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The Call of the Hen
——_OR——
The Science of the
Selection and Breeding of Poultry
For Egg-Production
By
WALTER HOGAN
Copyrighted, 1913, in the United States and Canada, Great
Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany,
and Denmark.
[All Rights Reserved. |
Copyrighted, 1914.
PRICH Sse =~ = 7$2.00:
REVISED, PUBLISHED, AND SOLD BY THE
AMERICAN SCHOOL OF POULTRY HUSBANDRY,
Mountain Grove, Mo.
ie 437
WU7s
\Q14-
DEDICATED
TO THE POULTRYMEN WHO,
LIKE THE AUTHOR,
DO NOT KNOW IT ALL.
ja oe
OCT -7 1914
©c.a379931
Yool,
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=SGn
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 3
Lady Show You, a White Plymouth Rock hen, that holds the world’s
egg record for a two-year-old hen; laid 281 eggs in. the National Egg-
Jaying Contest at the Missouri State Poultry Experiment Station, Moun-
tain Grove, Mo. She met the Hogan test.
THE MISSOURI STATE
POULTRY EXPERIMENT
STATION
MOUNTAIN GROVE,
Mo.
Photographed by request of the Chamber of Commerce, Petaluma, Calif.
These hens weighed less than 4 pounds each and laid 131 pounds 2
ounces of eggs. They won the prize for laying the greatest weight in eggs
in the National Egg-laying Contest. Each hen’s eggs would have sold for
$4.50 on the Petaluma Market, if reduced to No. 1 eggs. They are the
result of five years’ breeding by the author from common Petaluma Single
Comb White Leghorns. It is possible for the reader to do the same with
almost any breed by following instructions in this book.
PREFACE
This is an age which demands action, applied thought, and
a practical, actual, and workable science. The world is de-
manding to know, not ‘What are you?” or ‘What do you
look like?”’ but “What can you do?” Drones are being culled
out in all lines of business activity, and rightly so; and the same
is true with the poultry business. The hen which delivers the
goods is the hen which is in demand. ‘The hen that lays is
the hen that pays.”
We have two reasons for publishing THe CALL or THE HEN.
Some three years ago Mr. Hogan sent us three males, all Single
Comb White Leghorns; one was of his 280-egg type, selected
according to this system, another was of the 250-cgg type,
and the third was of a 70- or 80-egg type. He also sent us two
pens of hens of his own selection and breeding.. We trapnested
all the hens, and bred from all three males. The results in every
‘ase have borne out Mr. Hogan’s claims and the truthfulness
of his methods of selection and breeding. We have also tested
the hens in the egg-laying contests; taken measurements and
made tests and judged their capacity for laying as per this
system, THe Cau or tHE Hen. The results so nearly tally
with the system in practically every case that we feel that this
is a valuable method of selection and breecing, which should
be in the hands of everyone who attempts to raise poultry.
Capacity, condition, type, and vigor must all be taken into
consideration in determining whether a hen will be a good
producer or a poor producer. By making a careful and sensible
application of the rules made known in this book, it is possible
for any poultry-raiser to avoid great loss.
We are told, and have good reason to believe that it is true,
that the average farm hen lays less than 80 eggs per year. If
that be true, about half the poultry is being kept at a loss to
the owner. If this is the condition, are we not justified in
doing something to attract the attention of the farmers and
poultry-raisers to methods and practices which will lead to the
production of more eggs from the average hen, and to the
necessity of culling and selection, and to more careful and
painstaking methods?
6 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
The object of THE Cau or THE HEN is to stimulate an in-
terest In increased egg-production in all varieties of poultry
and to encourage the breeding of strains of high-producers.
We have come to the point where our efforts to breed fowls
with perfect plumage for show purposes has overshadowed
that of the ability of our hens to lay; and it can certainly
result in no harm to call the attention of the breeders of the
nation to the good which would certainly come from a study
of the things which would tend to increase egg-production,
We should all be vitally concerned in any attempt to better
conditions, to increase the preductiveness of the hen, and to
give impetus to an industry which is already one of our greatest
agricultural factors.
For half a century the fanciers and poultrymen generally
have devoted their attention to the show-room in the de-
velopment of shape and color. No opportunity has been
offered or anything specially done to encourage the farmer and
poultryman to develop the natural resources of the hen—her
ability to lay eggs. A few of our best experiment stations
have made some investigations along this line and done some
very valuable work indeed. Here and there an occasional
poultry-breeder has given some thought and attention to
breeding for egg-production; but certainly, as a whole, the
attention of breeders generally has not been along this line,
and it seems that this important matter has been too much
neglected.
Haphazard methods of mating and breeding don’t pay, and
indiscriminate methods cannot prove successful in building
up a flock of laying hens. There never was a time in the history
of this country when poultry and eggs were in greater demand;
the price at which poultry and eggs sell has increased much
more in proportion than has the price of feeds necessary to
produce these products; but because the industry is flour-
ishing to-day more than ever before does not Justify us in con-
tinuing indiscriminate or foolhardy methods. The opportunity
is ours to insure greater profits, if we will but carefully and
systematically solve the problem which is facing us: ‘How
‘an we insure a reasonably high average egg-production?”’
The interests of the fancier are served through the show-
room. If a breeder enters birds in a show-room and is beaten,
he tries to improve his flock and perfect it by mtroducing new
blood or by improved methods of breeding and careful se-
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 7
lection. If he wins, he tries to keep his stock in that high
state of perfection. It is just as important, and even more so,
that he know just what his flock can do in the matter of pro-
duction, and he ought to use the same care in trying to perfect
his strain of layers.
There are exceptions to all rules. You will find some ex-
ceptions in selecting, testing, and breeding your poultry ac-
cording to the method described in THE CaLL or THE Hen;
but many breeders have tested it for some six or eight years;
many of these have doubled their egg-yield in this time. We
feel certain that Mr. Hogan’s method of selection and breeding
will prove him to be to the poultry industry what Burbank is
to horticulture, Edison is to the electrical world, or Darwin or
Mendel to the breeding kingdom. That the mastery of this
method of selection and breeding, and sensibly applying the
principles revealed herein, will mean much to the poultry
industry, is our honest belief.
AMERICAN SCHOOL OF PouLTRY HUSBANDRY.
Mountain Grove, Mo.
FOREWORD
"The writer’s introduction into poultry-keeping was in the
city of Boston, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1857. By the
the spring of ’68 I had a flock of nearly 400 birds, among them
a lot of the best Single Comb White Leghorns that I could
find. I went in person to New York city to get them. My
friends thought such extensive poultry-keeping the limit of
folly, and freely remarked that I was going crazy. In those
days eggs were almost worthless during the spring and summer
months, but would often sell for fifty cents per dozen in the
winter. This set me to thinking that perhaps it might be
possible to increase the egg-yield in the winter and by so
doing make the fad a better paying proposition. Through
my experiments I found that all hens were not alike; that
some would be very good table fowl and poor layers, others
would be very good layers and poor table fowl, while still other
hens would be very fair table fowl and very fair layers. At this
time we had all the old-fashioned breeds we could get, and
discarded them all for the Single Comb White and Brown
Leghorns. I had decided that knowledge was of commercial
value only when applied, and having a working knowledge of
the anatomy and physiology of the hen, I decided to try to
turn the same to a commercial account, and in a couple of
years had evolved what is now known as the ‘ Walter Hogan
System,” which consists in ascertaining the value of a hen for
the purpose you desire by the relative thickness of and dis-
tance apart of the pelvic bones. Before 1873 I had communi-
cated this discovery to some of my friends under promise of
secrecy. One of them, Albert Brown, once a well - known
banker, of Amesbury, Massachusetts, and O. H. Farrar, of the
same place, an overseer in the Hamilton Mills, and a light
Brahma specialist. After using the above so-called ‘‘system”’
for a number of years, I developed a new method, which I have
taught in part privately for some years, and which I now in-
trocuce to the public under the title of ‘‘The Call of the Hen;
or, The Science of Selecting and Breeding Poultry.”
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 9
My friends early prophesied that!jmy penchant for inven-
tion would land me in the poor-house in my old age. So by
some occult inspiration I was induced to abstain from pub-
lishing any part of my discoveries until 1904, when, by the ad-
vice of Ex-Congressman Haldor E. Boen, of Minnesota, to
whom I had confided my poultry secrets some years previous, |
decided to publish only my first discovery, known as the
“Walter Hogan System” (which will be found in the latter part
of this work), after the same had been tested at the Minnesota
State Experimental Station by Professor Hoverstadt, the super-
intendent of the station. However, before taking any steps to
bring this matter before the public, I wrote to some thirty
or more poultry judges, who were supposed to be selected as
judges to officiate at the coming poultry show to be held in
Buffalo during the exhibition at that place in 1901, asking
them if they knew of any way to tell when a pullet was about
to lay. I thought that if they did not know that much of the
laying proposition, I would be safe in going ahead with pub-
lishing my secrets. The letters I received were left in Minne-
sota when I came to California shortly before the earthquake
in 1906, so I cannot name the judges at present, but they will
remember me as the proprietor of the Fergus Falls Woolen
Mills; and I must say they replied in a very courteous manner,
saying there was no way except the general appearance of the
bird, as to its maturity of form, redness of comb and wattles,
singing, looking for nest, etc. One only of the number charged
me one dollar for this information.
Failing health obliged me to dispose of my manufacturing
business and retire to the farm, and it was in the spring of
1905 before I published my ‘‘ Walter Hogan System,” when it
appeared in a number of poultry papers. (See Reliable Poultry
Journal, March, 1905.) I did not copyright the work at that
time, although my experience in mechanical inventions had
taught me that I should have done so, and the following August
imitations began to appear, until in 1912 a number of different
parties in the United States and foreign countries were claiming
authorship and selling it under the same or different titles.
My years of research and expense brought me no financial
returns, and in the spring of 1906 I left Minnesota for Cali-
fornia, a physical and financial wreck. After having regained
my health, I began here at Petaluma to build up the same
kind of a flock of layers that I had done in previous years, with
Io THE CALL OF THE HEN.
the idea of publishing my entire work when I should have bred
up a strain of 200-egg hens and better.
After I removed to California, Professor M. E. Jaffa, of
the University of California, became interested in the matter,
and, at the request of the Petaluma Poultry Association, had
the discovery tested at the California Poultry Experimental
Station for two years, and continued for two years longer for
the purpose of determining the value of four-year-old hens
as layers, as it is outlined in this book in the chapter relating
to the selection of the best layers in a flock.
It was also tested in New Zealand by D. D. Hyde, chief
poultry expert for the New Zealand Government, and Prof.
Brown, of the New Zealand Poultry Experiment Station. I
have repeatedly been requested by my friends in different
parts of the world to publish the full matter in book form,
but poor health and lack of sufficient funds have prevented me
from doing so until now. As this work will be copyrighted, I
do not anticipate the literary pirates will raid it as they have
my former work. In justice to the poultry fraternity, I want
to say that while I have been and am now a member of the
American Poultry Association, and have raised poultry fifty-six
years, and now raise them by the thousand, I have never in the
past classed myself as a “‘poultryman”’ in the strict sense of
the word. Neither do I claim that I am the only one who has
discovered the facts set forth in this book. I only know that
I have never seen them in print before. I know what the re-
sults of following this method have been with me, and I feel
safe in assuming that the things I have discovered have not
been known. Hundreds have known me as an inventor and
woolen manufacturer where one would know me as a “poultry
erank’’; and the only apology I have for offering this book to
the public in a field already crowded with poultry literature is
the earnest solicitation of my friends.
WALTER HoGan.
Petaluma, Cal., July 7, 1912.
The Call of ie Hen; or, [he Science
of the Selection and Breeding of Poultry
By WALTER HOGAN.
CHAPTER. I.
Tue UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES WHICH GOVERN THE SELECTION
AND BREEDING OF PouLTry ARE CaPAciTy, CONDITION,
Typr, CONSTITUTIONAL ViIGoR, AND PREPOTENCY.
In the winter of 1910 I received a letter from a woman in
Oregon, which read as follows:
“Dear Sir,—My husband is a machinist. He is getting
old and his health is failing. We have both worked hard all
our lives, and have saved enough to buy a small place in the
country. We can no longer do hard work, and in looking for
some light occupation that would bring weekly returns, we
have looked favorably on the poultry business. We have
kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of years,
and think we have done well with them. We also take four
poultry papers, but each one tells a different story, and we
cannot decide what to do. We have been years accumulating
our little savings, and if we should lose them, we would have
no resources left for our old age. I enclose two articles from
the September (1910) number of the Pacific Fanciers’ Monthly.
One article gives me to understand that it is almost hopeless
to think of making a living with hens, if we depend on selling
eggs and poultry on the market. The other article holds out
the promise of a possible income of a thousand dollars per year
from 300 hens, if handled under right conditions. One means
utter failure and bankruptcy in market eggs and poultry, and
the other means the fullest measure of success. Both of these
articles are in the same number and one follows the other on
the same page. How can you reconcile these two conflicting
opinions?”
(The articles follow.)
12 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
‘“A CoMMON QUESTION WISELY ANSWERED.
“By George Scott.
“Can a living be made from poultry? Probably there is no
one who has attained distinction in the avicultural arena to
whom this question has not been put hundreds of times; and it
is a question of perennial interest to the poultry-keeping public.
There are many people who will tell you that a living, and a
good living, can be made from poultry-keeping alone, and as
proof of their statement will point out the numerous men
whose names are household words in the fancy. On the other
hand, a vast majority will most emphatically give utterance to
statements calculated to deter any poultry-keeping aspirant,
and give weight to their contention by citing hundreds of
cases where men have tried and failed. Truly the mass of
evidence appears to be with the latter belief, for it is an indu-
bitable fact that for every person who succeeds in this business
a hundred fail. But, looking at the matter from a logical
point of view, the fact that a minority rely on poultry for their
daily bread is ample evidence that it is quite possible to make
a living out of poultry-keeping, and the abnormal number of
failures merely proves that the business is a difficult one.
“The fact that a man who has failed in some other business
takes up poultry-keeping with a like result in no sense proves
that poultry-keeping does not pay; it is only what could be
expected, and any experienced aviculturist would have prophe-
sied such aresult. It is, however, useless to explain such things
to the man who is contemplating starting a poultry farm. To
suggest that he is unfit for the task would be taken by him
as an insult, for the public, in its ignorance, has conceived the
idea that poultry-management is the simplest work that any-
one can think of—in fact, I question whether an outsider
considers it to be work at all.
“Such a hold has this belief obtained on the man in the street
that it almost amounts to a superstition, and until the fallacy
is exploded the number of the unsuccessful will be constantly
increased. The public, apparently, cannot understand the
difference between keeping a few fowls as a paying hobby and
managing a poultry farm as an enormous one, and that the
minor difficulties to be met with in the former case are increased
a thousand fold in the latter.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 13
‘Probably there is no other business which calls for so many
qualifications as that of the poultry-farmer, and to say that
the man who has been successful in any other walk in life is to=
tally unfitted for this business, though somewhat exaggerated,
will give the tyro some idea of what is wanted. An intimate de-
tailed knowledge of poultry-management, an unlimited reserve
of perseverance, determination, and resource, a genuine love
for fowls, the capacity for hard, continuous work for seven
days a week, combined with business knowledge and thrifty
management, are all essential, and will, with ordinary luck,
lead one to the desired goal.
“Tam very dubious as to whether a living can be made from
utility poultry-keeping, pure and simple—that is to say, by
selling eggs and birds solely for edible purposes. A profit can
undoubtedly be made, but it is so infinitesimal that the income
derived from this source alone would, I am afraid, scarcely
suffice for the needs of the most parsimonious. If it is decided
to specialize in utility points, pure-bred stock must be kept of
the popular varieties, and eggs for hatching, day-old chicks,
and stock birds must be sold. This will make all the differ-
ence, and once a connection has been worked up, there is no
reason why the business should not pay, and pay well.
“The breeding of exhibition birds is, without doubt, the
most profitable branch, and when once a name has been made,
stock and eggs can be disposed of at most remunerative prices.
Success, however, cannot be attained at once; it is often the
work of years; and many breeders never rise from the ranks of
mediocrity. Moreover, much capital is required to start an ex-
hibition poultry farm, and one’s expenses incurred in the man-
agement are infinitely heavier than is the case where utility
points are the only consideration.
“T would not advise anyone unversed in poultry-culture to
give up a situation, however poor, in order to go in for poultry-
keeping as a means of earning a livelihood. To think of such a
thing is foolish in the extreme, but for anyone to burn one’s
boats behind one in this way would be suicidal. What I would
suggest to poultry-keeping aspirants (and I believe the number
of these reaches well into four figures) is that they should keep
as many fowls as they can attend to properly in their spare
hours, and see what profits they can make from the birds.
Above all, they must find out if they have a genuine love for
the work, for without this nothing can be done. When a
I4 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
name has been made as a breeder of good stock, then, and then
only, is it time for the amateur to consider the advisability of
adopting poultry-keeping as a business; and long before this
point is reached the glamor of the idea may have faded, for
the life of a poultry-keeper is, contrary to popular belief, far
from being a bed of roses. Practically all the men who are
to-day making a living from poultry commenced keeping fowls
as a hobby, and the knowledge and experience which they
gained in this way enabled them to found the establishments
which are to-day of world-wide reputation.
“To those who are qualified for the work poultry-keeping
offers a good living; but to the idle, the thriftless or the pleasure-
seekers of this holiday-making age it offers more desolate pros-
pects than any other trade or profession. In this business
nothing but dogged determination will enable the beginner to
climb the rugged, precipitous path to success, and anyone who
is lacking in this essential, or who is afraid of hard, continuous
work, will save himself the obloquy of failure by choosing some
other field in which to exercise his powers.”
“THE Goop LitrLt HEN.
“What She Will Do for You if You Will Treat Her Right.
“By Mrs. A. Basley.
“There is money in poultry for the man and especially for
the woman that will dig it out. This I can assure the Fanciers’
Monthly readers, if they are in doubt.
“ “Dig it out’ seems a curious way of putting it. When I
spent a summer in a big mining camp in Colorado, I noticed a
great many holes in the sides of the mountains. ‘Yes,’ said a
miner, ‘and not 5 per cent of those holes have paid.’ It was
appalling to think of the thousands of dollars lost in those holes.
‘Give me a hundred hens,’ said I. The money it took to dig
one of those unprofitable holes would have started a fine poultry
plant and the good little hens would have brought in a living
for their owners.
“There is money in poultry! Every inch of a hen is
valuable. I would like to give you one of the values in the hen
and what it costs to keep her. Lo
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 15
“First, there are the eggs she will lay, if properly fed and
treated. Twelve dozen eggs per year is the average, although
I personally know poultry plants now being operated in South-
ern California where the output, as shown by carefully kept
records, is sixteen dozen per year. The average price at the
Arlington Egg Ranch for the past year was 31 cents a dozen,
because the proprietor arranged to have his hens laying when
eggs cost the most, in the fall and winter months.
“Sixteen dozen eggs at 31 cents a dozen means each hen
brings in $4.96 in eggs, whilst her food cost 10 cents per month
or $1.00 per year, leaving $3.76 as profit for eggs.
“There is still another source of profit in the hen, and that
is in the droppings. At several of the experiment stations it
has been found that a hen voids about 100 pounds of droppings
per year. These droppings have been analyzed and show a
value as fertilizer of from 30 to 35 cents per hen; the value
being controlled not only by the market demand, but also by
the quality; the droppings being richer as fertilizer where the
food was rich in protein and where the hens are fed the ‘full
and plenty’ method.
““*What do you do with the hen droppings?’ I asked a be-
ginner. ‘Throw them away; glad to get rid of them,’ was the
reply. At the rate of $10.00 per ton, that was a waste of 50
cents per hen. Two of our neighbors had lawns which were in
so bad a condition from the soil being worn out that they were
on the point of having them dug out and new soil put in and
the whole re-sowed, when they thought of their hen droppings;
these they had spread over the lawns and then raked off again
and the lawns well watered. In a month’s time those lawns
looked beautiful—better far than if they had been re-made,
and at far less cost.
“When I lived in the Eastern States, my window garden
was the envy and admiration of everyone that passed; there
were flowers galore all through the dark winter gloom and cold
frosty days. I loved my plants, took good care of them in
every way, but the secret of the wonderful blossoms was
hen manure!
“Once a month I half-filled a bucket with hen droppings,
poured a kettleful of boiling water on it, filling the bucket with
the water, stirred it with a stick, let it settle and cool, and
watered the plants with that liquid. I found that hen drop-
pings enrich the ground for almost all plants better than any-
16 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
thing; roses are the only exception that I have found, they
doing much better when fertilized with well-rotted cow manure.
“But to return to our hen. She gives 30 pounds’ weight
of eggs, or sixteen dozen, valued at $4.96; she also gives 100
pounds of valuable fertilizer, worth here $10 a ton, or 50 cents
per hen, which brings the amount of her earnings to $5.40, and
at the end of the year we still have the hen to eat or sell at
market value, about 75 cents or $1.00. If we eat her, we have
the feathers, which are easily saved and can be sold or made
into pillows, the bones pounded up and fed to the other fowls.
“Poultry pays, and pays better than any other legitimate
business, considering the amount invested. Why then are there
any failures? I will tell you why: The failures are not the
fault of the good little hen. She will always do her duty; she
will always respond to the treatment she gets. The failures
are the people who care for the hen. The owners are the
failures, and not the fowls.
“Success is what we all want to attain in whatever we un-
dertake; and, ‘lest we forget’ some of the things which lead to
suecess, may I repeat that there are three essentials to egg-
productioa? These are: Comfort, Exercise, and Proper Food.
I would like to review these.”
I wrote the lady that both of these articles were right.
Let us see if we can prove the statement. If the reader has
ever had any experience with cattle, he knows it would be
sheer folly to buy a herd of Polled Angus or Herefords for a
dairy farm, for they have been bred for years for beef, and prac-
tically everything fed to them goes to meat; while it would
be just as foolish to buy a herd of Jersey cows and expect to
make a living from them raising beef, as they have been bred
for years for butter-fat, and practically everything fed to them
goes to milk and cream. If the reader’s experience has been
with horses, he is aware that a man engaged in teaming would
not select the trotting type of horse, neither would a turfman
put his money on an 1800-pound Clyde horse, if the balance
of the field were trotting horses; that would not be horse sense.
Now, the same comparison holds good in the poultry field,
except with this difference, that the egg type and meat type
in poultry have never been segregated into different breeds,
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 17
and each breed bred for a number of years along the line it
was intended for—the egg type bred for eggs alone, and all
birds inclined to meat-production discarded—both male and
female, and the meat type bred for meat, without regard to
eggs, except enough to perpetuate the species, just as the
typical butter cattle and typical beef cattle have been bred.
I have seen a great many cases like the first-mentioned
article, where a person would go into the poultry business
and get started with stock that was of. the meat type, and,
not knowing any better, would think that all poultry was the
same as his, and the only way any money could be made in
the business was to sell fancy birds and eggs at fancy prices.
Now, these people are not to blame for what they do not know.
They think their hens are as good layers as any other hens,
and they have no way of knowing any better.
I have also seen a great many cases like Mrs. Basley writes
of, except the profits were not so large, owing to different en-
vironment, I suppose. These people had the same breed of
hens as the parties before mentioned, but they were fortunate
in getting the egg type, and they made money with their hens.
Everyone thinks every other person’s hens are the same as
theirs, if they are of the same breed, and that is the reason
there are so many different conflicting statements in the
poultry papers, and not because the writers are not intelligent
or not truthful, as some suppose. From a scientific point of
view, and apart from the fancy, and as far as the knowledge of
meat- and egg-production is concerned, the poultry business
is in its infancy, and the people who write for the poultry papers
give their experience for your benefit. That is all.
To further impress on your mind the difference between
poultry and other stock, I would say that while some individual
cattle of the various beef breeds will not be a paying propo-
sition, the only safe plan is to select your feeders from the beef
family; and while some Jersey cows will not pay as butter-
producers, still, as a breed, they are among the best for that
purpose. Though some trotting horses do not make good, asa
rule they will carry you over the road in good time, and though
some draft-type teams are not sure pullers, they are a success
as a class.
