Vh RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1343 
How to Detect the Robber H 
en 
ELECTION NEEDED—Every flock of 
poultry lias its quota of drones. Some of 
them are natural, taking their laziness 
from their parents. Some become so fat 
that they will not do anything but sleep 
and eat. Some have laziness thrust upon 
them, as a result of accident or poor handling, but 
they are always on hand, and many of them do not 
begin to pay for the food they consume. The gro¬ 
cer or the 'butcher can get back at his drone cus¬ 
tomers by making a little higher price to those who 
pay for their goods, but a poultryman has no way 
of getting back at these drones. In one case we en¬ 
tered a pen of pullets at one of the egg-laying con¬ 
tests. In selecting birds for this pen we depended 
entirely on the pedigree of these pullets. Everyone 
of them had a good mother, and a father whose 
parents were above reproach. There were two full 
sisters in this pen: both were of strong vigorous 
appearance; both ate well, cackled and sang, and 
gave every indication of interest in their business, 
yet with exactly the same care and the same feed¬ 
ing one pullet laid IS eggs during the year while the 
other laid 204. Now, when own sisters differ in 
this way it is evident that something besides the 
test of pedigree must be used in selecting layers. 
Here was a case where blood did not tell what the 
hen would do. Without question the blood supplied 
the tendency to lay, but the body machinery was 
wrong, and there could not be a full supply. It is 
clear, therefore, that in addition to knowing the 
hen’s pedigree a successful poultryman must recog¬ 
nize the sure sign of a layer as nature has painted 
and built it into her body. 
AN EXHIBITION OF CULLING.—From earliest 
times there have doubtless been men and women who 
were able to select the good layers and reject the 
poor ones. They could not always tell just how 
they did it. There was some sort of instinct about 
the operation, and who can ever explain that? We 
well remember when Tom Barron, the English poul¬ 
tryman, came to this country and gave an exhibi¬ 
tion of culling. We saw him do this at the Storrs 
egg-laying contest. The crowd was so great that 
Barron got up on the roof of a henhouse. The hens 
were handed to him, and he examined them one by 
one. The results were astonishing. In every case 
Barron selected the best layers in the pen, and easily 
told which were the drones. One of the college men 
carried the egg-laying record of each pen, and veri¬ 
fied Barron’s work. At that time Barron seemed 
to have a regular system of operating. He took the 
I ig._ 550.—Body comparisons are shown in this illus¬ 
tration. Note the difference in spread of ribs at 1; in 
breadth between hips at 2; and in width of the pelvic 
arch at 3.. X marks the approximate location of the 
ovaries. 
bird gently in his hands and gave her a quick twist, 
running his fingers over the front of her body. He 
noted the width of her back and held her up so that 
he might study her head and eye carefully. He 
turned her over, and noted the distance between her 
legs, and gave careful examination to the pelvic 
bones. It seemed quick and easy, but it was really 
a matter of shrewd judgment, and evidently develop¬ 
ed through long years of practice. Of course, it 
cannot be said that this work of Barron’s started 
the modern plan of culling, but it stimulated great 
interest in the process. Soon it was found that men 
and women here and there had developed systems 
for judging these birds. Their plans differed in 
some respect, but usually there were certain essen¬ 
tial features which all accepted. The experts at the 
experiment station helped greatly in this, by collect¬ 
ing and studying these various systems and finally 
reducing them to some sort of a standard. In this 
way a formula for analyzing a working hen was 
developed, and culling was established as a genuine 
poultry art. There is no question about its efficiency. 
In numberless cases the cullers have gone through 
a flock and taken out 30 from each 100. Then the 
owner found that he was getting just as many eggs 
Fig. 551.—A contrast in heads. Note the well develop¬ 
ed head and tine features of the hen on the right in 
contrast to the poorly developed, coarse featured head 
on the left. It isn’t hard to pick the better layer. 
from the remaining 70 as he did from the original 
100, while he was saving 30 per cent on his grain 
bill. 
WORKING BY SYSTEM.—It is not probable that 
anyone can fully learn this art of culling by studying 
the printed directions. He will have to learn large- 
Fig. 552.—Fully formed egg in oviduct ready to be laid. 
Note its position in the pelvic arch and between the 
pelvic bones. 
ly from experience, by actually holding the bird in 
his hands and going over her carefully. Still it is 
true that good pictures will help an earnest student 
by showing him something of the anatomy of a hen. 
Many of the experiment stations have printed ar¬ 
ticles on culling, but perhaps the clearest and most 
practical that we have seen is Bulletin No. 35 from 
the Extension Service of the Maryland College at 
College Park Post Office. The pictures in this ar¬ 
ticle are taken from that bulletin. 
