I have a duck that was attacked last night by a fisher cat. It appears to have no cuts or wounds. I was able to scare the fisher away.
However all it does now is run very badly and put itself on it's back! It wants to just stay on it's back.
It also is kicking like it is trying to swim. It...
Yesterday I butchered 6 slips. I have about 6 more slips to "take care of" next weekend. To the stewing pot with them! Then I will be left with 10 Capons. I can tell slips from capons by the size and color of the combs. The capons still have small undeveloped pale combs. The slips are...
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I am only guessing at the weight by what I remember seeing. The Capon looked big until I plucked it. I could have made a pillow with all the feathers!
I ate some of my first capon last night and again for lunch today.
The meat is not as tender as that of the Cornish cross nor was it as tough as an old rooster. It had a noticeable difference in texture. I didn't notice a difference in taste but I might if I could try a bite of capon then a...
I am getting ready to eat my first capon soon!
On my 1st production batch of about 25, one of them crows.
At 16 weeks old I figured it was a slip so I tried to see if I could do a second caponizing. I did not even get to see inside the bird because the ribs are larger and don't spread like...
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The black ones are black sex links. The white spot on the head = male all black = female. I only got two of them and they seemed to be true sex-links. At least that one male was not in question.
Thanks for calling the hatchery. I have not had the time to do so myself.
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I don't have pics.
They are 8 weeks old and pure white. undeveloped pale combs and I saw what looks like an ovary mass of sorts. No testicles inside.
I will keep them until they start to lay.
Some of the males have red spots on them so that means they must get some jeans from the sire?
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Central. 1st time was an all male sex-link order. (found 2 white females out of 27) 2nd time was a "canceled" strait run order. Needless to say I did not have to pay for the second order.
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A slip is not quite a capon. it has just enough testicle material left to still produce hormones but not enough left to produce offspring. Not good.
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Ditto on the learn something new each time!
I tried to caponize another 20 "roosters" last Saturday!
As it turned out only 12 of them turned out to be actual roosters! The other 8 are hens that are white feathered "red sex link hens"
I started a new thread on this topic alone.
I will...
I tried to caponize another 20 "roosters" last Saturday!
As it turned out only 12 of them turned out to be actual roosters! The other 8 are hens that are white feathered "red sex link hens"
I know I must be opening a can of worms here but from what I have found 40% of the "white males" are...
We have 2 Saanen doe (female) goat kids for sale. They are 16 weeks old, disbudded and can be registered.
We get a gallon / day from the mother and the milk is better than anything you could buy in a store.
Reduced to $100 ea.
PM me if you are interested.
I built a special tractor this year with closed sides, out of old closet doors and two small pallets. The roof is another door covered in 6 mil clear plastic and an old leaky tarp just to block the UV. I had my meat birds outside at 2weeks old on the 2nd week in April. It got down to the mid...
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This year is the first time I will be eating a capon. I hope that all this effort will be worth it. Don't forget that Hens also have hormones running through them. It is possible to "caponize" a hen also. I put in the quotes because another term exists for that. It would be...
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It is very cool that this has been working for you!
The tools like you said are not what they should be. If I find that I want to do more on a larger scale I would seek better tools and/or design better ones to be fabricated for this purpose. As far as the gland on the other side, it...
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It took me on average 9 and a half minutes per bird. I think a good chunk of the time was cleaning of tools and tying up the bird to the board. This is something that could be done by an assistant if I got an extra set of tools.
As far as telling hens apart from roos. I look at the...
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Some of the research I have done says that because the meat is older is has much more flavor. I guess I'll have to wait to find out if it is true!