The same general laws apply to all animal nature. The
hen is no exception, only in this respect: that while cattle
and horses have been bred so that as a rule novices can select
18 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
the type they wish by selecting the breed, hens have not been
bred that way. We have what purport to be egg breeds and
dual-purpose breeds. The first are supposed to be a paying
proposition as a whole for egg-production. The latter are
supposed to be a paying proposition for both eggs and meat
combined; some breeders claiming that their breed will give
you the very largest number of eggs per year and the greatest
weight of flesh all in one bird. Now, these claims are mis-
leading. It is an utter physical impossibility for any hen to
be a typical egg type and at the same time be a typical meat
type. It is against the laws of Nature. We have the Leg-
horns, Minoreas, Spanish, and a number of other Mediter-
ranean breeds that are called ‘‘ege type.” While the truth is,
that while they have been bred as best the breeders knew
how along the lines of egg-production, you can find vast num-
bers that will not lay eggs enough to pay for the feed they
eat. Great numbers in some flocks have all the character-
istics of the beef type, and will lay about three or four dozen
eggs per year and sometimes not over a dozen. The Plymouth
Rocks, Orpingtons, Wyandottes, and Langshans are classed as
“dual-purpose”? breeds, which means hens that will lay a
medium number of eggs and give a good large carcass for the
table; and while this is true in a majority of cases, I have seen
numerous specimens that laid over two hundred and fifty eggs
per year, while some would lay little or nothing. In fact, while
I have bred Leghorns for more than forty years, and they are
my favorite breed, I must say I have found as good layers
(within a few eggs) in all the other breeds I have named as I
have found in the Leghorns, and I have also found as poor
layers among the Leghorns as I have found in any other breed.
As far as the number of eggs is concerned, as a rule, I find that
the breed of the hen has nothing to do with it whatever.
I do not wish to be considered dogmatic in anything I may
say in this work. I am merely giving the opinions I have
formed by observation and experiment during a period of
fifty-six years that I have kept poultry, not to make all the
money I could out of them, but to learn all I possibly could
about them—in fact, until a few years ago I never kept poultry
for the money there was in it. The keeping of hens has been a
passion with me. I have spent years of time and thousands of
dollars, but I think I have found something that will be of in-
estimable value to the world, and I have found it not because I
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 19
was any better fitted for the work than thousands of other
lovers of poultry, but because I stuck everlastingly to it,
without any regard as to whether it paid me in dollars or not.
As previously stated, it is not a matter of breed as to
whether a hen is a good layer or not. It is a matter of type,
capacity, and constitutional vigor. First, in almost all breeds
there is a type of hen where everything she consumes over
bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. This we
call the “typical egg type.’’ Second, there is a type where
about half the food consumed over maintenance goes to the
production of eggs, the balance over bodily maintenance going
to make flesh. This is called the ‘dual-purpose type,” as
this hen performs two functions that are considered necessary
in the economy of Nature: the production of eggs and the
production of meat on a commercial scale. Third, there is a
type where everything consumed over bodily maintenance
goes to flesh. This hen we call the ‘‘meat type,” for the reason
that practically all her energy is used in producing meat.
Now, here we have three distinct types of fowl in almost
every breed. We have divided these three types into six
separate classes for each type:
No. 1 of the typical egg type hen may lay about 36 eggs;
No. 2 may lay about 96 eggs;
No. 3 may lay about 180 eggs;
No. 4 may lay about 220 eggs;
No. 5 may lay about 250 eggs;
No. 6 may lay about 280 eggs.
All this is in their first laying year.
No. 1 of the dual-purpose type hen, may lay about 20 eggs;
No. 2 may lay about 50 eggs;
No. 3 may lay about 96 eggs;
No. 4 may lay about 115 eggs;
No. 5 may lay about 1380 eggs;
No. 6 may lay about 145 eggs.
This in their first laying year.
No. 1 of the typical meat type may lay from nothing to
a dozen eggs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 may lay from nothing to a
couple of dozen egss, and, as a rule, will lay these in the spring
when the crows lay. The reason is very plain, if we stop to
think that the same natural laws govern all animal (and
human) nature.
20 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
The egg type hen is of a nervous temperament (that 1s
why she is usually free from body lice, if she has a suitable
place to dust in), and all she eats over bodily maintenance
goes to the production of eggs. The hen of the sanguine
temperament is a little more beefy, and lays less eggs; the
hen of the bilious temperament is more beefy still, and lays
still less eggs, while the hen of the lymphatic temperament
will lay little or nothing, almost everything she eats going to
flesh and fat. (The reader need borrow no trouble over the
meaning of the terms “nervous,” “sanguine,” ‘“bilious,” and
“lymphatic”? temperaments, if he is not familiar with them, as
the charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will specify matters so that anyone
can understand the matter of selecting the different grades of
hens with very little study and trouble.)
We have said that we have divided the three grades, the
egg type, dual-purpose type, and meat type, into six separate
classes. There is, in fact, a seventh class, but it is so rare that
we will not take it into consideration here, but will explain
it later. But we have, in fact, made ninety classes of these six
for convenience in selection, and the process could be extended
indefinitely, but it would serve no needful purpose.
Now, when we consider all these different grades in the
hens of every breed, and the further fact that there is the same
number of different grades in the male bird, is it any wonder
that there is so much difference of opinion in regard to the
profits derived from poultry-keeping? We have visited hun-
dreds of poultry plants that numbered from about fifty to
two thousand or more hens each. We have seen some flocks
of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they consumed,
for the simple reason that they were not the right type of
hens. They were fine-looking, healthy meat-producers, but
there was no earthly way possible to feed them that would
induce them to lay eggs at any time except a few months in
the spring when the crows laid, and eggs were cheap. The
owners of some of these flocks were bright, brainy, vigorous
business men, who tried every method that usage and science
suggested, and fought with sheer desperation to make a suc-
cess of the business, but went down in failure; while their next
neighbor, a little pin-headed, conceited specimen of humanity,
strutting around like a peacock, was getting rich with the same
breed of hens. ‘Luck,’ do you say? Yes, it is mostly a
matter of chance. The first man was unfortunate in that he
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21
got his eggs or breeding-pens from stock such as that described
in the first article of the Fanciers’ Monthly, while the last
man got his eggs or breeding-pens from stock described by Mrs.
Basley in the second article.
We once visited a gentleman who had a very extensive
poultry plant. He had a large number of different breeds
yarded off in finely appointed yards, with help and financial
means to satisfy every need of a poultry plant. His pens of
Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans were remarkable layers,
while his Cochins, Houdans, and Polish were very good layers.
After looking over the last-named birds, he remarked: “I
have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which I
wish you would look at.’? After we had looked at them a few
minutes, he said, “What do you think of them as layers?” I
replied that if he would tell me which pen laid an average of
all the pens, I would tell him in a few minutes. ‘That pen
there,” said he, pointing to No. 20, has laid an average number
of all the eggs laid. I looked it up only last night.” After
examining the hens, I told him I would not take them as a
gift, if 1 had to keep them one year. “Why?” he asked. “Be-
cause,” I replied, “after keeping them a year and selling them,
the price I would receive for the hens and the eggs they would
lay would not pay for their feed. I cannot see why you keep
them.’ The next evening he said to me, “Do you see that
man moving into the place over yonder? Well, I have sold
those Leghorn hens to that newcomer for $500.” “Is this
an exceptional case?”? you ask. I have only this to say: that
all the David Harums are not in the horse business, neither
can I see why a poultryman should be his brother’s keeper,
when it is not the rule in other lines of business. It seems to
me the better way is, to study poultry from a scientific point
of view, so that you can judge the value of a hen for the purpose
you want her for, and not have to depend on other people’s
opinions.
By studying this book carefully you will be able to tell
approximately the number of eggs a hen is capable of laying
in a year; you can also select the hens that will be the best
for breeding purposes, for eggs, for meat, or as a dual-purpose
hen—that is, a hen that will give you the largest number of
.eggs possible with the largest possible amount of meat when
you wish to sell her, or the hen that will produce the best
broilers, regardless of any one particular breed. Some hens
22 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
will be very good layers, some very good meat-producers, some
very good dual-purpose type, and some very fine fancy birds,
and you can mate them with the same type of male bird and
breed from these birds for a few generations, and their progeny
will degenerate. ‘The chickens from the hens and cockerels or
cock birds of the 200-egg type may lay less each generation,
until in eight or ten generations they may not lay enough to
pay for their feed. The progeny from some of the best meat
and dual-purpose type matings will sometimes degenerate just
as the egg type, until they are practically worthless as profitable
meat-producers. The chicks from the fancy mating may be a
failure from the fancier’s point of view.
This is the rock that some old poultry-breeders are some-
times wrecked upon. One case of national interest was the case
of the late lamented Professor Gowell, of the State of Maine
Experiment Station. He had started some years before to
breed up a heavy-laying strain by using the trap-nest, selecting
eggs for hatching from hens that were his best layers and
conformed as near as possible to the standard, and using cock-
erels hatched from these eggs to mate with his hens. Now
this was all right as far as it went, but there was something that
the Professor had not taken into consideration. He had pro-
cured the’best birds he could find, had trap-nested them to
discover the hens that were the most prolific layers, had se-
lected the eggs from what he had considered to be the best
hens for the purpose (and few men had better judgment in
this respect). He had mated up the best-looking cockerels
from these best eggs from the best-laying hens, and according
to all apparent precedents was he not justified in expecting an
increase each year in egg-production? But what were the re-
sults? If reports are true, there was a decrease in egg-produc-
tion, and what do you suppose was the cause? There must
be some cause. ‘There is a cause for every effect. Sometimes
we think things just happen; that there is no natural law that
governs them; that in this or that case it was all chance; that
‘it may not have happened to another person, and will not be
likely to happen to us again, and so we dismiss the matter only
to have the same thing repeat itself, until we either solve the
problem or meet our doom through it. And thereby hangs
a tale.
Some time in the summer of 1905 I received a letter from
a doctor in one of the suburbs of Boston, asking me what I
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 23
would charge to visit Orono, Maine, and have a talk with
Professor Gowell, and incidentally to drop a few remarks
that might be of some help to him in his investigations. I
had never met the Professor, but I replied to the Doctor that
I would go (I was then living in .Minnesota), and would
pay my own expenses, as I wished to visit Boston, my birth-
place, and where I first started in poultry-keeping in 1857,
and it would be a small matter to go from there to Orono,
Maine, where Professor Gowell was conducting his experiments.
While I was waiting for a reply, I decided that as Professor
Gowell had put so much time and thought into the trap-
nest proposition and had built so much on that one thing,
and that as he could get results from it (only it was a waste of
time), that in this first visit to him I would offer only one
suggestion and that was the secret of selecting the birds,
both male and female, that would be sure to breed progeny
that would be better than their parents along the lines in
which the parents excelled, or, in other words, transmit their
predominating characteristics to their offspring; that is, if
the cockerel or cock bird and hens were typical meat type birds,
the progeny would excel along these lines. Some of them
would excel their parents in the production of meat; they
would be hardier, better feeders, would digest and assimilate
their food better, and consequently arrive at maturity sooner,
and be of better flavor and more tender, and by breeding
these birds along the lines laid down by I. K. Felch, of Natick,
Massachusetts (‘‘line breeding” he calls it), they would im-
prove each season, so that in a number of years there would bea
great difference in their favor over their parents. If the pen
was a fancy proposition and had been bred some years for fancy
points, the progeny would show a decided improvement in a
few years over their parents. If the pen were the typical egg
type, the progeny would show an increase over their parents
in stamina and egg-production. I would also have shown him
where the birds he was breeding from were deficient in the
faculty that governs fecundity, or, in other words, which
controls the function of reproduction.
Whittier, in ‘Maud Muller,” says, ‘For of all sad words
of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.”’
Yes, “it might have been.”” Professor Gowell might have lived
to give many more years of aid to the poultry world and his
tragic death been prevented; but he wrote the Doctor tha the
24 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
did not want me to come. He seemed determined to solve
the problem himself, and no doubt would have done so if he
had been as care-free from routine duties as a man in his posi-
tion should have been; and I charge his untimely end to society.
The men and women in our public institutions who are giving
their lives for the benefit of humanity are not appreciated at
their true value. We demand the full limit of routine duties,
forgetting that it is impossible for a tired body to furnish suf-
ficient nutriment to the brain to solve these intricate problems
that are continually confronting them, and while we cause them
to suffer mentally and physically individually, we cause our-
selves to suffer collectively, by our parsimonious treatment
of them.
CHAPTER II.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS, GIVING SOME ADVICE TO THE
READER.
The writer is not one of the long-winded kind. I don’t
like to talk a long time in order to say a few words, or write
a dozen pages where one will do as well. I believe in handing
out the chunks of gold with as little dross as possible. I
think the reader would rather receive the information I have
to offer in one page than in a dozen; that he would rather
discover the facts in a few feet than to be obliged to hunt over
a hundred acres of literary space for the same information.
For that reason I will make this work as brief as possible. I
will be aided in my effort to do so by the fact that the theories
offered in this work have been more or less demonstrated by
the Government Experimental Stations of New Zealand and
the States of Minnesota and California; also in the poultry
plants of the five State hospitals (which contain thousands of
hens) in the State of California, under the auspices of the State
Board of Health and the physicians of the different hospitals.
It might not be a difficult matter to mislead a few poultrymen
on a subject that deals wholly with physiology and anatomy,
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 25
but it would be absurd to think for a moment that one could
deceive all the physicians in five State insane hospitals. It
seems a man who would still doubt would believe the world is
flat, especially when he learns that a member of the State
Board of Health told the writer that there was a difference of
$1,500 in favor of using the system, in one year, in one of the
hospitals alone.
We commence in this chapter the unfolding of a method
or test by which the reader can tell approximately the value
of a hen and a male bird as a breeding proposition (and in the
chapter on Breeding alone this book will be worth its weight
in gold to the fanciers), an egg-producer or a meat-producer.
It is my desire to make the facts contained in this book so
clear and the tests so easy of application that anyone can be-
come proficient in the use of them in a short time. Therefore
I have prepared a series of illustrations showing numerous
types and conditions of fowls, also various other facts that may
better be shown by pictures than by explandtions alone.
You will remember, no doubt, that you did not arrive at
your present proficiency in reading in a day or two; that it
took some little time, and there was a certain system or evo-
lution in your study. You will find the same true of this
method. There is a certain process that leads from one step
to another, until you have covered the system, when by re-
peated study and practice you will become proficient and ac-
complish what at first seems impossible. It may seem an
impossible task to handle and grade sixteen hundred hens in
six hours, but the writer has done it. With sufficient help
to hand me the hens, we graded (or, in other words, tested
out) sixteen hundred hens in six hours in the State Hospital
poultry yards at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, in
March, 1910. ‘‘ Not so bad for a semi-invalid of 62,’ we hear
you say. Our reply is, ‘‘It’s practice.”” You can do the same.
Go through the movements with every hen you pick up each
day, and in a short time what at first is difficult will appear quite
easy.
For some years previous to 1912 there was great activity
in the poultry industry, there having been no lack of poultry
papers, farm papers, and magazines that for a nominal sum
would give tuition in poultry culture. The ease of getting a
theoretical knowledge of the business induced thousands to
take it up who otherwise would not have thought of doing so.
26 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
The apparent ease of conducting the business, the small amount
of capital it was supposed to require, with the large and steady
income it offered, were the will-o’-the-wisps that lured many
to financial loss. I would warn my readers against rushing
into the poultry business on a scale beyond their means without
first obtaining a working knowledge of the same. With good
stock, with the proper environment, a good market, and a
working knowledge of the business, there is little danger of
failure, if one is willing to do the work necessary on a poultry
plant. It offers the most independent living for the smallest
amount of capital of any business I know of.
The requisites for success are the knowledge of how to
be able to select the hen you need for any particular pur-
pose, whether it is for eggs or for meat or fancy; whether the
hen will be a paying proposition or not (this may depend
on your market); whether she will be able to transmit her
predominating characteristics to her offspring or not. Also
you must be able to Judge accurately the value of the male
bird as to what you want him for and as to his ability to stamp
his offspring with the desired qualities. All the above you
van learn from this book. You should also know how to
operate incubators; how to feed and care for little chicks;
how your hen-houses should be built to suit your climate; how
your growing pullets should be fed and housed; and the best
way to feed to get the most eggs at the smallest cost, and
how to feed and mate to get fertile eggs and vigorous chicks.
There are numerous books published on all of these latter
subjects that you ean buy from the publishers of any poultry
paper; so we do not take up the matter in this work; we give
only what you cannot get elsewhere.
Following is a series of half-tones and explanations rep-
resenting the method we have used in instructing hundreds
of poultrymen and women in California and other States and
the managers of poultry plants in a number of State institutions
in the State of California.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 2a
CHAPTER III.
THE Various STEPS IN THE APPLICATION OF THE METHOD OF
SELECTION FOR EGG-PRODUCTION.
There are four characteristics that it is absolutely nec-
essary for a hen to possess for the economical production of
eggs or meat. The first is capacity, the second is con diticn
the third is type, and the fourth is constitutional vigor. The
reader must bear the first three in mind in studying the next
few chapters, as we will dispose of these before taking other
matters into consideration.
First. What Is Capacity?—Capacity means the abdominal
capacity to consume and assimilate the amount of food neces-
sary to produce the number of eggs or the amount of meat
necessary to make the individual hen under consideration a
paying proposition. We measure the capacity of the hen by
placing the hand across the abdomen between the end of the
breast-bone, or keel, and the pelvic bones. The method will
be shown in detail in Chapter IV.
Second. Condition.—If the hen under consideration is an
egg type, she must be kept in proper bodily condition by sup-
plying her with the right quantity and quality of food that will
furnish her with vitality to produce the number of eggs required
of her. If the hen is in good condition, the flesh on the breast
will be plump or practically flush with the breast-bone. Any
variation in that condition will be shown by a shrinking away
of the flesh of the breast, and will be followed by a corresponding
shrinking of the abdomen. We show this by illustration and
example later.
Third. Type.—She must be of a type that everything
she consumes is used in producing the desired effect, whether
it is meat, whether it is eggs, or whether it is the maximum
amount of eggs and meat that a dual-purpose hen can produce.
According to our idea, the type of hen determines how she will
dispose of the food she eats. The kind of type is shown hy
the relative thickness of the pelvic bones. The very thin bone
indicate the egg type. As we pass into the dual-purpose and
beef types we find the bones becoming thicker. We show
these by illustrations and charts later.
With the reader bearing the above three propositions in
mind—namely, Capacity, Condition, and Type—we will pro-
ceed‘ to show how to judge the hen with the least amount of
time and labor.
/
28 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Ita. 1—Showing hens in house.
Fig. 1 shows the interior of an open-front colony house,
largely used around Petaluma. The roosts are connected to
the house by hinges, so they can be hooked up out of the way
while cleaning the house or examining the hens, as in the
present case. These houses are usually about 8 feet wide and
10 feet deep inside, with 4 feet posts and pitch roof. These
houses are open front, with the exception of 18 inches on each
side, as can be seen on one side, where hens are going out of
the house into the catching-coop. When hens move too slow
to suit, one or more persons (children will do) can take a grain
sack by bottom side in one hand and top side in the other hand
and go into the house holding sacks spread apart and moving
gently close to the floor or ground and drive the hens into the
catching-coop. When the coop is full, shut down the slide
door on outside to prevent hens returning to the house.
Some readers may have long houses, holding five hundred
hens or more. In this case you will need a panel, run diagonally
across the house to a point near the opening, where the hens
go in and out of the house, as in Fig. 1144. This panel can be
Fia. 146—Showing 2-inch wire panel placed diagonally across house
holding 2,000 hens.
Fra. 2—Showing hens in catching-crate.
30 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 3—Showing how hens are taken out of catching-crate.
as long as required for the width of the house and made in
sections, if desired, and should be 6 feet or more high.
Fig. 2 shows hens in the coop. When there are enough in,
we shut down the slide door and proceed as in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Note the slide door on top of the crate. We open
this just enough to admit our arm while we grasp the hen firmly
by both legs, so she can’t twist around and injure herself. A
slide door is better than a hinged door, as you can open the
former just enough to take out the hen without so much danger
of any of the other hens escaping.
Fig. 4. Note how the right arm is held in Fig. 4. This is
not the right way, but it is the way most persons hold the left
arm when they receive their first lesson. Now, note how the
left arm is held; this is the right position, and it is difficult for
me to teach students to hold their arms this way. I have to
drill them repeatedly before they will do so. The hand which
holds the hen by the legs should be at the height of the hip;
this enables you to use the other hand in examining the hen
for capacity with greater speed and accuracy.
Fig. 5 shows how the writer holds a bird to ascertain its
capacity by holding it this way. After long practice, he is
enabled to inspect one in a few seconds by having three parties
to hand him the birds and to take them from him. A small,
light hen or pullet is best to practice with.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 31
Fic. 4—Showing right and wrong way to hold arms.
Fic. 5—Showing how a hen may be held while testing capacity.
32 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fria. 6—Showing where the hen’s head should be so she cannot see
anything.
Fig. 6 shows where the head of the bird should be. You
will note that her eyes are covered up so she can’t see, and that
has a tendency to keep her quiet while you examine her.
Fig. 7 gives an example of testing the capacity of a hen.
The hand is placed on the abdomen between the two pelvic
bones and the rear of the breast-bone, the left hand holding
the legs is turned under enough to bring the thighs away from
the point of the breast-bone, so that the thighs will not inter-
fere with measuring the depth of the abdomen. The depth of
the abdomen will vary with different hens; some will be one
finger (a finger means the width of a finger the widest way; I
have called it three-fourths of an inch) between the two
pelvic bones (sometimes called ‘‘lay”’ bones or “‘vent”’ bones)
and the rear of the breast-bone. Some hens will be two fingers
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone,
some will be three fingers, some will be four fingers, some
will be five fingers, some will be six fingers, and occasion-
ally one will be seven fingers between the two pelvic bones
and the rear of the breast-bone, The depth of the abdomen
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 44
indicates the capacity or the ability of the bird to consume and
assimilate food, and it applies to all breeds, except that, every-
thing else being equal, the longer-bodied hen, having more
Iria. 7—Showing how to test capacity.
room for the digestive machinery, would have some advantage
over the shorter-bodied hen.
Fig. 8. This indicates how to hold a hen when you ex-
amine her for condition. This is one of the most difficult and
serious problems a poultryman has to deal with. To illus-
trate, I will cite one case out of hundreds that have come under
my observation. A gentleman wrote me to call on him, as he
was having trouble with his hens. When I arrived at his place,
he told me that when he fed his hens well he got lots of eggs,
but some of his hens died; then when he did not feed them so
well they did not lay so many eggs, but none of them died. He
said he had repeated this a number of times with the same
results. He said the ones that died were as fat as butter. I
picked up one of the hens; she was in prime condition for the
market. I picked up another one; she was very thin. I ex-
amined all his hens. I found he had, like a great many poultry-
men, three distinct types of hens: the egg type, the dual-
purpose type, and the meat type. As he had faney birds in all
34 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
the different types, he did not want to dispose of any of his
flock, so I segregated them into three divisions: the egg type,
the dual-purpose type, and the meat type. After that he fed
the egg type all the grain they could clean up in the scratching-
shed and kept a balance-ration of dry ground feed before them
all the time. The dual-purpose hens were fed all the grain they
could clean up in the scratching-shed, with a small amount
of dry ground feed each day. The meat type hens were fed
Fic. 8—Showing how to test condition. The legs of the hen are
drawn upward, so that you can see the breast. The condition is tested
by placing the thumb and forefinger about !% inch from the front of the
breast-bone. Figs. 20, 21, and 22 show the method in detail.
a smaller amount of grain in the scratching-shed, with a couple
of feeds each week of dry ground mash—just enough to keep
them in condition. After this he had no more trouble with
his hens not laying in the proper season and dying from being
too fat. He would occasionally pick up hens in the different
pens and note their condition and feed them accordingly. He
told me later that before he had taken the lessons he had been
working completely in the dark, but now he understood the
matter thoroughly and knew what to do.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 35
Fra. 9—Showing one movement that has proved an aid in testing type.
The right hand is placed under the breast of the hen to steady her while
the legs are drawn downward to bring the hen into position so that she
may be examined for type (as in cut 10). ,
Fie. 9. After examining the hen as in Fig. 8, place the
hand as in Fig. 9, and hold right hand firmly enough to prevent
her from slipping down.