I ig. o5o. Bone structure of the hen. 1—Keel of breast¬ 
bone ; 2 Rear of keel; 3—Ischial bones forming pelvic 
arch; 4—Pubic bones; 5—Lateral sternal processes; 
6—Abdomen. 
JUDGING FROM THE HEAD.—'When Tom Bar¬ 
ron looked at the head and eye of a hen he was 
hunting for a sure sign. Taking the two birds shown 
a< Fig. 553, one can easily see that the right-hand 
bird has a better developed head and finer features. 
A good culler would quickly reject the left-hand 
bird, for somehow she shows in her head a general 
appearance that she lacks the nerve to lay a large 
number of eggs. This head type is of great import¬ 
ance, and we copy what is printed in this bulletin: 
The good layer is characterized by a beak somewhat 
stout and well curved. Comb, wattles and ear lobes 
are of good size and well proportioned, neither too small 
nor too large, and not beefy. They should be pliable 
and congested, bright red and waxy, fitting closely to 
the head. The skull back of the comb should be broad 
and somewhat flat; the eye, large, full, prominent and 
bright in expression; the face, full, smooth, fine in 
texture and free of hollow depressions, fatness or fa: 
wrinkles, especially in the heavier breeds. The head 
should be deep from crown to throat, fine in features, 
lean and free from wrinkles and overhanging eyebrows. 
The poor layer, on the other hand, exhibits a beak 
somewhat long and slender. The comb, wattles and 
ear lobes are either small, shrunken and dead-like in 
appearance or excessively heavy and flabby. The skull 
is rather narrow; the eye, sunken and listless in ap¬ 
pearance ; while the face appears sunken iu front of 
the eye and rough and unrefined or beefy and wrinkled. 
The head is rather shallow from crown to throat; and 
in general presents a long, narrow, shallow, snake-head 
or crow-head appearance with a somewhat listless ex¬ 
pression; or it may appear excessively fat and wrinkled, 
especially in the heavier breeds. Study and compare 
heads shown in Fig. 551. 
There is no question about the value of this head 
and eye test. One of the best judges of cattle we 
have ever known said lie could tell within 500 lbs. 
of a cow’s yearly milk yield, just by looking at her 
face, and he came very close to doing it. 
BODY CONFORMATION.—For final results, 
however, we must look to the body of the hen, for 
there is located the machinery for manufacturing 
and delivering the egg. r I'his machine will not work 
properly unless the nerve and the brain operate with 
it, but the hen must have a large roomy body, well 
developed in order to produce eggs. Fig. 552 shows 
a full-formed egg just ready to be laid. In connec¬ 
tion with this we should study Fig. 553, showing the 
bony structure of the hen, and we shall see from 
this the necessity of having wide-sprung ribs and 
pelvic -bones reasonably far apart. Again at Fig. 
550 body comparisons are made. A good layer must 
be broad across the hips and with a good breadth 
between the wings. She must have a wide barrel- 
shape body. In a good layer the pelvic bones are 
thin and pliable, and quite free from meaty deposits. 
These bones are so far apart that two or three 
fingers may be easily thrust within. In poor layers 
these bones are thick and rigid, and there is hardly 
room at best for more than one or two fingers to 
pass in. This test is regarded by many as of su¬ 
preme importance, but the successful cullers regard 
it as one part of a well developed system. 
CONTRASTED TYPES.—The two pictures at 
Figs. 555-550 show two types of birds as they would 
J 
Fig. 554.—Designated parts of the fowl used in apply¬ 
ing the pigmentation tests and in culling. A—Vent; 
E Eye ring; C—Ear lobe; D—Beak; F—Hock joint; 
G—Abdomen; II—Face; I—Eye; J—Comb ; 
Iv—Wattle. 
appear undressed or stripped of their feathers. This 
gives a good idea of what is meant by proper body 
development in the bird. As you see, the poor layer 
exhibits a breast narrow and shallow, with a short 
breastbone, and the carriage of the body is, as we 
see it, quite different from that of the bird with a 
desirable type. 
LEGS AND TOES.—Another test, or rather a 
part of the system, relates to the legs and toes and 
their color. This is explained in the following ex¬ 
tract from the bulletin: 
Shanks, somewhat flattened at the sides, indicating 
development of tendons in the rear through activity, 
are indications of a good layer. The shanks should be 
muscular and strong, supporting the bodv well The 
scales on the back should be soft. 
Round hard shanks, due to fatty deposits because of 
over-fat condition or sluggishness and indicating meat 
