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I am not sure how many birds you have caponized, but it doesn't matter if you do the method you are describing or not. I did the whole, slide the skin back approach, they still can get air puffs. This is not uncommon even with folks who do a lot of capons. It happens. Unlike humans and other...

I would love to see how it is done your way. I was excited that I only killed 3 out of 8 in the last batch I did this summer. Of those, I ended up with one slip and two capons (1 Welsummer and 1 Easter Egger). Owls got a couple of them. I didn't see much difference if any between them and...

The caponizing kit you can get online, don't bother. The only good thing is the piece with the spoon on one end and the pick thing on the other. I have replaced everything else. The spreaders in that kit just slip off. They might be good if they were bent differently, but I went on eBay and...

I can see a couple of the 'boys' have puffs, but I won't bother with them until a few days go by. I stitched everyone with 3 stitches.

They are easy to tell with feathering at this point. The blockier the shape as viewed from the side are the cockerels. If the shape of the wing is elongated like a teardrop, then it is a pullet.

Thanks, Jeff. I DID get all the pieces out. I was determined not to leave anything behind to keep working. I DID cut open the expired ones to finish the job. I always seem to lose them on their right side. Getting the front of the testicle without pulling on the wrong thing seems to be the...

Five little ca-pons, sitting in a cage.....

I wish a had another to compare him to. He is very tall for what I expected, and maybe he is a capon. I am going to have to get a picture of him to show you. BUT.... I had a great batch! I had 8 of them to do and I still have 5! For me, that is wonderful. I am very happy. I lost 2...

Tomorrow is supposed to be another round. Let's hope nothing crazy comes up. I have a few Welsummers, some EEs and I think a couple of Ameraucanas. I didn't count, just left all the boys in the cage and pulled the girls out to keep for potential breeders. I missed doing a few that got to big...

Just a note of experience with this part of the discussion here. The last time I did some of the boys, I couldn't get to them when I had anticipated, so I gave them food and water. Not the usual amount of food, but enough so they would have the strength to go through with the procedure. They...

There is no "up out of the way" when removing the birds testicles here, they are tight up against the spinal region, so you want the guts down and away.

I would agree that taking water away more than 12 hours is not a good idea, they become lethargic, especially if they are small for attempting the surgery. Also, unless it is plenty warm enough, I think they get cold when they go through the fasting period. I must say though, if you are...

Fine so far. I don't understand why it was just after that pen, there is one next to it that (knock on wood) has been fine. They a little bigger though, so maybe that has something to do with it. Looks like Thursday or Friday might be a good surgery day for my fellows.

That is what I kept thinking, but when they peck each other, they don't start with the vent unless there is an injury there or something prolapsed. So, I then realized it couldn't just be that happening. It had to be happening at night too since I would check things before dark and then find...

I am just so bogged down with all kinds of projects that I am going to have to just take a day to plan to do it again and not let anything interrupt me. I do separate them into a cage by themselves so they aren't mixed with the other birds, but I stitch the skin shut and spray with BlueKote to...

Good advice! Of course, so far all of yours has been. I have a boatload to do this week. Some are getting a little bigger than I wanted, but I have been swamped, plus the weather has been crap. I think the hardest part was worrying about pushing things around a little bit to find the buggers...

I haven't weighed them. I just go by feel now, not enough mass to them, I will wait a little longer. I found that when I tried them smaller, being off feed for that 24-hours makes them really lethargic, too much so.

I went on eBay to find what I have now. I suppose the caponizing tools you can get might also work with a little modifying. The ones I just did, that I feel were a better size to do that the ones I tried previously, are 8-weeks old. I think they are just too small at 4 or 5 weeks.