Fig. 10. Then move the left hand down, as in Fig. 10, and
hold left hand firm enough to keep her in place while removing
right hand.
TYPE.
Fig. 11. Now, brush feathers away from vent with back
of hand and grasp end of pelvic bone so that it comes flush
with outside of fingers, as in Fig. 11. This indicates the Type
of the bird. Some will be one-sixteenth (#/is) of an inch thick,
including the flank as held between the thumb and forefinger,
as seen in Fig. 11, and will vary all the way up to one and a
quarter (114) inches, including bone, gristle, fat, and flank, as
seen in Fig. 31.
The reader is aware by this time that we are in the chapter
pertaining to Type, the last of the three classes that it is nec-
essary to divide poultry into in order to make a scientific classi-
36 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
fication to enable one to arrive at the approximate value of
the “Individual Bird” as an Egg or as a Meat proposition
(and without any regard as to its value as a breeder, which
will be shown later). I wish to repeat here that Type is con-
trolled wholly by temperament. We must select the tempera-
ment or combinations of temperaments that suit our purpose,
and then, with the desired capacity and by scientific feeding, so
Fia. 10—Showing another movement that has proved an aid in
testing type. The legs are drawn well under the hen, thus throwing the
pelvic bones forward. The right hand is then removed and used to ex-
amine the thickness of the pelvic bones (Fig. 11).
as to keep the subject in proper condition, poultry-culture will
become more of a science with the majority of poultrymen
than it is at present. In order to prepare the reader for what
is to follow, I will divide poultry into three distinct classes as
to temperaments.
The hen that will produce the largest amount of eggs with
the smallest amount of meat possible for her capacity is of
the nervous temperament. The hen which uses one-half of
her vitality in producing eggs and the other half of her vitality
in producing meat—in other words, the dual-purpose hen—is
a combination of both the sanguine and bilious temperaments
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 37
and is called ‘‘the hen with the sanguine-biliocus temperament.”
The hen that produces the largest amount of flesh and the
smallest amount of eggs consistent with her capacity is of the
lymphatic temperament.
Fig. 11—Shows method of testing type. The thumb and forefinger
are placed one on each side of the pelvic bone so that you may estimate
the thickness of the same, including flesh, fat, gristle, etc.
In a fowl all the different temperaments and their different
degrees of combinations are indicated by the pelvic bones. In
the horse they are indicated largely by the breed. The Arabian,
the ideal running and trotting horse, is a good type of the nerv-
ous temperament, the coach horse is a good type of the san-
guine-bilious temperament, and the Clyde is a good type of
the lymphatic temperament. In cattle we have a good exam-
ple of the nervous temperament in the Jersey, and of the lym-
phatic in the beef family of Durham, also Hereford and Polled
Angus, while the Holstein and Ayrshire cattle are good types
of the sanguine-bilious combined.
I have made this deviation so I could offer to my poultry
friends this thought: that there are certain laws in Nature
that have no regard for our theories, and the better we under-
stand these laws, the less hable we are to make mistakes.
38 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
CHAPTER IV.
CAPACITY.
In the preceding chapters we have given the reader an idea
of the method we use in judging the value of a hen for the pur-
Fic. 12—One-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) This indicates a hen of
very small capacity to consume and assimilate food. She never can be a
large eater, hence of not much value.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 39
pose we wish her for. In the succeeding chapters we willi
explain the method in detail.
First, we will take up “Capacity.”
Fic. 13—Two-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Slightly larger capacity
than the preceding, but still of relatively small ability to consume food.
40 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fig. 12 shows a hen with only one finger capacity (84
of an inch) between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the
breast-bone.
Fic. 14—Three-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating very good
ability to consume and assimilate food. We find hens that lay as high as
180 eggs in their first laying year in this class, depending on the type.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 41
Fig. 13 shows a hen with two fingers capacity (14 inches) be-
tween the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone.
Fig. 14 shows a hen with three fingers capacity (214 inches)
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone.
Fic. 15—Four-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) A hen of very large
capacity to consume and assimilate food. We find 220-egg hens in this
class, provided they have the right type.
42 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fig. 15 shows a hen with four fingers capacity (8 inches) be-
tween the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone.
Fra. 16—Five-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) A hen of still larger
ability to consume food than the preceding. We find 250-egg hens in
this class, if of the right type.
Fig. 16 shows a hen with five fingers'capacity (334 inches)
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 4
WwW
Kia. 17—Six-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating extremely
large capacity to consume and assimilate food. She may be a 2S80-eg¢
type hen or a heavy beef type hen.
Fig. 17 shows a hen with six fingers capacity (41% inches)
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone.
44 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
CHAPTER V.
CONDITION.
We next come to ‘‘Condition.”’
I'ia. 18—Showing hen in very poor condition. The feathers being
plucked away shows the actual condition of the flesh. We call a hen in
this condition ‘“‘three fingers out of condition,” which indicates that her
abdomen has shrunken up three fingers. If she now has a capacity of one
finger, when in good condition she would be four fingers abdomen; if she
has a capacity of two fingers now, she would have five fingers capacity
when in good condition.
Fig. 18 shows a hen in very poor condition.
Fic. 19—Showing hen in good condition. You will note that the flesh
is even with the breast-bone. This hen would show her normal abdominal
depth when examined.
Tig. 19 shows a hen in perfect condition, as indicated by
her full breast.
THE CALL OF THE HEN, 45
Fic. 20—Showing hen one finger out of condition. You will note
that the flesh appears slightly shrunken away from the breast-bone. When
the thumb and forefinger are placed as in the cut, about 14 inch from the
front of the breast-bone, the flesh will be below the breast-bone, as shown
by the mark on finger in Fig. 23. This would indicate that the hen was
one finger less capacity. If three fingers now, she would be four fingers
capacity when in condition, ete.
Fig. 20 is somewhat thinner, as indicated by breast-bone.
We call her one finger out of condition.
The degrees of condition show the amount of shrinkage in
abdominal depth. One finger out of condition shows she has
shrunken one finger in depth of abdomen; two fingers out of
condition shows she has shrunken two fingers in depth of
abdomen; three fingers out of condition shows she has shrunken
three fingers in depth of abdomen.
Fia. 21—Showing hen two fingers out of condition. The flesh is
shrunken away from the breast-bone to about the depth indicated by the
middle line on the finger in Fig. 23, which is about the middle of the first
joint. This shows that she is two fingers less in abdominal depth than
when in good condition.
46 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 22-Showing hen three fingers out of condition. This hen would
be three fingers less in abdominal depth than when in good condition.
Frc. 22a—This shows you just where to place your finger on the keel
or breast-bone in order to measure or determine the condition of the hen.
In order to properly determine this fact, place your finger about 1 inch
back from the front point of the keel or breast-bone, as you see illustrated
above.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 47
Fig. 21 is still thinner, as reader can see by the breast-bone.
We call her two fingers out of condition.
Fig. 22 is still thinner. This we call three fingers out of
condition, and is about as thin as a hen usually gets, if there is
any chance for her ever being of any use.
Fig. 23—Showing where the imaginary lines should be drawn on the
first joint of the forefinger in order to judge the condition of the hen
or pullet.
Fig. 23 shows about how the first jot of an index finger
must be divided up to determine the three degrees of condition.
CHAPTER VI.
TYPE.
We now come to “Type.” This is indieated by the thick-
ness of the pelvic bones, together with the flesh, fat, gristle,
and cartilage on same. (See page 17.)
48 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 24—'/\-inch pelvic bone. Indicating a typical egg-type hen,
which means that virtually all the food she consumes above that necessary
for bodily maintenance goes toward the production of eggs. If of one-
finger abdomen, she would lay about 36 eggs in her first laying year; if of
three-finger abdomen, she would lay about 180; and if of six-finger ab-
domen, she might lay 280 eggs in her first laying year.
Fig. 24 shows a hen whose pelvic bones are one-sixteenth (*/16)
of an inch thick; that is about as thick as piece of cardboard
that paper boxes are made of, and the reader must bear in mind
that the measurement of the pelvic bone does not mean the
bone alone, with the skin, flesh, gristle, and fat scraped off, as
some may suppose, but with all the above included.
Fig. 25 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-eighth (1%) of
an inch thick.
Fia. 25—1¥-inch pelvic bone; indicating egg type, but not so typical
as the preceding. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 32 eggs
in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, about 166 eggs; and if
of six-finger abdomen, about 265 eggs in her first laying year.
Fic. 26—4-inch pelvic bone; indicating a slightly more beefy hen
than the preceding types, but still of the ege type. If of one-finger ab-
domen, she would lay about 24 eggs in her first laying-year; if of three-
finger abdomen, about 138 eggs; and if of six-finger abdomen, about 235
eggs in her first laying year.
Fic. 27—%<-inch pelvic bone; indicating that the hen uses a larger
proportion of the food she consumes in making flesh and less in the pro-
duction of eggs. A one-finger abdomen hen would lay about 16 eggs; a
three-finger abdomen hen, about 110 eggs; and a six-finger abdomen hen,
about 205 eggs in the first laying year.
50 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fig. 26 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-quarter (14) of
an inch thick.
Fig. 27 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-eighths (#4) of
an inch thick.
Fia. 28—14-inch pelvic bone; indicating a still more beefy hen
than the preceding—that is, a still larger proportion of the food consumed
is used to make flesh and less to produce eggs. If of one-finger abdomen,
she would lay about 8 eggs; and if of three-finger abdomen, she would lay
about 82 eggs; while if of six-finger abdomen, she would lay about 175
eggs in the first laying year.
Fia. 29—34-inch pelvic bone. A pretty good specimen of the beef
type. We find no two-finger abdomen hens that have pelvic bones so
thick, because they cannot consume enough food. <A two-finger abdomen
hen is virtually a non-layer; a three-finger abdomen hen will lay about
24 eggs; and a six-finger-abdomen hen will lay about 115 eggs in the first
laying year.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. isu
Fig. 28 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-half (14) of an
inch thick.
Fria. 30—l-inch pelvic bone. A very beefy type. Almost all the
food consumed above that required for bodily maintenance is used in the
making of flesh. We find them in the hens that have abdomens from
four to six fingers deep. They lay very few eggs.
-
ay Ber DERG
Fic. 31—1\4-inch pelvic bone. This indicates that the hen is of the
typical beef type. She is an enormous feeder, hence only found in
hens of about six-finger capacity. She will lay practically no eggs
52 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fig. 29 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-quarters (34)
of an inch thick.
Fig. 30 shows a hen with pelvic bones one (1) inch thick.
Fig. 31 shows a hen with pelvic bones one and one-quarter
(114) inches thick. °
Now, please bear in mind that everything shown and
related here refers to Leghorns and applies to other breeds
as well, only in a lesser degree—so small that it amounts to
almost nothing, as I will show later.
Fic. 32—Crooked pelvic bone. ‘A, A,”’ Position No. 1.
A, A, Fig. 32, shows the pelvic bones with flesh cleaned off.
B, B, Fig. 33, shows the pelvic bones with flesh stripped off
farther and painted black so they will show up better. You
will notice that the pelvic bones in Fig. 32 and Fig. 33 are
crooked. The majority of poultry have more or less crooked
pelvic bones. Sometimes the bones come close together,
which is an obstruction in laying, and should be bred away
from as much as possible.
Fig. 34 shows perfect pelvic bones. In this form they
THESCALL OF THE HEN. 53
are very easy to take between the thumb and finger; also, when
the hen wants to lay the vent has a chance to fall down be-
tween the pelvic bones, which allows the egg to be delivered
without straining on the part of the hen. Not every poultry-
Fic. 33—Crooked pelvic bone, ‘‘B, B,” Position No. 2. Hens with
bones curved like this will lay about 20 per cent less than hens of the same
type and capacity with straight pelvic bones, as in Fig. 34.
man, but every poultrywoman has seen cases where a hen has
gone on the nest and after a couple of hours commenced to
cackle her head off. Presently we hear the whole flock take
up the chorus, and going to see what the trouble is, we find the
hens holding an ‘‘Old Maids’ Convention” and declaring they
will never lay another egg, it hurts them so much to do so.
On examining them, we find the pelvic bones so crooked they
come together like the horns on a Jersey cow, and when the
hens lay, instead of the vent dropping down between the pelvic
bones, allowing the egg to be released in an easy manner in
a few minutes after the hen goes on the nest, the egg is forced
to be delivered between the pelvic bones and tail bone, thus
prolonging the agony of the hen sometimes for hours, when,
54 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 34—Most perfect pelvic bones, ‘“C, C.’’ Hens with pelvic bones
like this will lay about 20 per cent more than those having bones like
Fig. 33. .
if she was built right, as in Fig. 34, she would be relieved of the
ege without pain in a few minutes. And instead of wasting
vitality in getting relieved of the egg, she would be rustling
around for material to build another one, and thus add at least
20 per cent to her egg-producing value. This matter of crooked
pelvic bones is more frequent in some breeds than in others,
and is a serious matter that is very easily remedied by breeding
only from birds with the straightest pelvic bones; especially
looking after the male birds, as one male bird with crooked
pelvic bones will transmit this defect to all of his daughters.
When I came to Petaluma, I found whole flocks of thous-
ands of hens with crooked bones; now they are very rare. The
poultry-breeders soon caught on to my straight-and-thin-pelvic-
bone idea; and I think the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals should recognize my services in relieving
millions of hens of the agony of parturition.
The reader will please bear in mind that Fig. 34 represents
100 per cent pelvic bone and holds the same relation to pelvic
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 55
bones in general that a bird that scores 100 in the show-room
holds to all other high-class birds.
A 250-egg type cock bird or cockerel with pelvic bones
like Fig. 34 would be of inestimable value. The writer has
cock birds like the above that he would not part with for any
money, for the reason that it would take several years’ breeding
to produce their equals.
If the reader has male birds whose pelvic bones are far
enough apart that he can grasp the ends with thumb and finger
when measuring the thickness, he should be satisfied until he
can do better.
I have found more straight pelvic bones in some strains of
Orpingtons than in any other breed. So long as the pelvic
bones are comparatively straight after leaving the frame and
do not curve abruptly toward the ends, the birds may be used as
breeders, with the assurance that some of the offspring will
show a wonderful improvement in this respect. Figs 32, 33,
and 34 are extreme cases.
CHAPTER VII.
THe First LaAyinc YEAR.
What is meant by “the first laying year”? All old poul-
trymen know what the above means, and I have no doubt
some of my readers may be impatient with me for explaining
little things that are so familiar to them; but they will re-
member that poultry parlance is not all contained in the dic-
tionary, and a great deal of the contents of this book may be
Greek to the beginners in the poultry business who will read
this work. For this reason I cannot be too plain in my lan-
guage or too careful of details in explaining matters. The
first laying year has nothing whatever to do with the age of a
hen or pullet. I have had hens that had passed their first
laying-year when they were sixteen months old. On the other
hand, I have seen hens that were over four years old that had
not commenced on their first laying year. The hen that had
passed her first laying year when she was sixteen months old
had commenced to lay when she was four months old, while the
hens that were over four years old had never laid an egg. So
the reader will see the first laying year commences with the
56 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
first egg a pullet lays and ends one year from that date, when
her second laying year commences. Some pullets will com-
mence to lay at four months old, while others of exactly the
same type, fed and cared for in the same manner, will not lay
before they are eight months old, owing to different environ-
ment. Everything else being equal, poultry will develop
faster on a warm, dry, sandy soil than they will on a black,
damp, heavy soil; and they will mature much sooner in a
good corn country, where it is warm in the shade and warm
at night, than they will in a poor corn country, where it is cool
at night and cool in the daytime in the shade. I have raised
Leghorn pullets that were fully developed in size and form and
laid a full-sized egg when they were four months old.
It can be done in Massachusetts, New York, New Hamp-
shire, and Minnesota, and in parts of California, where the
nights are so warm that one can sleep comfortably under a
sheet only; but not where you have to cuddle under a lot of
blankets on a summer night to keep warm.
CHAPTER VIIL
THE SELECTION OF TYPES.
If the reader has practiced handling a hen as in Figs. 5, 6, 7,
8,9, 10, and 11, we will proceed with a lesson in judging hens as
to the number of eggs they will lay their first laying year.
We will look for a small hen to commence with, as she will
be easier to handle. Having our hen, we will hold her as
CHART 1.
One-finger Abdomen.
1/@ pelvic bone .\: 9452.45.22 0% -ebeggs
14 “pelvic bone: 7) eee eee ocrenes
3/¢pelvicwbOnes.cle. ea sept Ole res
YY pelvic bone................24 eggs
S/igepelvic) bone se. 24. 4n ee ae ee eas
32 pelyicsbonesrns. ase 16 eggs
The pelvic bone: ... / +: s..<.... alZleggs
1, spelvic bone... 4.8. hi eee
et pelvic: DONEn:\.,5 eee eee 4 eggs
be pelvic bone. sj.see. eae eeenee 0 eggs
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 57
nearly as we can as in Fig. 5, and try to have her head as in
Fig. 6, so she can see nothing. She will then be easier to
handle. Place hand across her abdomen, as in Fig. 7. She may
be a one-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. Then hold her as
in Fig. 8. Her breast may be as in Fig. 19; if so, she will be in
good condition. Next go through movements as in Figs. 9 and
10 and hold her and examine her pelvie bone as in Fig. 11.
Her pelvic bone may be one-sixteenth (*/is) of an inch thick,
as in Fig. 24. Now look on Chart 1. Your hen is one fin-
ger abdomen, in good condition, and her pelvic bone is one-
sixteenth (1/16) of an inch thick. You will see that she is a 36-
egg type hen. That means that if this hen is one of a large
number on a commercial poultry plant, she is capable of laying
three dozen eggs her first laying year, if she is fed and cared for
properly, barring accidents and disease. So we will call her
a 36-egg type hen.
We will drop this hen and take another from the crate
and go through the same movements. Hold her as in Fig. 5
or Fig. 7, with head as in Fig. 6 (she may also be a one-finger-
abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12), then examine for condition, as in
Fig. 8. Her condition may be good, as in Fig. 19; then hold
as in Figs. 9 and 10, and measure thickness of pelvic bone, as in
Fig. 11. Her pelvic bone may be three-eighths (%g) of an inch
thick, as in Fig. 27; in that case she would read like this: One-
finger abdomen; good condition; three-eighths (%) pelvic
bone. Now, look on Chart 1, and you will find she is a
16-ege type hen.
We will drop her and take another from the crate, and go
through the same movements as before. This hen may be a
one-finger-abdomen hen also, in good condition, with pelvic
bone 1% inch thick, as in Fig. 28, and by consulting Chart 1
we find she is an 8-egg type hen.
We drop her and take another from the crate. She may
be a hen with one-finger abdomen, as in Fig. 12. When we
examine her condition, we find she is like Fig. 20, which indi-
cates that she is one finger out of condition (the subject of
“Condition” is explained in Chapter V.); her pelvic bone may
be 4/ig of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. This hen will read dif-
ferent from the other hen that was !/i5 pelvic bone. This hen
is out of condition. She may have been in condition up to a
few weeks previous to our examination of her; the cause of
her lack of condition may be improper food or care, or both,
58 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
or it may be due to moulting, or she may have been broody. In
any of these cases it would not be the hen’s fault that she was
out of condition, and she should not be held responsible for it.
Her condition indicates that there is something wrong, and
it’s up to her owner to right the wrong, and when we do right
the wrong, the hen will come back into condition, and her ab-
domen will then measure two fingers instead of one finger-
We must, therefore, read her as a two-finger-abdomen hen,
‘/e-inch pelvic bone, when, by looking on Chart 2, we find
her capacity would be 96 eggs her first laying year, if we kept
her in condition.
We will drop her, and take another hen out of the crate.
This hen may be a one-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12.
When we examine her for condition, we find her as in Fig. 21;
this indicates that she is two fingers out of condition; her pelvic
bone may be '/i, of an inch. Under her present condition, she
might lay 36 eggs her first laying year, whereas, if she were kept
in good condition, she might lay 180 eggs.
We will drop this hen and take up another one. She may be
two fingers abdomen and her breast-bone may be as in Fig.
19. Her pelvic bone may be !/is of an inch. We would read
CHART 2.
Two-finger Abdomen.
Wg pelvic bone...............96 eggs
YZ pelvic bone...............87 eggs
a/g pelvic bone. .......0. ...a.48 C2es
YY pelvic bone...............69 eggs
5/ gp DelVIG DONE: . uc ee, HOUeras
26. MELVIG WON. sae sores oot sae 51 eggs
"he. PELVIC DONGx.0.: 2, cu et ew ee eps
Ve pelvic bones. 22. «ecules 5 bd C2eS
oie PELVIC DONE... 4.1415 os 6G aa eee eos
a0 Pelvic: DOME. <2). «sesh nee 15 eggs
il/ig. pelvic One. ass... aetn eee Olee rs
34. pelvic DOME. %. 40s oe ee ee eras
her as a two-finger-abdomen hen in good condition, pelvic
bones '/i5 of an inch thick. We will look on Chart 2 at !/i¢-inch
pelvic bone, and find she is a 96-egg type hen.
We will drop her and take another from the crate. She
may be two fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condition,
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 59
as in Fig. 21, with pelvic bones 14 of an inch thick. She
would read two fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condi-
tion. She would be four fingers abdomen if in condition, and
14-inch pelvic bones. Being a four-finger-abdomen hen (if in
ay, we will look on Chart 4 at 14-inch pelvic bone, and
find she is a 175-egg type hen. We will drop her.
Take another. She may be a two-finger-abdomen hen, as
in Fig. 13, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones
34 of an inch thick, as in Fig. 29. She would read two fingers
abdomen; good condition; 34-inch pelvic bones. We will
look on Chart 2 for 34-inch pelvie bone, and find this hen
will lay nothing. This does not mean that she is an absolutely
barren hen, that she will never lay an egg (I will explain this
when we get to the six-finger-abdomen hen); she may lay a
few, perhaps half a dozen, in the spring when the crows lay;
but as a commercial proposition she will have no more value
than the hen that never laid an egg. Everything she con-
sumes goes to the making of flesh, except what she uses in
bodily maintenance.
We will drop her and take another. She may be a three-
finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 14. Her condition may be as
in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones as in Fig. 24. She would read
CHART 3.
Three-finger Abdomen.
Vg pelvie bone..............180 eggs
lg pelvic bone..............166 eggs
34g pelvic bone..............152 eggs
ly pelvic bone..............138 eggs
5/1, pelvic bone..............124 eggs.
3¢@ pelvic bone..............110 eggs
the pelvic bone.............. 96 eggs
V6 pelvic bone.............. 82 eggs
%/ig pelvic bone.............. 68 eggs
5g pelvie bone.............. 54 eggs
/i, pelvic bone.............. 40 eggs
34 pelvic bone.............. 26 eggs
Big pelvic bone.............. 12 eggs
% pelvic bone.............. Oeggs
three fingers abdomen; in good condition; +/:s-inch pelvic bone.
We look on Chart 3 at ¥/\-inch pelvic bone, and find that this
hen is a 180-egg type.
60 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
We will drop her and take another. She may be another
three-finger-abdomen hen, like Fig. 14; she may be in good
condition, like Fig. 19, and her pelvic bone may be 1% inch
thick, like Fig. 28. She would read three fingers abdomen;
good condition; 14-inch pelvic bone. We will look on Chart 3
at 14-inch pelvic bone, and find this hen is an 82-egg type hen.
We will take another hen. She may be three fingers abdo-
men, like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like Fig. 19,
and her pelvic bone may be 34 of an inch thick, as in Fig. 29.
We will read her as a three-finger-abdomen hen; in good con-
dition; 34-inch pelvic bone. We will look on Chart 3 at 34-
inch pelvie bone, and find she is a 26-egg type hen.
We will pick up another hen. She may be three fingers
capacity, as in Fig. 14; she may be three fingers out of condi-
tion, as in Fig. 22, and her pelvie bones may be '/is of an inch
thick, as in Fig. 24. We would read this hen as three fingers
abdomen; three fingers out of condition; and 1/i-inch pelvic
bone. When a hen is three fingers out of condition she is
in aserious way. She may have been setting or laying heavily
and have been underfed. In either case, good care and plenty
of the right kind of feed will bring her back into condition,
provided she has not contracted tuberculosis (going light) or
some other wasting disease. I will cite a couple of cases out
of hundreds that have come under my observation.
