Caponizing

I'm going to give this a shot this summer.... I have a bunch of new stock arriving, and will need to manage the cockerel situation. I'll probably slaughter some as broilers and caponize the rest of the culls...

sky the chicken man said:

I'm going to give this a shot this summer.... I have a bunch of new stock arriving, and will need to manage the cockerel situation. I'll probably slaughter some as broilers and caponize the rest of the culls...

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I just went to ebay and ordered the retractors. I have separated the 8 wk old mutt roos and will cull one and do the "anatomy" class as soon as they get here.

I had 3 roos in the cage without food and water waiting to caponize. 1 of the roos died in the cage so I started with him.
I can tell you that if he wasn't dead already, I would have killed him.
The spreader I was using was not doing the job I thought it should and I still have not got the testes out. I don't know if being dead for awhile made a difference but I could not get anything to work, not the wire loop, tweezers or forceps.
I put the others back in the pen until I can get the right equipment.

Uncle- Several questions:
age and wieght of your cockerals?
how long were they off feed and water?
did this transpire today?
do you still have the dead bird?

If you still have the bird, use a pair of shears to remove the ribs and breast, remove all organs to expose the teste to take a real good look. Then use your tools to remove them without obstructions. Not sure how they will come out on a bird dead for a long time as moisture retention and cell breakdown starts immediately on death. The visual is still knowledge to be gleened.
j

naillikwj82 said:

Uncle- Several questions:
age and wieght of your cockerals?
how long were they off feed and water?
did this transpire today?
do you still have the dead bird?

If you still have the bird, use a pair of shears to remove the ribs and breast, remove all organs to expose the teste to take a real good look. Then use your tools to remove them without obstructions. Not sure how they will come out on a bird dead for a long time as moisture retention and cell breakdown starts immediately on death. The visual is still knowledge to be gleened.
j

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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. Of course, it could be possible you have a pullet I did that on the first night. I felt stupid, but they are young enough that some of them can fool you.

I think I have a rat coming around at night. Something killed the one capon that took me about 10 minutes to do, and most of that was stitching him shut. I was so MAD when I found him dead. I have lost a few others too. I thought they were cannibalizing each other, but not after seeing what they looked like in the mornings.

I will give you a full report. I have a few of the Buck/Cornish crosses to do this week, and a couple of purebred Buckeyes.

Sorry to hear you lost one after/during his recovery!! That has to have been a disappointment!!

Are you sure you don't have an early raccoon invader? Or maybe a weasel? I've seen a couple dead raccoons along the roadside here but no problems on the property here so far knock-on-wood. The worst raccoon problems here happen either in May-June when they have their kits or in the summer heat when the raccoons have few sources of food/water.

Once the capons recover, I confess I sort of get attached to them because their behavior is friendly and sometimes comical. We have 3 mixed-breed capons that came from the same place as "extra cockerels" that love to run around together along with a young hen friend. They show up in the yard looking for treats or just hanging out. They're always together like a little junior high school clique but they're the "nice" clique - not the "gossip" clique or the "This is MY Territory" clique.

When they are recovering after the procedure, it is definitely best to put them by themselves in a place that is predator-proof, has no roosts,and is away from other chickens who aren't "patients" in "capon hospital.". Other capon "patients" are fine - the recovering capons don't seem to pick on each other. Some of the old writers also recommended a sort of dark or shaded place like inside a barn so they wouldn't be too active or try to flap their wings too much while recovering. A hardware cloth-type chick brooder or large cage would probably be a good spot.

It seems to take them about 48 hours to get out of "intensive care" and then about 8 more days for general recovery to the point where they're as active as their unaltered counterparts and where the wounds have scabbed/scarred over well enough that it won't invite picking. Often they will try to flap their wings and mess around like that after 4 days to a week. When I see them do that I think "Ouch!!" but they don't feel pain the way people do.

Just have one RIR for this week, but next week there will be several...and there are more waiting behind them....

Hope all goes well at your session!!

Does anyone play music while doing this? I've heard that surgeons often perform better when listening to some fave tunes.

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 keep them from pecking. I wonder if it itches though because I have seen them kind of peck around like they would to get something off their feathers after I have stitched them.

I don't notice any difference in behavior. I have one I had to move yesterday and he was comletely spazzing out on me.

I am going to have to do a bunch of Minorca cockerels soon, and they are the craziest birds I have!

I will have to count how many I need to do this week and get ready. I can't wait too much longer on some or I think they will be already crowing. Not that crowing bothers me, but if I decide to sell any of them live, I think someone would turn away crowers if they live in town.

Wish me luck in getting enough time to do it.

Oh, and I know it is not a coon, they are messier, and not a weasel because they like the neck. What is getting these ones is eating from the butt and pulling out the entrails. I can't imagine a worse way to die. Poor birds! I need to build more and better grow-out pens that are rodent proof. That is the only solution I can think of that I KNOW will work.

Minniechickmama said:

. What is getting these ones is eating from the butt and pulling out the entrails. I can't imagine a worse way to die. Poor birds! I need to build more and better grow-out pens that are rodent proof. That is the only solution I can think of that I KNOW will work.

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Are thhey maybe getting each other?? That would be very typical of chickens when there is a weaker chicken in the bunch, especially if they are confined in a smaller area.

My roo died the night before. they were off food and water for about 12 hrs when the one died, I tried him about 8 hrs later and everything inside was sticking together. I had no problems seeing my target I think it was just jelled together.
They are 6 weeks old now and I'm going to try again this week end.
I have little roos everywhere and it's either caponize or ???
Brian