow in the beak, eye ring, ear lobes, vent area and 
Tied for First Place—281 Eggs. Fig. 57V 
shanks is a barometer record of high and low pres- 
sures in the fowl’s performance. This mark is, of 
course, particularly evident in the yellow-skinned 
breeds. During a period of rest and accumulation of 
fat, the yellow color flows into these places and 
stains them a more or less uniform tint, of greatest 
intensity in beak and shanks, but discoverable iu 
other places as well. When egg production begins, 
thi‘ drain upon the body tissues shows itself in a re¬ 
ceding of this color, the recession beginning first with 
those tissues having an abundant blood supply, like 
the vent area and eye rings, and ending with the 
more horny tissues of the beak and shanks. Close 
study has revealed something of the rate of this 
fading and recurrence of color, so that the careful 
student of the subject is able to make a fairly accu¬ 
rate computation of the number of eggs that the hen 
has laid during the season. High color and high egg 
records do not go together. Let the vain idler and 
coquette of the flock be picked up in midsummer, 
and her painted cheek and penciled eyes reveal her 
character at once. So evident and outstanding is 
this mark of performance that it is not necessary to 
more than glance at many flocks to note that they 
contain Summer boarders in numbers, and of such 
character that a trip to the city in crates can be the 
only profitable disposition to make of them. 
THE BEAK RECORD.—If the non-productive hen 
could know that her bill had become a bill-board, 
upon which was posted the record of her idleness, 
she would bury it in the litter when the basket was 
making its rounds, and she would scurry to hide 
those yellow legs whoso gloss and plumpness had 
been her pride. A close look at the beak may reveal 
a curious record in its bars of white and yellow. The 
pigment both enters and leaves at the base first. 
After a prolonged period of laying, the beak will be 
bleached white; then, when egg production ceases, 
the yellow color will begin to steal from the corners 
of the mouth toward the tip. Perhaps, after going 
part of the way, egg production begins again and the 
base of the beak loses its new color. This will bring 
about a barring of that organ, a white tip and base 
being separated by a streak of yellow. Repetitions 
of laying and resting at short intervals might pro¬ 
duce several liars and show the hen’s habit of inter¬ 
mittent production. 
THE SHANKS.—Similarly, the shanks reveal the 
persistence of the fowl’s performance. The skin 
here is hard, and the blood circulates slowly through 
it. Having taken on its normal hue of yellow dur¬ 
ing the molting season, the shank loses it slowly, and 
beak, vent, eye rings and ear lobes may have turned 
Vied for First Place—231 Eggs, Fig. 577 
an ashen gray before the last traces of color have 
disappeared from the legs. Even when apparently 
bleached, the posterior portion of the hock or the 
sole of the foot may still show color; these being the 
last hiding places of the yellow streak that denotes 
laziness on the part of the hen that should be work¬ 
ing. 
OTHER PROOFS.—As suggested earlier, other 
parts of the body show gain and loss of color more 
quickly than those already described. In these, a 
few days of egg production will make changes that 
require weeks in the slower tissues. If the circle 
formed by the edge%of the eyelids is looked at close¬ 
ly, it will be found to have a yellow tint in the non- 
laying hen. Blood circulation is active here and 
The Winning Pen of Barred I'lgnunith Itocks tit the 8torrs Egg-laying ftontest . 
Fig. 575 