One was a Barred Rock hen that I intended to set on duck
eggs; she was six fingers abdomen, in good condition when I
put her on the nest, and 14-inch pelvic bones; that indicated
that she was a 235-egg type hen. She was on the nest two
weeks before the duck eggs arrived and four weeks on the
duck eggs, making six weeks setting. Owing to stress of other
work, and being confined in an out-of-the-way place, she was
somewhat neglected, and when the ducklings were hatched
she was three fingers abdomen and three fingers out of con-
dition, thus indicating a 138-egg type hen. Six weeks later
she was laying, and had developed to six fingers abdomen,
which was her normal condition.
Another case was where a gentleman was in a class that
took instructions. After the close of the meeting he brought a
hen that was three fingers out of condition. He said that was
his best hen, and asked me how many eggs she would lay.
She was three fingers abdomen, three fingers out of condition,
and ‘{6-inch pelvic bone. Her head and actions indicated per-
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 61
fect health. I told him she might lay 180 eggs her first laying
year, if her condition had been the same as it was at the
present time; but if she was my hen I thought I might be
able to make her lay 280 eggs. ‘‘You don’t feed her half
enough.” He replied, ‘That is the only hen I have that
lays a white egg. I got her when a pullet, before she com-
menced to lay. She has been laying about a year and has
laid 176 eggs. I had a small lot of hens at the time that were
so fat they were dying, and I cut down their feed and have fed
them sparingly ever since, so they would not get too fat and
die.’ I went to his place, and found he had three types of
hens: the typical meat type (one with pelvic bones 1!
inches thick), some with pelvic bones 14 inch thick, and this
hen that laid the white eggs, whose pelvic bones were 1/16
of an inch thick. I told him to segregate his hens into three
lots, and feed them according to their type. Give the egg-type
hens all the grain they could clean up each day in the scratching-
shed, with a dry balanced mash before them all the time; the
dual-purpose hens should be fed all the grain they wished to
scratch for, with an oceasional mash; and the beef-type hens
should be fed what grain they could clean up in the seratching-
shed in about an hour. The litter should be good and deep in
all cases. I did not mention charcoal, grit, shells, and green
stuff, as that is not my business. Every man who takes a
poultry paper knows that part of the business, and every
person who keeps poultry should take a poultry paper in order
to keep posted on current poultry topics.
The gentleman wrote me over a year later that he had
succeeded in bringing the hen up to normal condition, as in
Fig. 19, but after laying awhile she went back to five fingers
abdomen and one finger out of condition, and had laid 238
eggs her next laying year.
We will now take another hen. She may be four fingers
abdomen, as in Fig. 15, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her
pelvie bones may be 1/15 of an inch thick, as in Tig. 24. She
would read four fingers abdomen; good condition ; 1/1.-inch pel-
vic bone. If we consult Chart 4, we will find she is a 220-egg
type hen.
The next hen may be also four fingers abdomen, as in Fig.
15, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones 14 inch,
as in Fig. 28. She would read four fingers abdomen, in good
condition; 14-inch pelvic bones. We will see by Chart 4 that
this is a 115-egg type hen.
62 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Our next hen may be a four-finger abdomen hen; condition
good; pelvic bones 1 inch thick. We would read her as four
fingers abdomen; condition good; pelvic bones 1 inch. If we
look on Chart 4 at l-inch pelvic bones, we will find this hen
will lay approximately nothing.
CHART 4.
Four-finger Abdomen.
‘is. pelvic bone... .. sh... .s.. ..220 Epes j
lg pelvic bone..............205 eggs
3g pelvic bone.............-.190 eggs
ly pelvic bone..............175 eggs
5/ig pelvic bone..............160 eggs
34 pelvic bone..............145 eggs
t/¢ pelvic: bone. ... . 2.4 20,02 4,.160 eggs
6 pelvic bone..............115 eggs
%/ig pelvic bone..............100 eggs
5g pelvic bone.............. 85 eggs
Wiig. pelvic bone. ........,..:.. sO0'eggs
34 pelvic bone.............. 55 eggs
13/,, pelvic bone.............. 40 eggs
i pelvic bone.............. 25 eggs
15/1, pelvic bone.............. 40 eggs
l-in. pelvic bone: ............... eggs
Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen, one finger
out of condition, -inch pelvic bone. She would indicate a
205-egg type hen under her present condition, but we would
read her four fingers abdomen, one finger out of condition; that
would mean a five-finger-abdomen hen if in condition, 1-
inch pelvic bone. We look on Chart 5 at 14 pelvic bone, and
find she is a 235-egg type hen.
Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig.
16; she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic
bones may be '/i. of an inch, as in Fig. 24. She will read five
fingers abdomen; condition good; pelvic bones '/i¢ inch. We
look on Chart 5 at '/is pelvic bone, and find she is a 250-egg
type hen.
Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig.
16; she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic
bones may be 3 inch thick, as in Fig. 27. We would read
her as five fingers abdomen; good condition, and 3%-inch pelvic
bones. Chart 5 would show us that she was a 175-egg type
hen,
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 63
CHART 5.
Five-finger Abdomen.
lhe pelvic bone... sc...2.2...250 eggs
Vg pelvic bone..............235 eggs
3/16 pelvic bone..............220 eggs
ly pelvic bone..............205 eggs
5/ig pelvic bone..............190 eggs
3 pelvic bone..............175 eggs
ig. DENIC DONG: «2ah.eoeee4 ee 160 eggs
16 pelvic bone..............145 eggs
ohig. PELVIC: DONE. ¢y os... 52222-1380 eggs
5g pelvic bone..............115 eggs
11/4, pelvic bone..............100 eggs
34 pelvic bone.............. 85 eggs
3/1, pelvic bone.............. 70 eggs
% pelvic bone.............. 55 eggs
b/ig pelvic bone.............. 40 eggs
l-in. pelvic bone.............. 25 eggs
14/15 pelvic bone.............- 10 eggs
be pelvic bone. ........-+:+. Oeggs
The next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen; con-
dition good; pelvic bones 1 inch thick. She would read five
fingers abdomen; good condition; 1-inch pelvic bones. The
chart would indicate that she was a 25-egg type hen.
The next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig.
17; she may be in good condition, and her pelvic bones may
be 114 inches thick as in Fig. 31. I hear the reader say,
“What breed of a hen has pelvic bones as thick as that? or
do you mean that both of her pelvic bones are 1!4 inches
thick, counting them both together?’? No; I mean that each
one of her pelvic bones is 114 inches thick. Counting the
bone, gristle, fat, and flesh (flank), both of the pelvic bones
would be 2% inches thick. When we speak of pelvic bones
being so and so thick, we always mean one of them. And as
to breed, this hen is a Single Comb White Leghorn; she is the
typical beef type. You will see by Chart 6 that she will lay
practically nothing; and here I will explain this matter.
A man once brought me a two-and-a-half-year-old hen that
he had trap-nested for two years, and asked me to tell him how
many eggs she had laid her first laying-year. I told him she
64 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
had never laid an egg. Her abdomen was six fingers, she was in
good condition, and her pelvic bones were 114 inches thick.
CHART 6.
Six-finger Abdomen.
Nervous TEMPERAMENT.
1/46 pelvic bone...............280 eggs
Ye - pelvic bone=5. 22... ... 412200 Coes
$/i5 Pelvic bone. --...34.. 2. 22.200 epes
ly pelvic bone...............235 eggs
5/1g pelvic bone........ .220 eggs
SANGUINE Teaneetatin?
3% pelvic bone...............205 eggs
“he pelvic bone...............190 eggs
16 pelvic bone...............175 eggs
%/i¢ pelvic bone......... 160 eggs
5g pelvic bone. . pam. . 145 eggs
Bruious ie MPERAMENT.
Hig pelvic bone... ....«.....l30-eegs
34 pelvic bone..............115 eggs
13/4, pelvic bone..............100 eggs
1% pelvic bone.............. 85 eggs
Ib/g pelvic bones. «+c. 7.. 2. WOeggs
LYMPHATIC Te Cre
l-in. pelvic bone..............55 eggs
11/,s pelvic bone.....:........40 eggs
114 pelvic bone..............25 eggs
13/i, pelvic bone..............10 eggs
1Ye pelvic bone; 2.22%. 2.< 2 Cees
He cautioned me to be careful, as he had always trap-nested
his hens, and his record showed how many eggs they had laid.
I replied, “If that is the case, her record shows that she has
never laid an egg.’’ He said no more then, but brought me
another hen, asking me how many she would lay. I examined
her for capacity. I found she was a six-finger-abdomen hen;
her condition was good; her pelvic bones were 1/5 of an inch
thick; they were both alike as to thickness. I questioned him
as to how he had fed her, and if she had been sick her first
laying year. As he is one of the best breeders in the United
States, I could depend on him knowing what he was talking
about. I asked him then to take off his hat. I could see by
the shape of his head he was a strictly honest man. I then told
him that I had never raised that breed of hens, but if it was a
Leghorn, it might lay 280 eggs its first year, and if a Plymouth
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 65
x
Rock, it might lay 270. He said her trap-nested record showed
she laid 276 eggs from the time she commenced to lay in her
pullet year until she had laid one year. ‘“That’s all right,’ I
replied; ‘‘but what about the first hen we examined?” ‘‘We
have never found any in the trap-nest from her,” he said,‘‘ but
she might be in the habit of laying in the yard.”’ And as he was
offered $1,000 for her, he was very anxious to get some chickens
from her. I explained to him that while most typical beef
hens could be made to lay a very small number of eggs in the
spring when the crows laid, by feeding them a little lean meat
and shrunken wheat and bran on a grass plot of white clover
Gf the blossoms of the white clover are clipped off), that his
hen could not be made to lay, as she was a barren hen, as in-
dicated by the rigid cord that connected both of the pelvic
bones together, thus indicating that Nature never intended
her to lay. I could name a number of professors and physicians
that have told me they have discovered the same condition
after they had taken my lessons.
The reader will please bear in mind that the two pelvic
bones of a hen are not always of the same thickness. Some
hens may have one pelvic bone thicker than the other; when
this is the case, add the two together and half of the number
will be the right thickness to judge by. I*or instance, if one
pelvic bone was 1g of an inch and the other one was ly of an
inch, the added thickness would be 3¢ of an inch; dividing this
would give you °/i. of an inch as the thickness of one pelvic bone.
Where one bone is thicker than the other, the thinnest one is
on the left side of the hen.
Our next hen may be another six-finger-abdomen hen, as
in Fig. 17, she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her
pelvic bones may be 14 of an inch thick, as in Fig. 25; she
would be a 265-egg type hen.
Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen in good
condition; pelvic bones 4 inch; she would read six fingers
abdomen; good condition; pelvic bones 3¢ of an inch. By
consulting Chart 6, we will find this is a 205-egg type hen.
Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good
condition; 14-inch pelvic bones; this hen will be a 175-egg type
hen.
Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good con-
dition; pelvic bones 1 inch. We look on Chart 6, and find that
l-inch pelvic bones indicate the 55-egg type hen.
66 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen; she may
be two fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 21, and her pelvic
bones may be !/is of an inch thick. We would read her as four
fingers abdomen; two fingers out of condition; this would
make her a six-finger-abdomen hen if in condition. We look
on Chart 6 at '/is-inch pelvic bone, and find our last hen is a
250-egg type hen, if in condition, and it is up to us to put
her in condition and keep her there as nearly as possible.
I will admit it is a hard proposition to keep the non-setting
typical-egg type hen in condition, but the man that comes the
nearest doing so is the best feeder. I will have more to say
in regard to the matter of condition in the chapter on Judging
Utility Fowls at the Poultry Shows. This work is a matter of
line upon line, and I must necessarily repeat the same matter
in some respects time after time. But as this is an educational
more than an entertaining proposition, I hope that my readers
will bear with me.
As IT have said before, there are three types of hens. The
hen listed on Chart 1 as '/is-inch pelvie bone is a typical egg-
type hen, because all she consumes over bodily maintenance
goes to the production of eggs. The hen listed as 3¢-inch
pelvic bone is a dual-purpose hen; half of her vitality is used
in producing eggs and half in producing meat. The hen listed
as 24-inch is a typical meat-type hen; all she consumes goes
to the production of meat, except what she uses in bodily main-
‘tenance. The hen listed as !/-inch pelvic bone on Chart 2 is a
typical egg-type hen; the hen listed as *¢-inch pelvic bone on
same chart is a dual-purpose hen; and the one listed as 24-inch
pelvic bones is a typical meat-type hen; the same rule follows
in all the charts. All the hens listed as '/1s-inch pelvic bone
are typical egg-type hens, and they can’t be made to pay as a
meat proposition. The hens listed in the center of each chart
are the dual-purpose hens; they can be used as an egg and as
a meat proposition. The hens listed on the bottom of each
chart are the meat-type hens. Nature has fitted them for the
production of flesh, and there is no human energy that can
change them to a paying egg proposition.
Between the above three distinct types there are combina-
tions of each adjoining type. This allows sufficient latitude
for the preference of each individual breeder. A person can
breed the typical egg-type hen and cock bird with pelvic bones
'/j, of an inch thick. If he thinks this type is too delicate, he
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 67
can breed from the #/-inch pelvic bone stock; this is my fa-
vorite type; the hen of this type is better able to withstand
the vicissitudes of the poultry-yard than her finer-bred sisters.
I will have more to say along this line in the chapter on Broilers.
I think we have given sufficient examples in Chapters III., [V.,
V., VI. and VII. to enable the reader to examine a hen so he
may be able to arrive at her approximate value for the purpose
he wishes to use her for.
In a previous chapter we have said there is occasionally
found a hen seven fingers abdomen. If the reader finds one,
he can score her by Chart 6 and add 15 eggs to the number
indicated. For instance, if the hen is in good condition and
measures seven fingers abdomen and her pelvic bones are 3%
inch thick, Chart 6 would indicate she is a 205-egg type bird;
we then add 15 eggs to the 205, which gives the hen 220-egg
capacity. If she is five fingers abdomen and two fingers out of
condition, we call her seven fingers abdomen, and proceed as
above, which gives us the same results.
There are two other matters I wish to call the attention
of the reader to in this place. One is, that I have found hens
occasionally that laid a great deal better by the trap-nest
than they scored by the Hogan test, but it was owing to a
mistake made in measuring their abdomens, owing to the rear
of the breast-bone turning up, sometimes almost an inch over
normal shape, thus indicating a smaller abdomen than really
was the case. The other matter is a more serious one—in
fact, very serious in some flocks. It is the bagging down of
the abdomen over the rear of the breast-bone. [very hen
used in the breeding-pen should be examined for this defect, for
if one of them is bred from, she is almost sure to transmit her
weak ovarian system to her off:pring. Some of these hens will
make remarkable egg records for a year or so, then will never
lay another egg; and again, the eggs are liable to be very
infertile and more or less thin-shelled; and if you have great
numbers of hens, you can hardly tell when these hens stop lay-
ing for good, unless you trap-nest them, as their pelvie bones
do not close up as readily as hens in normal condition.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this
case, as it is very easy to prevent all this trouble. I meet hun-
dreds of the above hens in my visits to poultry plants, but never
have a case in my yards. I examine all my pullets when
about a year old for possible breeders. If a hen satisfies me a
68 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
to Capacity, Type, and Prepotency, I then hold her as if I were
testing her for capacity, except that I hold her by the right leg
only. I then lay my hand on her breast, so that it (my hand)
will conform to her shape, and draw it slowly along her breast-
bone (or keel) from front to rear. When my hand reaches the
rear, if I feel the slightest indication of her abdomen dropping
the least bit below the rear of the breast-bone, I reject the hen
as a breeder, and thereby save myself a world of trouble in
the future.
CHAPTER Dx
PREPOTENCY.
We will take up in this chapter Prepotency, the science of
breeding poultry, so that we can breed with a definite knowedge
of what we are doing, and not leave it to intuition or chance.
It is an old saying that “like begets like”; this seems to be
true In some cases, but seems not to be true in other cases.
Students of human nature can readily see where it has appar-
ently failed. Some children will resemble and act like one
parent and some will resemble and act like the other parent;
then again, some children will be like neither of the parents.
Breeders of horses and cattle are well aware of the variations
in offspring from the type and characteristics of sire and dam.
It is more through persistency in breeding than the general
knowledge of any scientific principle that we have succeeded
in producing the grand types of animals we see at our State
fairs. The breeding of poultry is no exception to the above
rule. While some breeders have good success in breeding for
the desired type of bird, whether for fancy, for eggs, or for flesh,
others will have very poor success.
The purpose of this chapter is to explain to the breeder
who has had poor success a method that will enable him to
breed with the full understanding as to what he is doing. It
is a well-known fact among the clothing trade that if a woolen
manufacturer has a sample of cloth presented to him, he can
manufacture thousands of yards that will be an exact dupli-
cate of the sample. The same is true in other industries. But
suppose the reader gives an order to one of our well-known
poultry-breeders for 1,000 pullets, to be delivered at four
months old; these pullets to be housed, fed, and cared for as the
breeder designates, and to approximately lay a certain number
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 69
of eggs their first laying year; how many breeders do you sup-
pose could fill the order? Until a majority of them can do so
the poultry industry will not be on a business basis, but will be
more or less of a gamble.
I have said that seemingly like does not beget like in
some cases. We will take, for instance, a hen that is five fingers
abdomen, in good condition, 14-inch pelvic bones. She will
scale up as a 205-egg type hen. We will mate up a pen of
these hens with a 205-egg type cockerel or cock bird; we raise
100 pullets from this mating and they may scale 175-egg type.
We then say, “Like does not produce like.’ Here is where we
make a mistake. In one sense we are right, in another we are
wrong. Nature makes no mistakes. We have mated 205-egg
type male and female, and we get as a result 175-egg-type
product. That ’s as plain as the nose on one’s face, and we
throw up our hands in despair and say, “It’s all luck and
chance.’ Another party mates up the same type of birds and
gets a lot of pullets that average 210 eggs their first laying year;
still another party mates up the same type of birds and does
not get a chick.
The reader may smile, but this is no dream. A number
of such cases have come under my observation. One case was
that of a professor in one of the Southern California public
institutions. He had a pen of twelve Black Minoreas, headed
by a splendid-looking cock bird; also a pen of twelve Anda-
lusians. He said there was something peculiar about these hens,
and he wanted to know if I could detect it. I tested all the
Andalusians, and told him they should average 140 eggs their
first laying year, and I would expect twelve eggs out of every
thirteen to be fertile. After testing the Minoreas, I told him
they would average about 160-egg type, but if they were mine,
I would not set any of their eggs while they were mated to
the present cock bird, because I would not expect them to
hatch, and if they did hatch, they would be degenerates. He
said, ‘“‘This is the second season I have bred from the birds; I
always get good hatches from the Andalusians; but, although I
see the rooster serve the hens, I have never been able to hatch
a chicken from the Minorea pen.’ I replied, ‘“‘ He serves the
hens out of sympathy.”
Another case was a Barred Rock hen, the only one a neigh-
bor had in a small flock of Houdans. He called me one day,
saying he had a remarkable pullet at his place, and he wanted
7O THE CALL OF THE HEN.
me to call over and tell him how many eggs she would lay
her first laying year. She had been laying two months, and
he was keeping her record. I went with him, tested the hen,
and told him she might lay 250 eggs, but I did not think that
any of them would hatch. After her first laying year was up,
he showed me her record. She had laid 258 eggs, and although
he had a good Barred Rock cock bird with her, and had set a
number of settings under hens, he failed to hatch a single chick.
I could cite a great number of such cases.
In the first of these cases the fault was with the male bird;
in the last case the fault was with the hen; in both cases the
trouble was caused by a lack of prepotency (amativeness),
and not through any defect in the anatomy of the birds.
Everything in the universe is governed by certain immutable
laws. If we understand these laws and can discover a way to
control them, we may be able to use them to our advantage.
Does the reader ever stop to consider these matters? What, in
your opinion, is the greatest effort of Nature? The writer thinks
it is the effort to reproduce the species in all their different forms
of animate and inanimate life. If the case were otherwise, this
earth would be barren of grass and shrubs, of flowers and
fruits, and of every living, moving thing on land and in the
sea. What a desolate old world this would be with only bare
dirt and rocks and water! And when we consider what a won-
derful thing life is, can we doubt that Nature has made some
extraordinary provisions for controlling its inception? In the
wild state the survival of the fittest prevented degeneracy of
the species, but under domestication birds cannot follow their
instincts; and their owners should be familiar with Nature’s
laws in order to be able to breed intelligently.
When the writer was twelve years of age he took up the
study of human nature, and later had help from that great
teacher, Professor O. 8S. Fowler. Years of practice in dis-
secting and in anatomy and in the study of the skulls of animals
and birds gave me the opportunity to study the construction
of the different skulls and classify them as to the known habits
of the birds or animals under consideration. The knowledge
gained in this way was of inestimable value in later research
in the selection and breeding of poultry. I am positive that
without this early training I never could have accomplished
what I have.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 71
After raising my first lot of Leghorns in 1869, I decided to
dis pose of all breeds but the Leghorns and Light Brahmas. I
said I would raise Leghorns for eggs and Brahmas for meat.
Up to that time I had not paid much attention to the individual
laying qualities of the birds. Experience had taught me that
the Light Brahma, when fed right and of the right age, made a
delicious table-fowl, and I was led to believe the Leghorns
were all great layers. That was a good many years ago; and
we have made wonderful discoveries and progress in science
and the arts since that time. The reader can imagine my sur-
prise when I found by experience that some of my Leghorns
laid very few eggs and laid them only in the spring months;
others laid large numbers and laid late in the fall and early
winter. In those days we had no cold-storage plants, and
while eggs were very cheap in the summer, they were very dear
in the winter, and I decided to experiment with my Leghorns,
with a view to getting more eggs in the winter. After a few
years of study and experiment, I mated the best egg-type birds
and from some pens got good results, from other pens not so
good, and from still others very poor results. My previous
studies in anatomy had enabled me to select the matings from
birds that were all of the same type, and I expected to raise
a lot of poultry that would be duplicates of their parents, as
far as their egg-laying qualities were concerned. But after
numerous experiments in mating the 180-egg type cock bird
with 180-egg type hens, I found I could not depend on getting
definite results.
Some are born rich, some are born handsome, and some
are born lucky. The writer was born with none of these gifts,
but with a combination of faculties that compelled to inven-
tion, to wander and toil and delve in the fields, the byways,
and the mines of the mysterious. These researches, with the
aid received by studying the pioneers in the same lines of in-
vestigation, led to the discovery, as the writer thinks, of the
fundamental principle that underlies the reproduction of the
species. After a number of matings that were more or less
discouraging failures, I decided to look to the brain of the bird
as the seat of the cause of a great many of the variations be-
tween the characteristics of the offspring and those of the
parents. I had previously demonstrated by experiment that
environment had an influence on the shaping of the skull of
the birds. By focusing on this subject the skull-knowledge I
72 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
had gained in the previous nine years, I was led to think that
brain governed most of the functions of the body, and if so,
why not the reproductive function? I reasoned that as I
had mated up several pens of the same type of hens with the
same type of male birds, and that as there was no difference in
their temperaments, that the hens all looked alike, all weighed
alike, and were all in the same condition—or, in other words,
they were all in perfect condition (to be more explicit, the
hens were three fingers abdomen, pelvic bone '/is of an inch
thick; all hens were in good condition; the cock birds were two-
fingers abdomens, in normal condition, and pelvic bones !/\5 of
an inch thick; all hens were alike and all cock birds were alike,
and all were about a year old); that there must be something
apart from the anatomy and physiology of the hen that gov-
erned or in some measure controlled the reproductive func-
tions. As I had exhausted all my resources in the above lines,
I was very reluctantly obliged to enter a new field of research—
the field of Phrenology. I killed the cock birds that had given
us the best results, boiled their skulls until free of flesh, and
found them as in No. 1, Fig. 85. The skulls of the cock birds
that gave the next best results were like No. 2, Fig. 35, and the
skulls of the cock birds that gave the poorest results were like
No. 4, Fig. 35.
