lazy layers

I just started reading this interesting book called The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan. I just cracked up a section in the book that compared good layers to lazy hens. The book suggests that you can improve your overall laying average by culling and slaughtering the lazy layers. Culling is actually one of Travis's vocabulary words for this week - so in true homeschool fashion, I think I will have Travis cull and slaughter our lazy roosters who will never lay an egg and only seem to eat, poop and wake us up at 4:00 a.m. Cull - verb, to pick out, select, to examine carefully.
In case anyone is interested, a good laying hen produces about 20 dozen eggs in her first year. Productivity seems to drop off as they get older, but not by much. They lay larger eggs as they get older. There is actually a series of "easy" tests you can do on your hens to see which ones are good candidates for "harvesting". Such as looking at her comb and wattle - which I guess I can do. However, once the book started to tell me to check out the hen's vent and pubic bone - I was done. I'm off to have scrambled eggs!
~c~