Caponize Silkies?

[valjacobsen]

I was reading How and Why to Caponize Backyard Chickens and How Caponizing is Done--

"I have found that if you have discovered Silkie meat than this is one way to get a bit of meat on your Silkie.

"Silkies have black skin and black organs. The chemical that creates the black color also contains more vitamins and antioxidants than any other breeds of chickens. Caponized Silkies are becoming quite popular on the health market. If you have Bantam chickens caponzing will also plump up those little birds a bit."

I know that silkie meat is regarded as a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. I have 20 new Silkie chicks. I had to buy them unsexed, and I only want to keep the pullets.

How does one go about caponizing birds that are so difficult to sex? Just wait until they are older? I tried to caponize a few 6 month birds once, not silkies. Their ribs were stiffer (tending to break and not bend), the connective tissue around the testes was more developed and resistant, and the testes were very deep, very large, and very fragile. (I did not succeed but don't have a lot of experience.)

 

[AltonaAcres]

Maybe try vent sexing? It's fairly accurate and can be done early on. It may be worth learning how to do if this is your plan for your flock

 

[newduckie]

I was reading How and Why to Caponize Backyard Chickens and How Caponizing is Done--



I know that silkie meat is regarded as a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. I have 20 new Silkie chicks. I had to buy them unsexed, and I only want to keep the pullets.

How does one go about caponizing birds that are so difficult to sex? Just wait until they are older? I tried to caponize a few 6 month birds once, not silkies. Their ribs were stiffer (tending to break and not bend), the connective tissue around the testes was more developed and resistant, and the testes were very deep, very large, and very fragile. (I did not succeed but don't have a lot of experience.)

I think you waited to long to do it. We did it when they were around one pound max. Haven’t tried a silkie as it is so hard to tell if they are male or female till they are so old. Mine were around two months old when we did them

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Honestly, a lot of people when it was more popular seemed to just grab every bird that had a chance of being male. If they didn't have testes, congrats, they're a girl and if they did, well....

 

[Mosey2003]

I realize the original post here is from last year, but I'll comment anyway. I think with Silkies your only options would be to either send a feather sample from each out to the lab to be sexed (there's a place that does this I know) or you'd basically have to open each one up to see. I might try to make an educated guess by which ones had thicker legs, but having not raised Silkies myself I don't know if they show much difference there either.