The arrows A, B, C, and D show the base of the brain. If
A were continued upward, it would pass through the projection
14 of an inch from the end; if B were continued, it would pass
through the projection about 1g of an inch from the end;
while C would be at the extreme end of the projection, and D
would pass outside the skull. The part of the skull where the
arrows 1, 2, 3, 4 point contains the rear lobe of the brain, and
examination will show that the development of this portion of
the brain corresponds to the shape of the skull at this point.
And right here is where we were on the point of the second
great secret in breeding that would verify the saying that
“Like begets like.’ The first discovery was, that if we wished
to raise pullets that would be good layers, we would have to
mate good-laying hens with the same type of male bird, and
not with the meat type—that is, the male birds would have
to be of the same temperament, of the same anatomy, and of
the same physiolegy as the hen. I found that if I had a hen
that laid 180 eggs by the trap-nest, and if I wanted to raise a
lot of pullets that would average 180 eggs, I could not depend
on the trap-nest to aid me any farther than to tell me the
THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 35—Three degrees of amativeness (otherwise called ‘“‘prepo-tency’’).
number of eggs a hen laid, what particular eggs she laid, and
the progeny of each hen, both male and female. I also found
great variations in type in the mature cockerels from each in-
dividual hen, which we considered was due to the difference in
74 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
type of the male bird and the difference in vitality of one or
both birds at different times during the breeding season; some-
times the hen, at other times the cock bird, transmitting their
characteristics. When I was assured of this through numerous
experiments, I reasoned that my failures were because the
male birds were of a different type from the hens, and when I
had demonstrated that the male birds were of a different
physiology by practice and scientific measures, and mated ac-
cordingly, I flattered myself with the assurance that I had
discovered all that was necessary in order to breed poultry
intelligently. But after more experiments I was not wholly
satisfied with results; and as I had adopted the motto, ‘‘ Like
begets like,” I reasoned that although the birds we had
mated were alike, as far as we could see, the remaining differ-
ence must be some place where I had failed to look for it. My
knowledge of the different variations in form of the skulls of
animals and birds of the same breed, together with the knowl-
edge I possessed of human skulls, led me to investigate the
head as the only remaining factor in the problem. When I re-
duced this proposition to a method, and when I was able to
measure its potentiality, then I assembled the hens and cock
birds, mating the 180-egg type hens and the 180-egg type cock
birds, each bird with the same degree of prepotency. Then,
and not until then, had I ever knowingly mated like to like.
For years, like many others, I thought I had mated males
to like females, but I was mistaken. And here is where I
discovered my second great secret. After this I mated like
to like more intelligently, and the results were more satisfactory.
I consider the selecting of the male birds for mating along
anatomical and physiological lines, together with the proper
understanding and use of the faculty that governs the repro-
ductive function, as the greatest discoveries ever made in the
poultry industry.
The reader may think there is very little difference in the
skulls in Fig. 35. If you add an inch to the length of a man’s
legs, it does not seem to make much difference in his height,
but if you add an inch to the end of his nose, it would make a
great difference in his looks. I found this expansion on the
back of the skull corresponded to the faculty of amativeness
in the human family. I found that when it was large in both
male and female the parents possessed the ability to transmit
their predominating characteristics to their offspring. If the
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 75
parents were fancy birds, their progeny would in some cases
excel their parents in feather, vigor, and other good qualities.
If the parents were of the egg type, some of the chicks would
be as good and some better layers and more vigorous than
the parents; if of the meat type, the progeny would be of
a stronger constitution, of a quicker growth, and assimilate
their food better—in a word, if both parents have this fac-
ulty (called ‘‘prepotency’’ by some) large, the chicks will be
more likely to be equal to, and some will excel, their parents
along the lines in which the parents predominate. If the
parents have the faculty small, the chicks will not be so
good as the parent stock, but will degenerate along the lines
that the parents excel in. If a hen is a 200-egg type and she
has this faculty small, she will be just as valuable as an egg-
producer as if she had the faculty large, but she will be of no
value as a breeder; she will be an old maid from choice, and her
eggs will not be fertile, if she has the faculty small enough. If
the male bird has it small, his eggs will not hatch well, and if
small, they will not hatch at all. I have found a few cases
where the cock bird had the faculty of prepotency (ama-
tiveness) large and failed to fertilize the eggs, but the cases
were very rare, and I attribute it to weakened or diseased
nerves; as, for instance, the nerves of the teeth or sciatic nerve
in the human being.
Fic. 36—Holding hen ready to put in sack.
Fig. 36 shows how to hold a hen before putting her in a
sack to examine her for prepotency.
76 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
ok i
Fic. 37—Holding legs with right hand and gathering sack around
legs with left hand.
Fig. 37 shows how to put her in the sack, holding legs with
right hand, with back of hen against bottom of sack, and
gathering sack around legs with left hand.
Fic. 38—Tying sack around legs so hen cannot move while examining
her for prepotency. This method of holding the bird is only necessary
while you are learning. lf there is someone to hold the hen for you, it
would be quicker. When you become skillful, you can hold the bird as in
Vig. 43.
Fig. 38 shows tying sack around legs so that she cannot
move while examining her for prepotency. (Cut a little off of
the corner of the sack—just enough to get her head through,
Hen in Fig. 38 is too far out of the sack.)
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 79
The best way for a beginner to learn how to handle a hen
for prepotency is to select a hen you wish for the table. Cut
the corner off of a gunny sack; hold her as in Fig. 36; put your
hen in sack and tie her, as in Figs. 37 and 38; then make a hook
of wire or a hair-pin, attach it to a string with small weight or
stone; hang hen up against barn or shed, head down, back
against building; take long-bladed pocket or other knife with
sharp point, insert in hen’s mouth, and draw across the roof of
the mouth at the back of the brain at the junction of the neck,
severing the blood-veins, then immediately force the knife
through the roof of the mouth into the brain. The knife
should be forced well into the brain, which will sever the
nerves, and the bird will feel no pain; then insert hook in the
nostril, and the weight will hold the neck straight, The hen
should bleed freely. After bleeding has stopped, clean mcuth
and surrounding parts of blood, and place hen in some con-
venient place—on a box or coop. The thumb-rail on the left
hand and nail on the forefinger of the right hand should be
longer than the thumb and finger, so the flesh cn end of thumb
and finger will not prevent the nail from entering the slight
depression between the skull and neck.
We will suppose the reader has handled the hen as sug-
gested above. Lay the dead hen as in Fig. 39; take hold of
comb or head and pull neck up with right hand, and while
holding head up the neck will be stretched out. Turn the
head down with right hand, so the back of the head will point
up and beak will point down as much as possible. This will
make the projection of the brain (arrow 1, Fig. 35) appear more
prominent, so it will be easier to locate it; then draw ball of
thumb of left hand down on head until you feel back of skull;
when you feel back of skull with ball of thumb, then turn first
joint of thumb down until thumb-nail fits in between end of
skull and neck and well up against base of brain; then, while
holding left hand and thumb as in Fig. 39, put forefinger of right
hand at base of brain behind the ear, as in Fig. 39, between the
neck and the skull and against the skull behind the ear, as in Fig.
39. The ear can readily be discovered by lifting up its hairy cov-
ering. The thumb-nail must be held perfectly straight across
the neck, as in Fig. 39, and not sideways; and the forefinger
must be held perfectly at right angles with the thumb, or the
length of projection (arrow 1, Fig. 35) from the base of the
brain (arrow 4, Fig. 35) cannot be measured accurately.
78 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 39—Showing thumb }¥ of an inch ahead of forefinger; indicating
hen is totally lacking in prepotency. (See Skull No. 4, Fig. 35.)
The reader will notice that my thumb-nail is ahead of my
forefinger-nail in Fig. 39; this indicates that this hen is wholly
lacking in the ability to transmit any redeeming qualities to
her offspring, also that she has no desire for offspring. If this
were a male bird, the eggs from his matings would be infertile.
Fig. 40 shows thumb on line with forefinger. Matings from
this type of head would not produce very fertile eggs, and the
progeny would deteriorate each year if they were bred from
stock with heads like this. If the parents were 200-egg type,
their egg-yield and vitality would be reduced each generation
of breeding. If they were of the beef type, their vitality and
ability to produce flesh economically would diminish with each
generation. If they were a fancy type, the breeder would be
up against a stone wall of discouraging experiments.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 79
Fia. 40—Thumb even with forefinger; indicating she has prepotency
small. (See Skull No. 3, Fig. 35.)
I would advise the reader to take special notice of Fig.
43, as this cut shows the method of determining prepotency
plainer than any of the others.
Fig. 41 shows a hen with prepotency full—i. e., thumb %
of an inch behind forefinger. Sometimes a poultryman will be
lucky enough to mate up a lot of pens of the right type for his
purpose with heads like Figs. 41, 42, and 43. His business pros-
pers, and his neighbors call him ‘lucky.’ While others are
going bankrupt raising poultry, he holds his own and is making
a good living. Figs. 42 and 43 show a hen with an excellent
head for breeding purposes. The thumb in this case is 14 of
an inch behind the forefinger. If this hen is mated to a male
bird of the same type and prepotency, her eggs will be very
fertile, and a large number of the progeny will be equal to and
80 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fia. 41—Showing thumb 1% of an inch behind forefinger; indicating
hen has prepotency full. (See Skull No. 2, Fig. 35.)
some will excel the parent stock in the lines that predominate
in the parents. By selecting these few specimens each season
for breeding, it is possible to breed a highly valuable type in
the course of time. Fig. 43 shows how to hold a bird be-
tween the knees after you become proficient in testing the
head while the bird is in a sack.
Fra. 42—Showing thumb 14 of an inch behind forefinger; indicating
hen has prepotency large. (See Skull No. 1, Fig. 35.)
Fic. 43—Showing how to hold bird between knees after you become
proficient in testing head while bird is in sack.
82 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
CHAPTER X.
Trestinc Hens on A LARGE SCALE, Usine CHarts 44 AnD 45.
I will describe in this chapter how I cull hens when we
have large numbers of them, as we have in poultry plants in
California. I shall take it for granted that the reader has no
method of selecting the good from the poor layers, except,
perhaps, the ‘‘Walter Hogan System” or some of its pirated
forms that are now used extensively in all parts of the civ-
ilized world, and which is based on the theory that the value of
a hen as an egg-producer depends on the relative distance
apart of her pelvic bones and the thinness of same. We will
suppose the reader has 300 hens; one lot are about a year
and four months old, another lot are about two years and
four months old, and another lot are about three years and four
months old. Each lot has been kept in separate yards, so
there can be no mistake in regard to their ages, or they have
been toe-punched or otherwise marked. We notice more or
less feathers lying around the yard, thus indicating the season
of the year when moulting is near at hand. Everything else
being equal, the poorest hen moults first, and if she is a very
poor layer, she will stop laying when she begins to moult and will
not lay again until the crows lay in the spring. We consider it
is about time to cull out the poor layers and send them to
market.
The next thing that comes to mind is the question,
“What is a poor layer?’’ That all depends on the price you
get for the eggs, the price of feed, houses, etc. I raised poultry
in Todd County, Minnesota, in 1886 and 1887, and sold good
lumber at the saw-mill for $5.00 per 1,000 feet. Wheat was
about 1 cent per pound, and wheat screenings for chicken feed
could be had for the hauling. It is very evident that a poorer
class of layers might have been kept at a greater profit when
supplies were at that low price than can be profitably kept when
supplies are as high-priced as they are at the present time of
writing (June, 1913). So the reader can see that the matter of
the profitable hen is a local matter. At this writing you can
buy nearly two bushels of wheat in some parts of Minnesota for
what you will pay for one in California. I was told a few days
ago that you could buy twice as much oats at the present time
83
fy
.
assl
for the same money.
1a,
h year to select the poor
ime eac
.
THE CALL OF THE HEN.
d the following instructions, need be used only
ing in min
to determine the laying-score of the individual hen.
ta as you can in Californ
When studying Charts 44 and 45 we see there are certain
figures lined off from the rest; this is for the purpose of aid-
the time necessary to look over the chart and cl
each hen.
the reader at a certain t
layers from the good ones without using the charts, thereby
inneso
Charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, as the reader will learn by
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THE CALL OF THE HEN.
The third are five fingers abdomen, from
‘/\g-inch pelvie bone to °/is-inch pelvic bone. The fourth
We will make a copy of Charts 44 and 45 on a piece of
white cardboard and ee it up in a convenient place in
The first figures underlined in Chart 44 are in the column
indicating three fingers abdomen, from '/s-Inch pelvic bone
fingers abdomen, from !/j-inch pelvic bone to "/j-inch pelvie
?
to */is-inch pelvic bone.
bone.
inch pelvic bone.
84
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THE CALL OF THE HEN. 85
the yard where the sixteen-months-old hens are penned. We
will suppose that the hens are all closed in the house or houses.
We put catching-coop in position as in Fig. 2, and drive hens
in same as in Fig. 1. When there are enough hens in the
coop, shut down slide-door that holds them in. In this case it
is necessary to keep only four fingers in mind; any four you
prefer will do.
Here in California we use the figures 5, 7, 9, and 11 for the
hen sixteen months old; this means a three-finger-abdomen
hen, °/is-inch pelvie bone; four-finger-abdomen hen, 7/j-inch
pelvic bone; five-finger-abdomen hen, °/i-inch pelvic bone; six-
finger-abdomen hen, "/is-inch pelvic bone. Anything below this
line (that is, any hen having a thicker bone in the different
classes) goes to market. For the twenty-eight-months-old
hens we assume that they are hatched in March and sold in
the summer. We use the figures 3, 5, 7, and 9 for the three-,
four-, five- and six-finger-abdomen hens. For the forty-
months-old hens we use the figures 1, 3, 5, and 7 for the
three-, four-, five- and six-finger-abdomen hens. You perceive
that the older the hen the greater the number of eggs she must
have laid in her first year. Here in California we keep large
numbers of hens, and in this way we can sort out the market
here each year in a short time, as we do not have to stop
and figure out the percentage of loss tor each year of age, as
these figures come near enough to suit our purpose. If they
do not suit the local market, the reader can use any figures
that will.
I shall give a few examples only to show how we would
proceed to cull out the hens. The reader must be familiar
with the general principles of capacity, condition, and type.
He should by this time have familiarized himself with the
charts. Now, if he prepares the figures as I have directed, he
will experience no difficulty in determining in a moment just
where and what to do with each individual hen. We establish
a certain standard of production for the first laying season,
in order to know how long to keep her. You may take 80 eggs
for one season, 120 eggs for two seasons, and 150 eggs for three
seasons, or any other set that suits your local conditions.
Here we take about 120, 150, and 180 eggs as the standard;
that is, a hen must be able to lay about this number in her first
laying year in order to stay with us for two, three, or four
seasons. With this explanation, we shall proceed to cull,
86 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
putting into the shipping-coop all hens that fall below our
standard, and dropping in the yard where we stand any that
we desire to keep.
Now, take a hen out of the catching-coop as in Fig. 3, and
hold her as near as possible as in Fig. 5. Place hand on ab-
domen. She may be one finger abdomen, in good condition;
her pelvic bone may be 1/:5 of an inch thick; her capacity is
three dozen eggs her first laying-year. She has laid all these
eggs and will lay no more until the next spring when the crows
lay, and eggs are cheap; so we decide to put this hen in the
shipping-crate, to be sent to market.
We take another hen from the catching-coop, and go through
the same process. She may be a two-finger-abdomen hen, in
good condition; her pelvic bones 4/15 of an inch thick; this in-
dicates a hen that may lay eight dozen of eggs her first laying-
year. As a rule, when hens are so fed and cared for, they will
lay their maximum number of eggs their first laying year; they
will, as a rule, lay about 15 per cent less each year after, pro-
vided they are given the same care and feed. In this case the
hen in hand might lay about 85 eggs; if you think that will
pay you, let the hen drop out of your hands into the yard where
you are Standing; if you think it will not pay to keep her, put
her in the shipping-crate for the market.
The next hen may be two fingers abdomen, one finger out
of condition, as in Fig. 20, with pelvic bones 14 of an inch thick.
If this hen’s comb and wattles are red and the hen is strong
and active, being one finger out of condition indicates that
she is not being properly cared for, either in food or environ-
ment, or both; in the condition she is in at present, if contin-
ued the whole year, she might lay about 69 eggs, while if kept
in normal condition, she might lay 138 eggs. (See Chart 3.)
So we will call her a good hen, and drop her.
The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, °/1s-inch pelvic
bone, and in normal condition. If this hen were in Petaluma,
we would drop her, as she would be a paying hen. By re-
ferring to the chart, you will see that she is a 124-egg type hen.
You must bear in mind constantly that a thick bone in a hen
of small abdominal capacity would mean a practical non-
producer, while the same thickness of bone in a hen of much
larger capacity would mean simply a more beefy hen.
The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, in normal
condition, as in Fig. 19, and pelvic bone 3% of an inch thick.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 87
This hen has the same abdominal depth as the preceding, but
her pelvic bones being °¢ of an inch thick would make her a
110-egg type hen, and with us no hen that lays 120 eggs pays to
-keep two seasons. We put this hen in the shipping-crate for
market, as it will not pay to keep her any longer, if in Peta-
luma. She will not pay for her board after this time and
leave enough profit.
The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in normal con-
dition, and 7/j-inch pelvic bone. She, being a 130-egg type
hen, it will pay to keep her another year, so we drop her.
The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in normal con-
dition, and 14-inch pelvic bones; this hen will lay approxi-
mately 115 eggs her first laying year, but not enough her second
year; so we put her in the shipping-crate for market.
The next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen and in
good condition; °/is-inch pelvic bone. She is a 130-egg type
hen, so we drop her. While this hen has a pelvic bone °/i6 of
an inch thick, she has the abdominal capacity to supply herself
with food enough to lay a profitable number of eggs and put
on flesh at the same time.
The next hen is five fingers abdomen, in normal condition,
and 5-inch pelvic bones; this is a 115-egg type hen, so we
put her in the shipping-crate. The hen we had just before
this one was kept; but when we come to the °¢-inch pelvic
bone, we decide that we have reached the lowest limit of egg-
production.
The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal con-
dition, and "/,.-inch pelvic bone; she will be a 130-egg type hen,
so we drop her.
The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal con-
dition; pelvic bones 34 of an inch thick; she will be a 115-egg
type hen, so we will put her in the shipping-crate.
The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, three fingers
out of condition, and ¥-inch pelvic bones. If her comb and
wattles are pale and bloodless, she is no doubt diseased and
should be disposed of; but if her comb and wattles are red, it
indicates, as a rule, that she is out of condition on account of
accident or lack of feed. In her present condition she scores
166-egg type. If we get her in one finger better condition, she
will measure four fingers abdomen, and score 205-egg type; if
we can get her in two fingers better condition, she will measure
five fingers abdomen and may be #/is-inch pelvic bones, on ac-
88 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
count of becoming a little more fleshy, and score 220-egg type;
and if we can get her in three fingers better condition, she
would then be in normal condition, and her pelvic bones might
be %/i¢ or 14 inch thick; if the latter, she would score 235-eg¢
type. (We will have more to say on the changing of thickness
of the pelvic bone in the last of Chapter X VIII.)
We will continue selecting or separating the good from the
poor layers in the same manner, keeping every hen for another
year in the three-finger-abdomen class that is °/1-inch pelvie
bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market that is
over °/i-Inch pelvic bone in the three-finger-abdomen class;
keeping every hen in the four-finger-abdomen class that is 7/15-
inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market
that is over 7/is-inch pelvic bone in the four-finger-abdomen
class; keeping every hen in the five-finger-abdomen class that
is °/is-Inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to
market that is over °/\e-inch pelvic bone; keeping every hen in
the six-finger-abdomen class that is "/i-inch pelvic bone and
thinner, and sending every hen to market that is over !/j¢-inch
pelvic bone thick.
I want to say here that there is nothing arbitrary in regard
to Charts 44 and 45. Each poultryman can draw the lines
where he thinks it will best suit his purpose. A great many
years of experimenting has led the writer to believe these charts
answer the purpose very well.
We have disposed of all the one-year-and-four-months-old
hens, and will move our outfit to the two-year-and-four-months-
old hens, and arrange the catching-coop and charts as in the
first case.
The first hen we take from the coop may be a one-finger-
abdomen hen, in good condition. All one- and_ two-finger-
abdomen hens in good condition over one year and four months
old, as a rule, should be disposed of. There is no profit in
them after they have laid their allotted number of eggs their
first season—or, in other words, after they commence to moult
in their first laying year; so after this we will not consider
them in this connection.
There is a great difference in the number of eggs a flock
of hens will lay each year as they grow older. Some will
lose 5 per cent, some 10 per cent, some 15 per cent, and some
20 per cent. Some will not lay anything (this will be ex-
plained later) after their first laying year. It depends alto-
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 89
gether on the vitality of the hen and how she has been fed
and raised; and the variations in the percentage of eggs laid by
exactly the same type of hens will vary with different poultry-
keepers and also with the same poultry-keeper, varying more
or less in each separate pen, proving that environment has
more or less to do with egg-production, all other things, as far
as human knowledge is concerned, being equal. Some people
who are good mathematicians, but who are wholly ignorant
of animal nature, look surprised when I explain to them the
difference between classifying the production of a number of
like machines with the production of a number of hens of the
same score in egg-production. As a scientific proposition, it is
impossible to write a chart beforehand that will fit every case.
If we took 1,000 hens of any pronounced type—-say 100-egg
type, which were fed, housed, and cared for in exactly the same
manner, and one of them laid 5, 10, or 15 eggs more or less
some year than the other 999 hens, it would prove our con-
tention or theory, from a scientific point of view. I am sure
that 100 expert poultrymen could take 100 hens of the same
general type that would score the same egg-capacity and
would all be in the same condition, and each poultryman feed
and care for his 100 birds for four years the best he knew how,
and very few of them would agree on a set of figures that
would give the percentage of decrease in egg-production each
year. The one who fed the heaviest and produced the most
eggs would have the largest percentage of decrease, while the
ones who bred for hatching eggs and did not force their hens
with condiments and stimulants would get the least number
of eggs and the lowest percentage of decrease, not figuring the
percentage of decrease from the number of eggs actually laid,
but from what the hen would lay each year.
The writer does not claim that he has discovered a system
that will infallibly give results just as he has written them.
No poultryman needs to be told this, but for the benefit of
the amateurs I have inserted the above caution. The writer
claims, by years of investigation and practice, to have formu-
lated a poultry code as contained in this book that is commer-
cially the approximation of perfection.
We will return to our two-year-old hens. We said all one-
and two-finger-abdomen hens should be sold and we will con-
sider them no more than to put them in the market crates
when we find one. The reader will remember that in selecting
go THE CALL OF THE HEN.
the sixteen-months-old hens we retained only those in the three-,
four-, five-, and six-finger-abdomen columns that measured
5/is, “/16) 2/16, and "/;, of an inch or less, and everything below
these lines went to market. In the show-room, when the .
writer judges utility birds, we use the charts, so as to score each
bird according to its capacity for egg-production; but when we
cull the poultry on commercial plants, in order to save the
time of looking on the charts, we keep in mind only four figures
for the hens of any age that we are examining. For hens about
sixteen months old, we use the figures 5, 7, 9, and 11; for hens
with three-finger abdomens, we use the figures 5/is; for four-
finger-abdomen hens, 7/16; for five-finger-abdomen hens, 9/16;
and for six-finger-abdomen hens, "/i. All under three fingers
abdomen go to the market and all under the line go also.
For the two-year-and-four-months-old hens we keep in
mind the following figures: 3,5, 7, and 9. For the three-finger-
abdomen hen, */i-inch pelvic bone; four-finger-abdomen hen,
5/i¢-inch pelvic bone; five-finger-abdomen hen, 7/i-inch pelvic
bone. Everything below these figures goes to the market;
also all one- and two-finger-abdomen birds there may be in
the lot.
We now go to the hens that are three years and four months
old. Any one- and two-finger-abdomen birds that we may
find go to market and all the three-finger-abdomen birds below
/ie-inch pelvic bones. For the three-year-and-four-months-old
birds we bear in mind 1, 3, 5, and 7. Three-finger-abdomen
hen, 4/:s-Inch pelvic bones; four-finger-abdomen hen, 3/;-inch
pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, °/i-inch pelvic bones;
and six-finger-abdomen hen, 7/:s-inch pelvic bones. All below
these lines go to market.
If the reader has some good hens that he wishes to breed
from, he can use the figures. 1, 3, and 5.
The fourth year, when he wishes to select from the four,-
five-, and six-finger abdomen hens, it will be: Four-finger-
abdomen hen, !/is-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen,
3/is-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger abdomen-hen, 5/:s-inch
pelvic bones. Very few will want to keep hens as long as this.
They will be five years and about four months old when you
will sell them. Most people here sell them about the time
they commence to moult—after they are two years old; but I
selected tuo mens used at. the California State Poultry Ex-
periment Station to test tmis method as far as the egg-laying
THE CALL OF THE HEN. gI
qualities were concerned, and the hens I selected as hens that
would pay at four years made a good paying record.
The reader will understand that the way we have just
been selecting the paying hens is the way we select when we
have large numbers; this is the way I selected 1,600 hens in
six hours at the poultry farm of the Ukiah State Hospital, Men-
docino County, California, and at other State hospitals and
poultry plants. We do not have to stop to figure out the
percentage of loss of each bird. You can take any combina-
tion of figures you wish, as 14-inch, 34-inch, 44-inch, 9<-inch, for
sixteen months-old birds; !/is-inch, °/js-inch, °/is-inch, 7/1s-inch,
for twenty-eight-months-old birds. You can figure out the
percentage of loss each year and take a combination of figures
that will suit your purpose. You have only to carry four
figures in your mind. The percentage of loss each year is
computed by good poultrymen to be from 10 to 20 per cent in
egg-production on plants that are run for hatching eggs. If
you force your hens with an excess of meat and condiments, the
loss will be according to how you feed them, and no one can
tell what it may be but yourself. Some poultrymen will get
all there is in a hen out of her the first season, then sell her.
CHAPTER XI.
Tuer MAte BIrp.
This is not a treatise on cattle or hors.s, but we have to
use them very often to illustrate the matter in hand Stock-
raising has been brought to more of a science than poultry-
raising, and is well understood by thousands of our progres-
sive farmers’ I have met hundreds of them who could de-
scribe to me the points I would have to consider in selecting
a good-paying butter-fat, beef or milk proposition, both in dam
and sire; and while there may be as many poultrymen who un-
derstand the selection of poultry, both male and female, for egg-
and meat-production, I have failed to meet them; and while I
was made the butt of ridicule by the poultrymen when I issued
my first pamphlet, entitled the ‘‘Walter Hogan System,” in
March, 1905, the stock-raisers who were interested in poultry
stood by me toaman. The reason was, that the cattlemen had
g2 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
been studying along the utility lines in both sire and dam in
order to develop the milk, butter-fat, and beef-producing ca-
pacities of their cattle. It was a comparatively easy proposi-
tion for them. The form of the animals was plainly to be seen.
They were not covered with a coat of fluff and feathers that hid
the shape and form of the subject. It was easy to distinguish
between the cat ham of the butter-fat type and the full, deep
ham of the beef type. It was no trouble to compare the udders,
milk-veins, and wedge-shape type of the Jersey with the full,
rounded build of the Hereford or Polled Angus.
On the other hand, the poultrymen, to some extent, were
deceived by the appearance of their hens. Take, for instance,
the Cochin and the Bantam; they would hold about the same
relation to each other as the lordly Durham would to the fine-
bred Devon, yet I have found Bantam hens with as deep ab-
domen as a great Cochin hen; and it is my opinion that. if
poultry were as bare of feathers as cattle are, the poultry in-
dustry would be as far advanced at present as is the cattle
business.
The greatest impediment to the successful breeder of
poultry has been the inability to select the male bird of the
required type. The custom in vogue at the present writing
with most poultrymen is to trap-nest their hens and raise
cockerels from the best layers as indicated by the trap-nest.
The trouble with this method is, that while the hen may lay a
large number of eggs, she may not have the faculty to transmit
her laying qualities to her offspring, and her cockerels may be
deficient in both egg-laying qualities and the ability to transmit
what good qualities they may possess to their progeny.
Again, I have seen a great many cases where poultry-
farmers would send away and buy a lot of cockerels. The man
that raised and sold them had no knowledge of how to classify
them, and the man who bought them knew he was buving
cockerels and that is all he did know about them. He could not
be sure whether they would increase his egg-yield or not. He
had to pay his money and take chances. It was nothing more
or less than a gamble; but the days of gambling in the poultry
business are passed for the intelligent, progressive poultryman,
no longer will he be obliged to trust to luck or intuition. He
will be able to select his male birds with as much assurance as
his hens, and instead of groping in the dark, he will have the
satisfaction of seeing and knowing just what he is doing by
bearing in mind the instructions in this chapter.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 93
The reader will by this time be familiar with the different
types and capacities of hens, and will not be surprised to learn
there is a similar number of variations in the male birds; and if
one wishes to produce a certain type and capacity in a puliet
or cockerel, he must select the parent birds that will produce
that type. We know how to select the hen; we will now take
up the study of how to select the male bird.
We go through the same movements in selecting or testing
the male bird as we do in selecting the hen, but we use a dif-
ferent set of charts. For example, it is possible for a hen to
change from six to three fingers in abdominal capacity within
a month and be healthy and active, and in another month to
return back to her original six-finger capacity, but it is not so
with the male bird after he is mature. I have tested male
birds at nine months of age that scored four fingers abdomen,
‘/oe-Inch pelvic bone, that did not change for four years, except
that, their pelvic bones being '/i¢ of an inch thick at nine
months old, I have found them to be 14 of an inch thick at
eighteen months old. They had increased in thickness of bone
from '/i, to 1g inch. These were egg-type male birds; the
meat-type will vary more or less in the thickness of the pelvic
bones—depending on how much flesh they put on or lose
between the different times of examining them.
It will be easy to distinguish the egg-type cock bird from
the meat-type bird; the former has thin pelvic bones, whether
in flesh or not, while the latter has thick pelvic bones with a
more or less lump of gristle on the end of them, whether he is
thin or in good flesh. I have found that in classifying the male
bird as we have the hen as to type and capacity for a certain
egg-yield it requires less abdominal capacity in the male bird
than in the female. For instance, the male bird that is two
fingers abdomen and !/;5 of an inch pelvic bone is the same type
and capacity for breeding purposes as the three-finger-abdomen
hen, '/is-inch pelvic one. The male of the same class, as re-
gards capacity, does not require as large an abdomen as the
female; this is so self-evident that it would be a waste of time
to try to explain the reason for it.
I have heard poultrymen say that the male bird is half of
the flock. I wonder if they stop to consider whether this is so
or not. My birds are wonderful layers, and I mate one male
bird to every twelve hens, and from a breeder’s point of view I
consider my male birds a great deal more than half the flock.
94 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
If I mate 100-egg type cock birds with 200-egg hens, the progeny
may lay about 150 eggs, thus reducing my egg-yield about 25
per cent in the progeny of each of the twelve hens. For this
reason I have given as much thought to the male bird as I have
to the hen; and in arranging the charts for the male birds
have experienced a great deal of difficulty, as it takes years
of time and hundreds of matings to arrive at conclusions that
would be approximately correct. In any one case, everything
else (type, capacity, and breed) being equal, care and environ-
ment have a dominating influence on the product, whether
eggs or meat; consequently, if a number of investigators were
working on this proposition, using the same system of selection,
they could not help but arrive at somewhat different conclusions
as to figures, but that would not affect the value of the system.
MALE BIRD—CHART A.
One-finger Abdomen.
11g pelvic bone........... 84-egg type
Y pelvic bone........... 75-ege type
3/1g pelvic bone...........67-egg type
14 pelvic bone........... 58-ege type
5/15 pelvic bone........... 50-egg type
38 pelvic bone........... 41-egg type
"he pelvic bone........... 33-egg type
Vg pelvic bone.......... .24-egg type
*/te Pelvic bone... 6 «+ 6s. «- 16-egg type
5g pelvic bone........... 7-egg type
4/1, pelvic bone........... 0 egg-type
MALE BIRD—CHART B.
One-and-one-half-finger Abdomen.
M/s pelvic bone.......... 132-ege type
XY pelvic bone.......... 120-ege type
3/1 pelvic bone.......... 109-egg type
4 pelvic bone.......... 98-egg type
5/ig pelvic bone.......... 87-egg type
Ye Pelvic bOne..2228 6 ue oe 75-egg type
#/i¢ elvIG.- DONE: .2> saeas 64-ege type
4 pelvic bone.......... 53-egg type
*eepelvic: DONC *..k bce 42-ege¢ type
De pelvic. bone:. aseaee 30-egg type
THE CALL OF THE HEN,
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
@) 0) 0) [02 10) 6). .0:" 0? (61.08
o 0 ere: Oana» <6 jer @
19-egg type
8-egg type
0-egg type
0-egg type
MALE BIRD—CHART C.
Two-finger Abdomen.
pelvic bone
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone... .
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone. .
pelvic bone
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone..........
180-egg type
.166-egg type
. .152-egg type
138-egg type
124-egg type
.110-egg type
96-egg type
82-egg type
68-egg type
. 54-egg type
40-egg type
26-egg type
12-egg type
0-egg type
MALE BIRD—CHART D.
Two-and-one-half-finger Abdomen.
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
pelvic bone
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone
CvNor ele ie 66. “eis hs
.200-ege type
185-egg type
171-egg type
156-egg type
.142-ege¢ type
.127-ege type
.115-egg type
98-ege type
84-ege type
69-ege type
55-ege type
40-ege type
26-egg type
1l-egg type
0-egg type
95
96
ate
Y%
$/ig
“A
*/he
34
‘he
THE CALL OF THE HEN.
MALE BIRD—CHART E.
Three-finger Abdomen.
;pelyac: bone... 6.5.4.4
pelvic bone... 24.55%.
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone... .
; pelvie bone.........
pelvic bone.........
; pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone..5 S045
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone.........
pelvic bone.........:;
pelvic bone..........
; pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone: . ..<'.cice:
pelvic Doneo.. ... sce
. pelvic bone..........
; pelvic bone..........
.235-ege type
.220-egg type
.205-egg type
.190-egg type
.175-egg type
.160-egg type
.145-egg type
, 180-egg type
.115-egg type
. 100-egg type
85-egg type
70-ege type
55-egg type
40-egg type
25-ege type
10-egg type
0-egg type
MALE BIRD—CHART F.
Three-and-one-half-finger Abdomen.
pelvic bones ss. 4.24.
Pelvic DONE. Maw teccen
pelvic: Donec 22k nets
pelvic bone..........
pelvic bone
DelvacabOm Gaui.
pelvic bone. .
Pelvic: bones... 2... .
pelvic botie: desk 2
pelvic boties.... 2 4a.
pelvie bones... ete
pelvic bone 2.5.32...
pelvic bone 4.22.23
pelvicsbone- sees
pelvicrbone: = 32..4. 5.
pelvic bone.) a2; 6<
pelvic: bones... ee
pelvic bone... ..2.25..
ge type
-ege type
go type
re type
107-eee type
bo bw bo Se
m= WO
57-
os
7-€
2-¢
.182-ege type
. 167-egge type
. 152-egg type
.137-egg type
.122-egg type
. 107-egg type
92-ege type
77-egg type
. 62-egg type
47-egg type
32-egg type
17-egg type
0-egg type
THE CALL OF THE HEN. ; 97
MALE BIRD—CHART G.
Four-finger Abdomen.
lg pelvic bone......... .280-egg type
1Z pelvic bone..........265-egg type
3/16 pelvic bone..........250-egg type
Tr De LVAIG DONE s.x 2s discos 235-egg type
5/1, pelvic bone......... .220-egg type
34 pelvic bone..........205-egg type
“lig pelvic bone..........190-egg type
16 pelvic bone..........175-egg type
%/15 pelvic bone..........160-egg type
5¢ pelvic bone..........145-egg type
1/1, pelvic bone..........130-egg type
34 pelvic bone..........115-egg type
13/1, pelvic bone..........100-egg type
Y% pelvic bone.......... 85-egg type
15/1, pelvic bone.......... (O-egg type
l-in. pelvic bone.......... 55-egg type
1g pelvic bone.......... 40-egg type
114 pelvic bone.......... 25-egg type
13/15 pelvic bone.......... 10-egg type
114 pelvic bone.......... O-egg type
We consider the male bird of so much importance that we
have made seven charts for his classification as to egg and
meat types. See Charts A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. While
Chart A may not be needed and Chart B used very seldom, we
thought it best to include them. All old poultrymen and stock-
raisers know that so many considerations enter into the breeding
and raising of live stock of all kinds that it is impossible to lay
down hard-and-fast rules that can be depended upon before-
hand to bring definite results in all parallel cases. This is
written as a caution to beginners, especially to those whose
experience has been at the desk or behind the counter.
Fig. 46 shows a cock bird four fingers abdomen and Vig.
47 shows the same bird 14-inch pelvic bone, making him a
265-ege type bird.
The reader will see by Figs. 46 and 47 that we use the same
methods to determine the egg-value of a male bird as we use
for the hen, except that we do not think it advisable to take
the matter of condition into consideration, or rather it is better
not to lay down rules in the matter, as it is very hard to keep
98 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Fic. 46—Showing four-finger depth of abdomen of 265-egg cock bird.
{
F
2
Tabet ars ae
ehorrac
Fic. 47—Showing -inch pelvic bone of 265-egg cock bird.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 99
Fic. 49—Showing six-finger depth of abdomen of 280-egg type hen.
e
ee
aus
a a ee SS iG:
100 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
_ Fic. 50—280-egg type hen and 265-egg type cock bird. Tail of cock
Is Somewhat cramped for want of room.
the egg-type birds in good condition; but I try to keep my cock
birds in good flesh and not over one finger out of condition at
any time. There are times before the male birds are a year old
and while their bones are soft that their abdomens will con-
tract and expand, it depending on whether they are stinted in
their feed or whether they are fed liberally. Egg-type cock-
erels selected for breeders should have the best care and food
(see chapter on Selecting Cockerels for Breeding). In examining
the male birds for prepotency, the reader should select them
with the greatest care. I cannot impress this on the reader
too strongly. They should be as good or better if possible than
No. 1, Fig. 35, and do not forget that the thumb-nail on the
left hand and the nail on the forefinger of the right hand (re-
verse the order if left-handed) must be somewhat longer than
the flesh, if you expect to take correct measurements.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. IOI
CHAPTER XII.
SELECTING THE COCKERELS AT BROILER AGE.
I have tried to impress on the reader the importance of
the careful selection of the male birds, and perhaps he is fully
alive to the value of doing so. He starts out at the first op-
portunity and visits all the poultry plants far and near, with the
determination to purchase the best male bird he can find.
Before starting out, he decides he will have nothing less than
200-egg types. Imagine his disappointment when, after hand-
ling perhaps fifty or more, he can find nothing that will come
any way near the 200-egg type; while if he examines the same
number of hens, he will very likely find at least one or perhaps
more that will come somewhat near what he is looking for.
Then he will say that there is no such bird as the chart de-
scribes as a 200-egg type cock bird. I wish to say here that I
think I have at least fifty male birds at the present writing
that will scale from 200 up, according to the charts. I have over
a dozen that will scale from 250 to 265, and these have all been
developed within six years from hens with three-finger abdo-
mens and 14-inch pelvic bones, mated to cockerels with 11-
inch finger abdomens and !/is.-inch pelvic bones.
The first season in California we raised about 300 cockerels
up to three months of age, which is within the broiler age
for this section. We arranged our house and catching-coop as
in Figs. 1 and 2, and we went through the same movements
that we do when testing the hens, except that we do not have to
use all the tests on each one of the cockerels that we use on
the hens. We hold the cockerel as in Figs. 5 and 6 and lay
our hand on his abdomen as in Fig. 7. As soon as we lay our
hand on his abdomen we can feel instantly whether his pelvic
bones are straight, like Fig. 34, or crooked, like Fig. 33. If his
pelvic bones are like Fig. 33, we have no use for him as a breeder
and put him in the shipping-crate for market; if his pelvic
bones are straight, like Fig. 34, we measure the depth of his
abdomen; if it is less than two fingers, we put him in the
shipping-crate; if two fingers or over, we examine him for pre-
potency; and if the projection on the back of his head, as in
No. 1, Fig. 35, is less than 14 of an inch behind a line drawn
at right angles from the back of the ear (see Figs. 41, 42, and
102 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
43) we put him in the shipping-crate, no matter how good
he is in other points. We take no chances with him, because,
if we have made no mistake in measuring his head lines,
abdomen, and pelvic bones, it will be a waste of time to breed
from him; but if his head measures up good, we keep him as a
prospective breeder. We say “as a prospective breeder,’’
as it is very evident it will not pay to raise all the cockerels
to maturity.
Here in Petaluma, where there are over 600,000 cockerels
raised to broiler age in a season, it would be impossible to
raise them all and test their breeding qualities, neither is it
necessary. If a person has a delicate touch, the comparative
value of chicks for prepotency can be judged as well when they
are three days old as at any time later. Then again, we are
obliged to keep our chicks until we can distinguish the males
from the females, and as a rule we will lose nothing if we keep
them until they are at least ten weeks old, when, if they have
had the right care and feed, they will be old enough to test. If
their pelvic bones are thick at this age, it indicates they are
more or less of the meat type; if their pelvic bones are crooked,
it indicates that they never will be straight; and if they lack
prepotency, it indicates that they will always lack it, for they
come out of the shell with this organ relatively large or small,
just as a baby is born with a nose on its face.
I want to impress on the reader the importance of using
the utmost care in measuring the head for prepotency, as it is
very easy for a person to think he has measured the head right
when he has not done so; especially if he has large self-esteem,
he then thinks everything he does. must be right; it would be
impossible for him to do anything otherwise than the right
way. In my classes I have found workers in the machinists’
trade made the most correct measurements, especially if they
had the faculty of human nature large, while I have found
that professional men who had human nature small make
the poorest measurements; this was owing to prejudice, and
not to the absence of the combination of the necessary mental
faculties. I suppose there will always be found those who will
discredit the most obvious fact, if it puts them at a disad-
vantage from a mental, moral, or financial point of view; but in
this case it would be cutting off your nose to spite your face to
be careless in any of these tests.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 103
I have never yet, in my investigations of hundreds of poultry
plants, found a degenerate lot of poultry but that they were
small in prepotency. But to return to the cockerels: As we
said on page 101, we raised 300 cockerels the first year I was in
California. After testing them at three months old, as de-
scribed, I found eighteen that I considered worth keeping to the
age of nine months, when I would give them the final test.
When they were eight months old I tested them again, and
while I found that they all had good depth of abdomen and
good prepotency, six of them had crooked pelvic bones. The
pelvic bones on twelve of the cockerels had continued to grow
straight, while the pelvic bones on six of them had grown
crooked and were coming together at the points, like the horns
on a Jersey cow. I had to discard these six breeders and
send them to market.
The reader will see that, out of 300 cockerels, I had only 12
that were capable of improving my flock. Last year (1912), out
of about 1,200, 1 had only 200 that I considered good enough
to keep for breeders; and while all my birds have been more or
less squirrel-tailed, one of last year’s 200 is a very well-formed,
low-tailed bird, but he lacks the pure-white ear-lobes. He
scores 250-egg type, and I have refused $50.00 for him. I
am going to see if I can breed a low-tailed type of Leghorn in
quantities that will conform to the present American standard,
and average about 200 eggs per year in large flocks. The
reader will understand that the parents of these cockerels were
selected with the greatest care as to capacity, type, and pre-
potency. Type and prepotency are more or less hereditary
traits or features, distinguishable in the subjects, if we have the
knowledge necessary to discern them. But the individual in-
herent or innate potentiality of any one or each bird cannot
be increased or diminished by the breeder; that is to say,
feed and environment will not materially change the impotent
bird into a potent bird, neither will it change the typical meat-
type into the egg-type bird.
‘But,’ I hear some sarcastic reader say, “we certainly can
diminish or increase their prepotency by alternately starving
and feeding them well.” That is begging the question. You
could affect their fecundity very readily; but what the writer
wishes to impress on the reader is, that while type and pre-
potency are fixed before birth, and also the ability to govern
capacity, and while type and prepotency can be procured only
104 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
by selection, capacity can be governed more or less by environ-
ment—in other words, feed, care, the right kind of houses,
ground, etc. We will say, for instance, the reader has a pen
of egg-type birds, both male and female, with large prepotency
and capacity, and suppose they were all 200-egg birds. There
would be no difficulty in raising chickens from them with the
same degree of type and prepotency; but if he should stint
them in feed of the proper kind and quantity while growing,
they would lose in capacity each generation. I develop the
capacity of both pullets and cockerels from the time they are
three days old to the fullest extent by the most liberal feeding,
care, and surrounding conditions.
In concluding this chapter, I would say that the bird with
the desired characteristics is more or less of a sport, and the
value of the ‘Hogan Test”’ lies in the fact that with this knowl-
edge you can discover the sport and perpetuate it through in-
telligent breeding. Again, I want to say here that my best
cockerels measure four fingers abdomen at three months old.
All my stock is developed as much as possible at this age, and
I try to prevent the cockerels from shrinking. But the pullets
will develop until some of them are six fingers abdomen.
The enclosed article from the Petaluma Weekly Poultry
Journal emphasizes what we have said in regard to the feeding
and care of young stock. These cockerels were not crammed
or penned up and fed, but were taken off free range and sent
directly to market. I wish to remind the reader here that in
examining the cockerels for prepotency he may be proficient
enough in the matter to examine them by holding them between
his knees and not be obliged to put each one in a sack. The
article follows:
“WaLTER HoGAN Can RaIsE CHICKENS.
“Walter Hogan backs up his system of selecting the good
layers from among the poor ones, but he has never made much
fuss about his ability as a poultry-raiser. For that reason some
people have absorbed the idea that he is more of a theorist
than a practical man. But he now has a flock of his own, and
evidently he is making good, for he is getting results that will
convince any one from Missouri or anywhere else who must
be “shown” before believing. For instance, last week there
was a spell of most discouraging depression in the prices which
dealers were willing to pay for young poultry. There were
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 105
large arrivals of Eastern poultry in San Francisco besides heavy
receipts of California, and nobody wanted any more. Just the
same, Mr. Hogan received $4.00 a dozen for sixteen dozen cock-
erels just three months old, when the same dealer was paying
but $1.50 for birds of the same age. Now, what do you think
of that? And Mr. Hogan says these cockerels were not de-
scendants of the beef type of hens, but were hatched from eggs
laid by hens selected as the egg type. They were not especially
fed or in any way prepared for market. They cost 22 cents
each for feed, and thus the profit on the bunch was $21.76.
“Tn speaking of this matter, Mr. Hogan made the point that
if all poultrymen would pay especial attention to producing
fine broilers for market—that is, in preparing the broilers that
they are obliged to produce in order to have a corresponding
number of pullets—they would benefit themselves greatly.
Not only would they get a better price for the birds, but they
would greatly increase the demand, as many people who now
care nothing for the common dry-meated birds would become
pleased consumers of the improved broilers. The Poultry
Journal man knows by personal experience that the broilers
turned out by Mr. Hogan are simply delicious when properly
cooked, and far ahead of the ordinary article.”
CHAPTER: XIIT.
SELECTING THE SETTING HEN.
“How can I select the best hen for the purpose when I
want to hatch chickens with hens?”
The writer is asked the above question very often. It is
a serious matter with a poultryman when he has a small number
of choice eggs he wishes to hatch and gives them to a hen that
is apparently setting well only to have her spoil most of them.
He very naturally lays the cause to mites or lice, or both.
While it is true that the nests and surroundings must be kept
free from mites and the hens kept clean from hen lice, the
trouble is not all here by a good deal. Sometimes a great deal
of the fault lies in the hen. Some are born layers, some are
born mothers, and some are born too lazy to get off of the nest
at the call of Nature. The hen born a typical egg type is of no
106 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
use as a setter, neither is the hen that is born a typical meat
type, she is too lazy to care for her chicks, even if she is for-
tunate enough to hatch any and not kill them all by standing
on them. She is too stupid any way, and the typical egg-type
hen is too nervous and has no time to attend to them. She
thinks of nothing but manufacturing eggs. So we will have to
look for a hen between the above types, which we have in the
dual-purpose type, with the following characteristics:
First, she must have prepotency large; that gives her the
mother instinct; next, she should be in normal condition, as
indicated by her breast-bone; that is self-evident, for a hen out
of condition lacks more or less of the animal magnetism that
is an aid to successful incubation. I need not mention good
health, as indicated by good red comb and wattles, as everyone
knows that. The hen should be four fingers abdomen, since
anything heavier is more or less liable to break the eggs and
anything less than that would not be large enough to cover
sufficient eggs. If the hen is a three-finger abdomen hen,
her pelvic bones should be about 7/is or 1% of an inch thick;
if she is a four-finger abdomen hen, her pelvic bones should be
about 4 or °%/i¢ of an inch thick. If you can find hens such as
described here, you will have hens with the mother instinct.
They will not be too lazy to take proper care of themselves
and their chicks, nor will they want to Jay so soon as to neglect
their chickens. The nearer you can get to procuring the
above type of hens the better success you will have raising
chicks with them.
CHAPTER XIV.
SELECTING THE STOCK FOR RAISING BROILERS.
A great many of my friends have requested me to write a
chapter on how to raise broilers, but as there are so many ex-
cellent books on the market that describe the process of the
feeding, caring for, and raising of broilers a great deal better
than I could do it, I will confine myself to the selection of the
breeding stock only. The writer has raised Light Brahmas and
White Plymouth Rocks for years, and has experimented with
them to get the greatest amount of meat from the smallest
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 107
amount of feed; to get the greatest weight of meat at three
months old in the White Rocks and the greatest weight of
meat in the Light Brahmas at maturity. In the process I have
run up against two distinct propositions; one was a success
from a commercial point of view, and the other, while not a
financial success, was a success from an epicurean point of view.
I will describe the financial proposition first:
We will select a pen of hens from our favorite breed, or
from Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, or Rhode
Island Reds. The hens must have large prepotency; they
must be six or seven fingers abdomen and their pelvic bones
should be 5 of an inch thick, in good condition. Now you
have hens that should lay twelve dozen eggs their first laying
year, and they are a paying proposition. Do not breed from
them the first year, but wait until they are over one year old;
then mate them with a mature cockerel or young cock with
large prepotency, with abdomen four fingers deep or more and
pelvie bones from 1 inch to 114 inches thick. You should feed
the pen for eggs, and keep them as healthy as possible. If
they are fed right, you will get lots of eggs and good, healthy
chicks, capable of putting on flesh rapidly and fattening very
easily. As a paying proposition for market broilers, I have
never found any combination that would equal it.
qut for my private use, without regard to profit, I would
take the same combination as the above, except that the pelvic
bones of the hens would be 1 inch thick, instead of about °4;
this would give a broiler that would put on flesh much faster,
consequently it would be more tender. I have raised broilers
the flesh of which would almost melt in your mouth. I have
a few secrets in the raising of them which I have never di-
vulged, but may do so in a few years.
108 THE CALL OF THE HEN,
Fic. 51—The dry-mash hopper we use, closed.
Fic. 52—The dry-mash hopper we use, open.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 109
CHAPTER XV.
UsInG THE HoGan TEST IN JUDGING POULTRY AT THE POULTRY
SHOWS.
From the Live Stock Tribune, Los Angeles, California.
(Now Pacific Poultrycraft.)
“INGLEWOOD PouULTRY SHOW.
“A poultry show will be held in the Inglewood Poultry
Colony on March 13th and 14th. This show will be the first
of its kind ever given to the United States. All poultry shows
that have been held in this country heretofore have awarded
prizes according to the color, markings, and shape of the fowls
only. The show at Inglewood will be unusual in that prizes
will be awarded irrespective of the color, variety, shape, size,
or age of the fowls in competition. .
“Birds in competition will be judged as to their egg-laying
capacities and reproductive abilities only. The judging will be
done by the system discovered and perfected by Walter Hogan
and now used in practical poultry-raising by the members of
- the Inglewood Poultry Colony.
“First, second, third, fourth, and fifth prizes will be awarded
to the best males and females entered from Inglewood; first
prize being $5.00 cash, second prize being $3.00 cash; all
winners receiving ribbons. In addition to the foregoing, there
will be the Jaffa Grand Prize of $25.00 in gold, which will be
awarded to the hen in the show which shows the greatest ca-
pacity as a layer, combined with the ability to reproduce
her kind.
“Entries for the regular prizes will be limited to fowls from
Inglewood, but competition for the Jaffa Grand Prize will be
open to all comers. Entries from poultry-raisers outside of
Inglewood will be limited to two birds each. No entry fee
will be charged, but all birds entered will be sent at the owner’s
risk, as is usual at all shows.
“The birds entered will be cared for and reshipped to the
owners by White Wyandotte Farm, under whose auspices the
show will be given and to whom all entries should be sent. No
entries will be received after 10 o’clock a. m. on March 12th.
II1o THE CALL OF THE HEN.
“This show will be unique in that it will present the com-
mercial side of the poultry industry to the exclusion of fancy
breeding. Every step in the poultry business from the hatching
of the chick to the preparation of the mature fowl for market,
and the packing of the eggs for table use will be illustrated by
actual demonstrations on the famous White Wyandotte Farm,
where the exhibition will be given. Incubators will hatch not
less than 2,000 chicks during the show, and chickens in every
stage of development, from one day old to ten weeks old, will
be shown as raised in the best brooders with the best care.
“There will be demonstrations on both days of the show of
killing, picking, and preparing fowls for market, as well as of
packing fancy eggs. The best and latest in poultry supplies,
fittings, and equipment will be shown as actually used by the
capable, successful men who are in the business for revenue only.
“No admission fee will be charged, the show being given
for the purpose of exploiting and demonstrating the poultry
business as it is being developed in Southern California.
“The Jaffa Grand Prize is given and named in honor of
Professor Jaffa, of the University of California, who was the
first man in public life in this State to test and verify the
excellence of the system discovered by Mr. Hogan.
“Transportation from Los Angeles to Inglewood will be
free, and it is understood that the Board of Trade of Inglewood
will make arrangements to take those who visit the show
around the city of Inglewood in automobiles.
“Those who visit the Inglewood Poultry Show will see an
exhibition that will be more interesting by far than any show
that has preceded it in California or in any other State, because
one will have an opportunity to see, not the pedigree, but the
money in the chicken and a practical way to get that money
out.”
In judging the poultry show at Inglewood the manage-
ment made the rule that all birds were to be judged according
to the condition they were in at the time they were judged,
and while this rule may be all right in judging the fancy bird
and the beef-type bird, it will never do for the egg-type bird,
as the reader will see when I relate an incident that occurred
during the show in Inglewood, which was held in March. A
gentleman had entered a White Leghorn hen that he had trap-
THE CALL OF THE HEN. Ill
nested a year up to the previous November, and had _ her
record with him. The hen scored (as near as I can remember)
two fingers abdomen, two fingers out of condition, and 4/\s-inch
pelvic bone, and according to the rules of the show I was obliged
to give her credit for 78 eggs her first laying year, when, ac-
cording to his trap-nested record, she had laid 180 eggs. He
said she had been sick and had just commenced to improve
shortly before he sent her to the show, and he wanted to prove
whether or not I could tell how many eggs she had laid her
first laying year. I told him I could not tell how many eggs
she had laid, but I could tell how many she could have laid if
she had been fed and cared for right, barring accidents and
sickness; that her capacity was 190 eggs her first laying year.
He then showed me her record, which was 180 eggs.
In the autumn of 1911 George D. Holden, ex-president of
the American Poultry Association, judged the fancy and the
writer judged the utility birds at the Pajaro Valley Poultry
Show, held at Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, California. In
judging that show full credit was given each bird, both male and
female, as to what they were capable of doing, whether in meat
or eggs, and for prepotency, without any regard as to how their
owners cared for them—or, in other words, without regard to
their condition. And the owners of the birds who were inter-
ested in knowing were instructed how to rectify any deficiency
there may have been in the birds. It seems to me this is the
best way to encourage and develop the poultry industry. I am
sure the American Poultry Association could formulate a code
of rules that would greatly aid in judging utility poultry and
thereby add greatly to the interest of our poultry shows; in
fact, 1 am advised that such a proposition is being considered
at the time I am writing this (July 25, 1913).
CHAPTER XVI.
STAMINA IN POULTRY.
When I came to California and told the poultry-raisers
that I was going to take their birds and in the course of time
breed a flock of 200-egg hens from them, they declared it
could not be done. They said if it was possible to breed up a
112 THE CALL OF THE_HEN.
large flock of 200-egg hens, their progeny would be so weak I
could never raise them, and that their eggs would be so mis-
shapen and thin-shelled they would not be marketable. I re-
plied that perhaps they were right, but I saw no reason why I
could not do so here, as I had bred up one lot in the Eastern
States and another lot in Minnesota. Both lots were Leghorns,
and I thought it would be easier to develop Leghorns in Cali-
fornia than in Minnesota, and I have now demonstrated in Cali-
fornia that the following can be done:
1. The 200-egg hen is a fact and not a theory;
2. ‘That she can be bred and fed to lay as perfect an egg
as any other class of hens;
3. That her eggs are as fertile and will hatch as strong
chicks as the hen that does not pay for her feed.
The breeder need not take my word for the above state-
ments. The frontispiece shows five of this type of birds that
the writer bred and raised in California. These birds laid the
greatest weight of eggs (131 pens of five birds to each pen com-
peting, including three pens of Indian Runner ducks) in the
National Egg-laying Contest at the State Poultry Experiment
Station, Mountain Grove, Missouri, U. 8. A., for the twelve
months ending November 1, 1912. These five hens laid 131
pounds of eggs, which, reduced to No. 1 eggs as rated in Peta-
luma, would be 229°/; eggs for each hen. The eggs these five
hens laid while moulting were put on exhibition in the Chamber
of Commerce in Petaluma and were pronounced by good judges
to be as fine a lot of eggs as they ever saw, and that is saying a
great deal, as there are more eggs produced within a radius of
ten miles from Petaluma than in any other like part of the
world. We have hundreds of letters from our customers tes-
tifying to the value of this stock, a few extracts from which we
will introduce here to prove to the reader that because a flock
of hens are great layers it does not follow that they are of
low vitality.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.
PORTLAND, ORE., June 23, 1912.
Received eggs. None broken. Very nice. . Fifteen infer-
tile out of 150. C. I. PERKINS.
Linve, Hawatt, June 11, 1913.
Eggs arrived O. K. None damaged. Have fourteen chicks
four weeks old doing fine. Am well pleased.
I. H. BROADBENT.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 113
(These eggs were shipped over 2,200 miles by rail and
steamer to reach their destination.)
WATSONVILLE, Cauir., April 5, 1912.
Eggs received. Finest we ever had. Got forty-nine strong
chicks from sixty-four eggs. Ora L. HI.
VANCOUVER, B. C., May 138, 1912.
The 100 eggs received. Express and customs ran price
to $14.00. Am very well satisfied. Hatched 70 per cent
beautiful chicks; doing well. G. W. McLELuanp.
Quincy, Wasu., April 14, 1912.
Chicks received; not a dead one in the bunch, which speaks
well for the vitality of your stock.
H. L. Jounson, Treasurer
and Manager Quincy Lumber Company.
Victrori4, B. C., Sub. P. O. No. 1,
April 19, 1912.
Received the 100 chicks; four dead. Think that is very
good, coming that journey. James D. WEstT.
SALEM, Ore., April 19, 1918.
Received baby chicks; they are just lovely; not one dead,
which we think is great. They came in fine shape.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayre.
SEATTLE, WasH., August 25, 1912.
Received the 1,040 chicks about ten weeks ago; there were
five dead in the boxes. Have lost about 75 of them, all told. .
S. K. SuTTLE.
Tucson, Ariz., February 17, 1913.
Received chicks in good condition; 1 dead, 623 alive and
kicking. L. E. SMiru.
Reno, Nev., March 11, 1913.
Chicks came through fine; 1 dead in 700, which speaks
well for their vitality. They surely are a spry bunch.
A. L. Rice.
REno, NEv., July 22, 1913.
Chicks are fine; they are the largest and best-looking ever
seen in Nevada. They are just 4 months and 12 days old.
One of them laid yesterday. Every poultryman that sees
them remarks it’s too bad I haven’t a thousand.
A. L. Rice.
II4 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
The preceeding extracts are taken from a few of the many
unsolicited letters I have received from my customers during
the last two years that I have been selling hatching eggs and
day-old chicks. I have repeatedly shipping hatching eggs to the
Hawaiian Islands and as far east as Minnesota, and day-old
chicks where they would be over seventy-two hours on the road.
Last summer I turned down over $6,000 worth of orders that
I could not fill at $10.00 per 100 for eggs and $15.00 per 100
for day-old chicks. I am aware I will have a hard time con-
vincing some of my readers that what I claim for the 200-egg
hen is true, but it seems to me any progressive poultryman
would be satisfied with the proof I offer him. I will admit that
the eggs and chicks from the 200-egg type hens as now bred are
not all we would desire, but that is owing to lack of proper
knowledge of breeding. As I have said before, by using the
“Hogan Test”? the reader can breed as fine or as coarse as his
conditions require; and by selecting only those birds with
large prepotency he will be assured of success.
CHAPTER XVIL
“Av Sea Over Matine’’—Wuat SHALL It Be, THE TRAP-
Nest, MENDELISM, Ok THE HoGan Test?
(From The North American, Philadelphia, Pa.,
November 24, 1912.)
“ AT SEA OVER MATING.
“America has some good layers, unheard of and unknown,
’tis true, but we are evidently all at sea in the matter of mating
for egg-production.
“Can it be possible that Mendel’s law obtains in egg-
production just as it does in feathers and form? Do we elim-
inate, according to Mendel, the factor governing certain things
in egg-production, just as we do in the attempt to control col-
oring in birds, fowls, animals, and flowers? If a a son of a
heavy-laying female is mated to a non-layer and this son does
not carry the excess of laying proclivity, do we get poor layers
or good layers? If a 100 per cent producing hen (200 eggs or
more) is mated to the son of a 100 per cent producing female,
THE CALL OF THE HEN. IIs
it does not follow, if Mendel’s law applies, that the mate to the
second 100 per cent female inherited egg-laying proclivities;
therefore, why should the offspring of the second mating be
prolific egg-producers? And how far back must we go to get
the excess of female inclination to reproduction?
“Predominance of inclination exists somewhere in some
tangible fornr, but we do not seem to be able to find it under
our present system. That we will is conclusive, but we must
do so quickly, in order to offset the growing increase of food-
stuffs.”
The trap-nest identifies and gives you the number of eggs
a hen lays and is absolutely necessary if we wish to line-breed
or raise pedigreed stock. The writer has studied Mendelism
since the spring of 1910, as he has numerous other scientific
works, in the endeavor to find something that would be of aid
in getting out this work. I must confess that the title, “‘The
Call of the Hen,’ was suggested while on a visit with Comrade
Jack London, and that is all I have been able to find that has
aided me in this case. Mendelism may be found an aid along
the line of feathers, but I doubt if there is anything in it that
will aid the poultryman in the selection of breeders for type,
stamina, and the production of eggs or meat. It may be that,
having eyes, I fail to see it. Even if there should be anything
of value in Mendelism, it would take two or more years to get
it out, while ‘The Hogan Test”’ indicates the value of a bird
in a few minutes, at most. It looks to me as if the poultrymen
will have to look at the trap-nest and ‘‘The Hogan Test”’ to
develop and maintain the high-scoring meat- and egg-producing
hen. The best pullets can be selected at maturity by “The
Hogan Test’? and then trap-nested when the poultryman is
breeding pedigreed stock; while the culled pullets, lacking in
prepotency and other points, can be kept as market-egg pro-
ducers. In this way it will be neecessary to trap-nest only the
cream of the flock, and thereby save an immense amount of
labor. The cockerels can also be selected at three months of
age and the most promising saved from slaughter. By this
method poultry-breeding will be reduced to a science and be-
come a pleasure, where now it is a brain-racking proposition.
116 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
CHAPTER XVIII.
“How Can I Tetu a Layinc 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 I say this I donot
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 indications
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 continuation 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%-inch
pelvic bone, when in normal condition, with pelvic bones of good
shape. We draw our hand along her breast-bone (keel) from
THE CALL OF THE HEN. Oy
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 lay-
ing. Ifsh2is 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 1144
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 performance 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. 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 down, 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 de-
veloped, 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 egg, 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. I 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
118 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
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 dan-
gerous thing,” is an old saying applicable to this case. Whena
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 fol-
lowing to be a very good method in selecting the hen that is
not laying:
The hen that scores 180 eggs her first laying year would
measure about 7% 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 11% 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 some-
times 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 pronounced 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.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. r19
CHAPTER XIX.
FinaL REMARKS ON CONSTITUTIONAL VIGOR AND VITALITY.
As we have now reached the end of ‘The Call of the Hen,”
I wish to impress upon the reader’s mind the importance of the
five propositions that govern the Selection, Breeding, and
Profitable Keeping of Poultry as follows: Capacity, Condition,
Type, Prepotency, and Vitality or Constitutional Vigor.
No doubt you have a good working knowledge of the
first four subjects, and you wonder why I have not written a
chapter on Vitality. The reason is, that when I decided to
write ‘The Call of the Hen,”’ I told my wife that I would write
nothing that even a blind man could not understand and
practice. I have tried to do so, for to her patience, perse-
verance, and untiring zeal I owe much of the success I have had
in getting out this book.
The writer can see only three ways of detecting vitality
in a fowl; the most ancient is intuition, then observation, and
lastly the trap-nest. A hen may be a typical 250-egg type hen,
she may have the very best of care and food, and yet, for lack
of vitality, may not be able to lay over 150 eggs per year. Let
us take the steam engine for example. There are a great many
types of engines besides the high- and low-pressure ones, as
there are a great many types of hen and cock birds. The
diameter of cylinder, length of stroke, and revolutions per
minute give you the capacity of the engine, as the length and
depth of abdomen in the fowl gives its capacity. The fuel fed
into the fire-box generates the steam (vitality) to run the engine,
as the food fed into the hen’s abdomen generates her vitality.
The writer has owned steam engines where there was de-
fective fire-box construction—scale in the boiler and tubes,
loose rings in the piston head, cylinder worn out of true, and
other defects that reduced the efficiency of the power system
a great deal—or, in other words, lowered the vitality of the
engine. In just the same way a weak digestive system in a
250-ege type hen will reduce her egg-yield. But do not think
that you can make a 150-egg type hen in perfect condition lay
200 eggs by any of the feeding formulas now in vogue. If you
try to force her, she will go to flesh and then break down with
liver trouble.
120 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
If you lack the intuitive faculty and lack the time to care-
fully observe individual hens, I would advise you to select
the hens by the chart you wish to breed from. When they
are about a year old you can breed from them. Then, if you
wish to breed from only those with the greatest vitality, trap-
nest these hens for the next two or three years. The hens with
the greatest vitality will be great layers and strong, vigorous
birds, and save the time wasted in trap-nesting a lot of birds
that you will eventually have to discard.
CHAPTER, DEX.
WALTER HOGAN’S SYSTEM.
This chapter contains ‘Walter Hogan’s System,” as
written by M. F. Greeley, editor of the Dakota Farmer, to
whom I gave the notes. This was published in 1904. At that
time Mr. Greeley refused to put in anything about the skull
theory. He said that I would make myself the laughing-stock
of the world. Iam merely putting this old work in this book
in order that the reader may know the evolution of the dis-
covery. The pelvic-bone method of selection was, of course,
my first discovery; then later, the relation between depth of
abdomen and thickness of pelvic bones; after that, the working
out of the mathematical relation between egg-laying ability
and those points before mentioned.
When I came to California I gave out merely the ‘‘ Walter
Hogan’s System” which had been printed in Minnesota; later
I published a “Supplement,” which gave a general idea of the
capacity and type proposition; still later I issued typewritten
charts as they are found in this book. I could have done all
of this many years ago, but my reasons for not doing it are ex-
plained elsewhere.
I do not desire any of my readers to make the mistake of
considering what comes after this as having anything to do
with ‘The Call of the Hen,” except in a historical way.
WALTER Hogan.
Petaluma, Calif., July 31, 1913.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. I2I
WALTER HOGAN’S SYSTEM
Water Hoaan,
The Originator of the Walter Hogan System.
There are two ways of selection, described in thisdocument.
When hens are in flush of laying, selection by the pelvic
bones alone is the easier way; but when not in flush of laying,
the pelvic bones together with the abdomen will be found the
most ready way. (See Supplement, next page.)
Please bear in mind that the hen with thin pelvic bones and
large, soft abdomen is the heavy egg-lying type.
The hen with thick pelvic bones and large, fleshy, fatty
abdomen is the large beef type.
The hen with medium-thick pelvic bones and large, medium-
fleshy and medium-fatty abdomen is the dual-purpose type,
and can be made to lay fairly well or made to produce flesh,
it being a matter of how she is fed.
The hen with small abdomen is of small account, either as
an egg or as a meat proposition, as she lacks the abdominal
capacity to digest and assimilate food enough to sustain the
every-day wear of her system and at the same time to produce
eggs or flesh in paying quantities.
I22 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
Everything related here apples to the male bird as well,
only in a lesser degree.
The remarks in regard to pullets refer to mature pullets,
as Leghorn pullets are at five months old in the New England
States.
My birds in Massachusetts were bred for eggs only for
years, and their type became set and their pelvic bones con-
tracted, when not laying, to average about 25 per cent; but I
find that hens bred promiscuously contract about 50 per cent.
The points to be borne in mind in using this System are:
That selection by the pelvic bones alone is best made in the
flush of laying.
That thin pelvic bones and soft abdomen indicate the
egg type.
That thick pelvic bones and hard, fleshy, fatty abdomen
indicate the beef type.
The size of the abdomen indicates the capacity of the bird,
either as an egg or as a meat proposition, as the case may be—
large abdomen, large capacity; small abdomen, small capacity.
The same rules apply to the cockerel, cock, male bird, or
rooster, as he may be called.
In order to determine the capacity ofa hen for egg-production
by one selection, she should be in normal condition and not
more than a few days broody.
The estimates in this document refer to hens about one
year old. As a rule, they will lay less each year as they grow
older—how much less depends on the vitality of the hen, other
things considered.
SUPPLEMENT TO WALTER HOGAN’S SYSTEM.
If you will get a little 1-foot rule to check yourself up while
getting used to measuring with the tips of your fingers, as in
Fig. 4, you will have no trouble in applying its principles right.
You can hold the bird feet up and head down between your
knees while you are measuring; then hold as in Fig. 4 and
learn to estimate the width right. Anything under 1 inch will
not pay, all over 114 inches will pay; from 1 to 1% inches are
doubtful; 2 inches is about the 200-egg type, 2°¢ inches about
the 250-egg type, and 234 inches about the 280-egg type.
Hens measuring from 1 to 12g inches should be put in a
yard while being fed well and looked over once a week at
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 123
night in the dark for about eight weeks, if you wish to make a
careful test. Any that come up or down in measurement can
be put in the good or bad yards, as the case may be. Hens will
go up or down about 25 per cent in measurements as they are
in flush of laying or not. The best time to examine hens is
after dark while on roost, which should be about 18 inches from
the floor: Place left hand on back of hen, lift up tail with
thumb of right hand, and apply tips of fingers to pelvic bones.
With a little practice you will be able to inspect thirty per
minute. It is admitted by all physicians, professors, and stu-
dents of physiology that I have talked with in regard to this
matter that the abdominal capacity of a hen, together with a
strong vital temperament, has everything to do with her value
as a laying proposition. The pelvic bones (being a continua-
tion of the body structure of the fowl and subject to very small
changes in the formation of flesh) are, when comparatively
straight and thin, an index to the width of the abdomen, and
the best if not the only one we have, as they protrude from
the body and may be easily measured. The depth of the ab-
domen can be taken by placing the palm of the hand crosswise
below, between the pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-
bone. Sometimes it will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 fingers. (A finger
means °4 of an inch.) Also place fingers between pelvic bones
and tail-bone. Sometimes it will take one, sometimes two
fingers. In this way you can judge the size of the abdomen,
which, with the pelvic development, will be a rule as to a hen’s
value as a layer, except in rare cases of misplaced or diseased
organs. Sometimes a hen will have a large abdomen, but her
pelvic bones will grow crooked and come almost together, like
the horns of a Jersey cow, and she will lay better than the dis-
tance apart of her pelvic bones will indicate, but never will do
as well as she should, and should not be bred from. She wastes
too much nervous force in laying. The farther you get away
from the crow formation the better your hens will be.
As a rule, fowls are almost twice as long coming to maturity
in California as they are in the Eastern and Middle Western
States. What the reason is I suspect, but do not know, but
will find out in the next two years.
No document purporting to be a copy of ‘“‘Water Hogan’s
System” is genuine without my signature as is set hereunder:
Wishing you the best of success, I am, sincerely yours,
124 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
THE WALTER HOGAN SYSTEM OF INCREASING EGG-PRODUCTION
BY SELECTION AND BREEDING.
It has been estimated that to add one-half dozen eggs to
the annual producing capacity of every hen in the United
States would result in additional returns from our poultry
sufficient to pay the national debt within less than a year. Al-
lowing this to be true, we are prepared to show that the method
of selection and breeding herein outlined is capable of paying
off our great debt several times during a single year, without
having to increase the number of hens kept a single bird or the
cost of keeping them a single dollar.
The method—or “‘discovery,’’ we might call it—has been
tested by the writer in every conceivable way, regardless of
expense, time, or trouble, and has been found absolutely fault-
less in every particular. It has been submitted to one Govern-
ment Experiment Station (as will be shown later) with the
same unerring results, and also to a number iof the foremost
poultrymen of America, who fully and without exception
corroborate all that is claimed.
This, you will agree with us, means a revolution in econom-
ical egg-production; it means, too, that no poultryman, how-
ever small his flock, can afford to go on in the old way a single
year longer.
Every animal on the farm has a well-defined mission all
its own, outside of the general one of producing meat. The
great mission of the cow is to produce milk; of the sheep, wool;
and the mission of the hen is evidently and pre-eminently egg-
production. This being the case, her value varies or should
vary largely with her ability to produce eggs. And still it is a
well-known fact that, while every farm animal has been se-
lected and bred for the best there was in it along its own
peculiar line, and all prizes have been awarded accordingly,
the hen has been bred largely and prizes awarded her almost
wholly for feather and markings, the judges seldom or never
deeming it important to know whether she was capable of
laying at all or not.
The writer was amazed to find this state of things when,
some years ago, he turned his attention from managing woolen-
mill interests to trying to manage a poultry-yard. But, in
spite of the fact that he was whollyfunable to find bird or strain
that were known to be exceptional egg-producers, he suc-
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 125
ceeded, within six years after starting, in building up a flock
that averaged annually considerably over 200 eggs per hen.
Before deciding to publish this work, I found, after diligent
inquiry among the leading poultrymen of the United States
and Canada, and some correspondence reaching to other coun-
tries, that there was no known method—other than the slow
and costly one of trap-nesting—of selecting birds of great egg-
producing capacity. Trap-nesting, in addition to the faults
mentioned, which makes it almost impracticable for the farmer,
had a still more serious one in the writer’s judgment; it could
not trap-nest roosters, which I have found to be more than
“half the flock.’ For this seemingly insurmountable difh-
culty I have found an easy solution, and can as readily identify
the male as the female, and as unerringly.
The facts of which this document treat are a discovery, a
method, and a development all in one. The happy inspiration
and discovery came within a few hours; but it has reached this
workable and absolutely reliable form by a costly analytical
_Cur No. 1—A Leghorn hen showing this development has the egg-
laying instinct at its maximum.
126 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
and experimental process extending through years. After the
underlying principle had been found, it had to be tested and
proved to my own satisfaction. Then the various objections
and criticisms, which will occur to many readers, had to be
answered or met by actual practical experiences.
The method enables one:
1. To easily and without error weed out all the worthless
birds from a flock; those that do not lay at all, also those that
lay so little that it is a loss to keep them. This alone means
millions to this country.
2. To separate just as unerringly all pullets before they
begin to lay; indicating the coming great layers, the fair layers,
the very poor, and the barren. The latter will be found in
nearly all flocks.
3. To tell those not liable to lay when disposing of old or
other hens for the table or market or for other reasons.
Beginning my investigation, as I was compelled to, with
birds selected wholly without egg-record, I was soon greatly
impressed with the dissimilarity of formation of the pelvic
Cur No. 2—This is a hen of medium development. She is a fair layer,
THE CALL OF THE HEN. E27
bones and surrounding portions of the body, particularly of the
former. Some I found nearly closed up, hard, and unyielding;
others barely admitting one finger between these points; while
a very few would easilly admit the ends of three fingers between
the tips of the pelvic bones, and these were generally thin,
tapering, and elastic. With this clue, I was not long in finding
that my great layers were the latter and my barren and nearly
barren ones the first mentioned. My attention was next
forcibly called to this by seeing a long row of dressed pullets
and hens in a butchering establishment. Noticing the great dif-
ference in the formation, I secured the privilege of numbering
the hens and having the entrails, as they were removed, left by
the side of each bird. In every instance I found my suspicion
verified; the indications of large numbers of eggs and ample
machinery to go with them, with the wide, pliable pelvic bones;
and just the opposite condition with the narrow ones, the very
least, or no egg indications whatever, with the bones very close
2
Cut No. 3—Hens with this development are of little or no value
as layers.
128 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
together at the points and unyielding to pressure, hard, thick,
and rounded in. This experiment was tried again and again,
with different breeds, but never with different results.
I was satisfied I was on the right trail now, and determined
to spare neither time nor money to make sure I was right. For
several years following these discoveries I spent much time and
money visiting well-known poultrymen and others, frequently
paying as high as $10.00 for best known layers, only to kill
them to prove or disprove my conclusions—to photograph the
live bird, next her dressed body, then her skeleton. In every
instance I found my theory corrert. I divided my own flock
according to my findings into three flocks, and the very first
day’s lay proved my theory beyond question, so far as one day
could. I then divided other and many flocks; but wherever
they were and whatever breed, without an exception the same
result followed.
EE
Cur No. 4—Showing a convenient method of holding fowls when
testing them.
Skipping a number of years, I might say right here that in
1904 I divided the flock of Leghorns, Wyandottes, and Ply-
mouth Rocks at the Minnesota Experiment Station at Crooks-
ton into three pens: first, the best; second, medium to poor;
third, very poor or barren. I was about twenty-five minutes
doing this in the presence of C. 8. Greene, at that time the
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 129
manager, whom nearly all the leading poultrymen know, and
Mr. T. A. Hoverstad, then superintendent of the station.
These gentlemen then had absolutely no faith in the method!
not knowing anything about it; but were assured by me that if
the barren pen laid an egg or either of the others failed to per-
form as I indicated, they were at liberty to publish the method
and me to the world as a fraud. ‘The first day showed pen No.
1, 45 eggs; pen No. 2, 20 eggs; pen No. 3, no eggs; and this
continued, with slight variations, the entire period of the ex-
periment, which lasted for weeks; though not a single egg ap-
peared in the barren pen. ‘The per cent of eggs to the 100 hens
for the entire time was: First pen, 60 per cent per day; second
pen, 37 per cent; third pen, nothing. But for lack of room I
might give many more experiments and tests fully as startling
as the above.
But to go on: Within a few years after selecting my first
layers in this way, I had a flock the larger part of which was
laying 200 eggs and above per year, individual layers greatly
exceeding this.
Then came another discovery, fully as important as the
first. I noticed that, though I hatched all my pullets from the
best layers’ eggs, some of them were exceedingly poor layers;
now and then one of them barren. I studied upon this for a
long time, spent more money, and killed many more birds.
Then with another idea, which as suddenly as the first dawned
upon me, I made for the slaughter-house once more. I soon
had a row of forty or so dressed male birds this time laid out
before me; and then at a glance I saw my long-sought solution.
There was the same great difference in the pelvic formation
found in the hens. I examined my roosters to find that half of
them were absolutely worthless. Why do I say that the rooster
“is MORE than half the flock?”” Because later I found, as
many know, that the female offspring take largely after the
father and the male offspring after the mother. It is so with
all animals, and almost always so in the human family. Had
I used males of my own raising, I should have done better, but
I had not. By the way, I found two high-priced and ‘“high-
scoring”? birds used at the Crookston Station in 1904 abso-
lutely without value, and Mr. Greene now agrees with me fully
that they were, although he was at the time quite indignant
when I pronounced his costly beauties worthless.
I may say here that, while I found one very good exhibi-
tion bird in this experiment station flock that was wholly
worthless as a layer, I am pleased indeed to be able to state
that one bird which had taken several prizes for markings, etc.,
I found to be a priceless layer. I never saw but one bird that
came anywhere near being that hen’s equal. I found one, how-
ever, with very poor markings that outranked any hen but her.
From this time on breeding hastened matters fully as
much as selection, and I soon had—or rather, to be accurate,
130 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
at the end of six years from my first start I had a FLOCK
AVERAGING CLOSE AROUND 250 EGGS EACH PER
YEAR; A FLOCK PAYING ME MORE THAN DOUBLE
THE PROFIT MY FIRST FLOCK COULD. During the
last few years of this period I again and again, for experi-
mental purposes, mated excellent hens with narrow-pelvic-
boned males, and every time a crop of pullets that varied
greatly in egg-yield was the result. Again and again I bred
wide-pelvic-boned males with narrow-boned females with the
same results. But wide-pelvic-boned males with hens of the
same formation (with the exception now and then at far-apart
intervals, a freak) brought excellent layers. Occasionally a
male bird failed to transmit well, but this I afterwards found
was only when it was wholly lacking in masculine qualities, as
denoted by the width and depth of head and back of neck,
with other indications common to masculinity in all other
animals. From this time I began mating wide-pelvic-boned
males with my widest hens and a marked increase in the
number of great layers was evident—in fact, the third year it
was the great exception to find anything but first-class layers
among the pullets.
Its ADVANTAGES.
The advantages of this method for one owning even a
small flock of birds are so apparent that space need not be
given to discuss it. To one having a large flock it means, must
mean, a small fortune in additional profit, with no more labor
or investment; to those engaged in selling eggs for hatching
it is bound to mean everything in the near future. It would be
simply suicidal for a farmer, or anyone depending upon the
eggs of his flock for the profit, to be so unbusinesslike as to
buy eggs for hatching from untested flocks. We do not be-
lieve it would be possible to find one who would do so, after
knowing from experiment stations and otherwise that the
method is unfailing.
Some of the advantages over trap-nesting have been
stated; perhaps the strongest being that we cannot trap-nest
roosters. In addition, I might call attention to the fact that
trap-nesting a single bird must extend over the entire year to
be at all accurate, and would take many times the amount of
time it would require—by this method—to settle the laying
possibilities of a thousand pullets. A little more time would
settle the laying powers of a large mixed flock at mixed laying
seasons, which might require two or at least three examinations
a week or ten days apart.
Again, a worthless pullet can be found when she is from
five to six months old and fatted and sold without having to
keep her a full year in order to do it safely. Besides, handling
hens almost always tends to disturb and discourage laying.
Trap-nesting will, if persistently followed the entire year, give
THE CALL OF THE HEN. ET
nearly the exact individual record, which is not material to one
egg man in a thousand. It cannot be exact, however, as a
shut-in and otherwise disturbed hen never does her best.
This method applies to other birds as well—turkeys, for
instance. Last fall I bought two turkeys for experiment; one
was SMALL, with LARGE egg-development; the other
LARGE, with SMALL egg-development. The small bird has
laid and hatched out two litters of fourteen each the present
season, and has at this date laid twenty-three eggs towards a
third litter. The large one laid and hatched fourteen eggs
early in the season, and has shown no signs of laying since, but
has taken on much more flesh than the laying turkey. This
would, in addition to indicating laying turkeys, also show what
to breed if large birds only are desired—as would nearly always
be the case with turkeys.
The absolute surety of never killing a bird for market or
home consumption that is laying, about to begin laying, or is
liable to lay in the near future, is another decided advantage
over the trap-nest, and one of the quickest available advantages
fo the system.
Again, the process requires no investment in patent nests,
leg-bands, or other fixings, which amount, in trap-nesting, to
many times the first and only cost of this method. For ac-
curacy in all the advantages claimed for this method, we will
most gladly submit to a test with the greatest expert trap-nester
that can be selected, if it can be so arranged that some high
authority in poultry matters or some Government Experiment
Station shall have charge of it. This unconditional offer we
make to the world.
How To SELECT.
As the basic principle of this method of identifying capacity
for egg-production is the width and relative condition of the
pelvic bones and surrounding construction, it is obvious that
exact measurements cannot be given, unless a distinct breed
be designated. A Cochin lays a large egg, and is built ac-
cordingly; a Bantam lays a small egg, and its pelvic devel-
opment in inches is correspondingly smaller. It would be
manifestly misleading to apply the same measurements to the
two birds.
While the ability to make this allowance will come to the
operator quickly—almost intuitively after a very short ex-
perience—I have thought best to confine all my descriptions
and measurements here to one breed of fowls only, the Leg-
horns, these being a medium-sized, representative bird, well
scattered over the entire country. It will be easy from the
measurements to work up or down, as the birds on hand may
be larger or smaller. It is all a matter of comparison, and, all
things being equal, the bird with the widest and most pliable
pelvic bones will be the greatest layer, while the one with very
132 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
narrow contracted pelvic formation will lay little, if at all.
Behind the pelvic bones lies the egg machinery, and it will be
found more abundant and roomy the wider the bones.
SELECTING PULLETS.
(Leghorns. )
Perhap. the best time to select layers for a flock is when
the pullets are from four to six months old. If all are in a
uniformly thrifty condition at this time, it is next to impossible
to make a mistake. The best pullets at that age should show
a width of about 2 inches, while the best matured laying hens
oS show a development of about 214 inches. (See cut
No. i:
Pullets of Plymouth Rocks and their class should be se-
lected about a month later and then show slightly larger, about
21g inches. The best Asiatic pullet, about 214 inches at seven
or eight months old; the Leghorns being earlier maturers.
At the end of six years of careful selecting and breeding I found
my Leghorn pullets quite as wide and well matured at four
months as my first ones were at five months.
Second-class Leghorn pullets from five to seven months old
will show a development of about 154 inches. (See cut No. 2.)
At six months old all Leghorn pullets showing only 1 inch
or less pelvic development should be discarded, regardless of
feather or comb. ‘They will never make layers. (See cut
No. 3.)
All things being equal, the earlier a pullet begins to lay the
better and longer will she lay.
SELECTING MaTuRE LAYERS.
The next best time to ascertain a hen’s laying qualities
is when the whole flock is in the flush of laying—in other words,
when about all are at work. Those found then to measure
about 214 inches are extremely good layers. Some flocks have
very few of these priceless birds in them, while others have
good numbers. From this class of layers, and above that
measurement, and from these only, should eggs be saved
for hatching.
Occasionally hens are found measuring as high as 234
inches; these hens, with the best of care, will lay as high as 280
eggs per year; those measuring about 22¢ inches may be de-
pended upon to go as high as 250. The fact that this kind of
hen can be found is ample proof that with proper selection
they can be bred in large numbers.
Hens found at this time measuring from 17% to 2 inches are
real good layers, and should not be discarded, if one wishes to
build up a large flock, but they should not be bred from.
Hens in the flush of laying measuring only 114 to 11% inches
are poor, and those showing from an inch down should be dis-
carded, regardless of shape or color.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 133
A large enough flock of the first-mentioned hens would
make any poor man rich; the second kind would keep them-
selves and their owners going; while many of the last-named
class would make a rich man poor.
Poor layers, kept well and fed a large variety of scraps
and other foods, will sometimes make pretty fair egg records
for a short time, and birds of the best quality, under exception-
ally hard conditions, will make poor records. There are also
occasional freaks in both extremes of measurements, but they
are so infrequent as not to be at allimportant. Approximately,
280-egg hens that measure as high as 25% inches in the flush of
laying will show about 34 to 1% inch less when not laying, and
this shrinkage in measurement will apply to all other grades in
about this proportion.
SELECTING FOR Fatt MARKETING.
We do not like to kill birds about to begin laying, that
are laying, or really good ones that are just through laying,
particularly when there are plenty in the flock that do not
come under any of these heads.
In this alone the cost of this method, when once well under-
stood, can be saved several times in a single season with a
good-sized flock of birds.
While the exceptionally-good layers can be told readily
and at almost any time, laying or not, and an absolutely worth-
less bird can be told the same way, there is a time, just when
the real good layer is resting and the common to poor layer
is doing her best, when they come—for a short time only—close
together in pelvic appearance.
While it is not safe to kill a bird that measures 114 inches
or over, it is possible for a very fair layer to not be much wider
than that at the close of laying out her litter. Some good
layers, that in the flush of laying will measure 124 to 2 inches,
at the close of their laying period will sometimes close up to
about 114 inches. A very poor layer in the flush of her laying
time might be 1144 to 11% inches, so care must be taken at this
period not to confound the two conditions, which do not exist
at any other time. This is referred to in the Introduction.
To wholly prevent this—when it is desired to save every at all
good layer—it is well to make two or possibly three examina-
tions, a week or so apart. In this way there will be no danger
of confounding the one about to begin laying with the one
about to quit, and the poor layer can be told from the good one.
When killing a whole flock at two or three years old, as
many do, no hen measuring 114 inches and under is worth
keeping; particularly is this true if the birds have been well fed
and stimulated to about their full capacity. No hen of any
value for egg-production will have an egg in her at this time
and measure so small unless she is a slow, infrequent layer at
134 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
her best. Sometimes this kind of a hen with very small meas-
urements will be found laying an occasional egg late in the
season.
SELECTING ROOSTERS.
We have said how important it is to have males of the
right formation to mate with the great layers for breeding
purposes; we need not emphasize this; it is so evident that
we cannot trap-nest a rooster, and equally so that years of
trap-nesting hens can be ruinously upset in a day by crossing
with an inferior male, that it would reflect upon-our estimation
of the reader’s intelligence to say more about it.
I have found Leghorn roosters that measured 124 inches,
but they are rare and priceless. A good matured bird should
measure 1]¥ inches and a pretty fair one 1 inth. I would not
use one that measured less, if I could possibly helpit. Many
fine-looking birds measure only 1% inch, but such ones will ruin
the offspring of the best layers and should be discarded, what-
ever their qualities in feather, tip of comb, or anything else.
Now and then the objection reaches us that the high-type
roosters referred to cannot be found. I have found them, as
others have, and I believe there are nearly or quite as many in
proportion as there are of the 250 and above hens; but we do
not save all the roosters as we do all the pullets, and they are
correspondingly scarce among mature males. By selecting
always from large numbers of males before they are killed off
this objection will be largely and quickly overcome.
The fact that males of this class can be selected is of it-
‘self a discovery sufficient to revolutionize the whole poultry
business without the examination of a single hen—were time
enough taken; but the two together bring absolute and imme-
diate results.
In the hands of a slightly experienced or an at all competent
person the element of chance is entirely removed by this method
of selecting layers and males; and one is just as sure of the
results sought as that a hen will die if her head is cut off.
We ask but one thing: that judgment be withheld till this
method be tried. If the tests are fairly conducted, there can be
no failure.
Crude infringements and imitations of this discovery and
System—as of everything else of value that has cost years of
investigating and experimenting—are liable to spring up, but
the safety and economy of going direct to the fountain-head
need scarcely be suggested.
Dated November 20, 1904.
THE END.
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 135
QUESTIONS.
SELECTION AND BREEDING FOR EGG-
PRODUCTION.
“Top CARI GE THE EN. *
1. What four things influence egg-production or largely
determine the number of eggs a hen will lay?
2, Whats “capacity”?
3. How is it measured or determined ¢
4. What would a one-finger “capacity” or depth of abdo-
men indicate?
5. What would a three to five-finger “capacity” or abdo-
men indicate?
6. What is meant by “condition”?
7. What portion of the body is a good indicator as to
whether the hen is in good “condition” or poor “condition’”’?
8. What outside factors or environments are largely re-
sponsible for the “condition” of any hen?
g. Is “condition” a thing that the common sense or gump-
tion of the poultryman can control largely? How?
10. How does the breast of the hen appear when she is
in good “condition” ?
11. The first joint of the forefinger is divided into how
many parts for the purpose of determining “condition” or rep-
resents how many fingers out of “condition”?
12. If a hen has a one-finger abdomen or “capacity” and
is three fingers out of “condition,” about how many fingers ab-
domen or “capacity” would she have if this same hen was in
“condition”, or in other words, each finger out of “condition”
means how many more fingers ‘“‘capacity” or depth of abdomen
if the same hen was in normal “condition” ?
13. A hen which is two-fingers out of “condition” indi-
cates that the hen has shrunken or lost how many fingers in
“capacity” or depth of abdomen?
14. Ifa hen is three fingers out of “condition,” should
she ever be used again as a breeder?
136 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
15. What is meant by “type” in this lesson in selecting
hens for egg-production?
16. What is meant by “egg type’?
17. What is meant by “dual purpose type’’?
18. What is meant by “beef type’?
19. How do you determine each of the above three types?
20. Do we find practically the same differences in the
“types” of male birds as in females?
21. What difference is made in the use of food consumed
by the “egg type” and the “beef type’?
22. If you had a flock of hens of the “beef type,” how
should they be fed as regards to quantity so as to get the largest
possible egg yield and prevent them from becoming too fat?
23. Do we find all three “types” in all varieties of poul-
try, or are each of these “types” confined to certain varieties or
breeds of poultry?
24. What does a pelvic bone 1-16 of an inch in thickness
indicate ?
25. What does a pelvic bone 3-8 of an inch in thickness
indicate f
26. A hen in good condition, with a two-finger abdomen
or “capacity” and 1-4 inch pelvic bone, should lay about how
many eggs during the first year?
27. A hen in good condition, with a five-finger abdomen
or “capacity ’’ and a 1-16-inch pelvic bone, should lay about
how many eggs the first year?
28. Should we breed from poultry with straight or
crooked pelvic bones? Why?
29. About what per cent less eggs will a hen with crooked
pelvic bones, close together, lay than a hen of the same breed-
ing with straight pelvic bones, farther apart?
30. How can this defect be largely eliminated from a
flock?
31. Does a hen that has an abdomen bagging down over
the rear of the breast-bone indicate a strong or a weak ovarian
or reproductive system?
32. Should they be used for breeders? Why?
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 137
33. What is meant by “prepotency” or “amativeness”’?
34. What does it indicate in judging males or females for
‘““nrepotency”’ as described in this method, if the thumbt is 1-8
of an inch ahead of the forefinger?
35. What does it indicate, if the thumb is 1-4 inch be-
hind the forefinger?
36. Which of the above two would make the best breeder
in transmitting its good qualities to its offspring?
37. Some poultrymen mate females with a record of 150
eggs each to males of the 150 egg type or males bred from hens
with equally good records, and the offsring from such matings
often lay only 100 or 125 eggs on the average in your opinion,
Why this decrease in the number of eggs?
38. How many eggs should a hen lay the first year to
justify you in keeping her the second year as a breeder or as a
layer?
39. In breeding for egg-production, would you prefer to
breed from males that mature early and from females that lay
early, or would you select the opposite kind? Why?
40. Should you breed from the fall and winter layers, or
should you select for breeders those that wait until spring to
lay? Why?
41. Should you breed from the active, alert birds, or the
inactive, lazy ones? Why?
42. Should you breed from those that are early to rise
and late to retire, or from the opposite? Why?
43. Should you breed from the heavy eaters or feeders,
or from those that eat comparatively little? Why?
44. Other things being equal, would you prefer to breed
from a male bred from a high-laying hen, or from one bred
from a medium layer?, Why?
“ce
45. What is meant by “stamina” and “vigor” in poultry?
46. Which has the most to do with determining the
number of eggs a hen will lay, the breeding, the feeding, or the
housing? Why?
47. What difference would there be in the probable
number of eggs laid by a hen with lots of “capacity,” a six-
finger abdomen, with a thick pelvic bone, one inch in thickness,
138 THE CALL OF THE HEN.
and a hen with but little “capacity,” a two-finger abdomen,
with a rather thin pelvic bone, 5-16 of an inch in thickness,
both hens being in good condition?
48. Everything else being equal, which moult first as a
rule, the good layers or the poor layers?
49. What, if anything, has the width or the distance
between the pelvic bones, themselves, got to do with egg-
production?
50. Do we feed hens for the purpose of feeding eggs into
their bodies, or do we feed them to develop the eggs which
selection and breeding or Nature has placed within the hen?
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