Anybody ever caponize a rooster...

[silkiechicken]

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Exactally, and if you caption the roo young... it will look like a pretty pathetic roo too.

 

[chad]

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O.K. I'm completely ignorant about this stuff. How old should they be before slaughtering - assuming I decide to add 5 crowing roosters to the the one who already wakes me up at 4:30 a.m.?

 

[mtnchicks]

As I said, I was dumb for thinking that caponizing would stop a rooster from crowing. Everything I read about it said it made them quiet and docile. I would RATHER have a "real" rooster. I enjoy (usually) the crowing and the behavior of roosters. The only reason I would consider the procedure is to be able to keep all of our "pets". I know it doesn't make much sense otherwise. And I know the reason to neuter dogs/cats is different than the reason to do it to a bird. I just meant it's not an inhumane act, if done properly. I'm just a softy when it comes to pets. I get attached quickly.

 

[silkiechicken]

Well, for your standard roo, 4 months is a good time to turn the saturday roo into the sunday night dinner. *age over night.

 

[rooster-red]

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Right, if done properly by a vet.

I think we all are really softies here

 

[chad]

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I imagine so. And although the attitudes might be more widespread now, I can't believe previous generations of farmers were all heartless bastards who didn't care how much pain they inflicted on an animal. I know my dad wasn't. So in thinking about caponizing, and keeping in mind WoodlandWoman's very legitimate concern about causing the bird suffering, I'd like to observe a caponizing to try and assess how much pain the bird actually feels. Who knows? With a sharp scalpel, deft and sure movements, and maybe no awareness that he's actually being incised, maybe the discomfort is not that great? And if you keep the wound disinfected - it's only 1/4" deep and not even sutured or anything - maybe this procedure isn't or doesn't need to be as traumatic as we think it would be. Difficult to tell from a bird's reaction; if I pick up a hen to put her in the henhouse she squawks and hollers like she's being killed. Ya know?

And, by the way - dang! Yesterday we discvered the mother of these ten chicks setting another fourteen...

 

[picklespickles]

i am interested in learning more about caponizing too. i read a lot about people referring to eating capons but not so much on how to do it. i will look at the info mentioned and then look for more.

 

[BamaChicken]

My friend from Vietnam who does my Pedicures say they Caponized all their extra males. She offered to show me how but I haven't really kept any of the extras. I just sell them. She said it makes the bird grow larger and stay tender. I have no experience but I have watched my DH castrate male pigs and put the rings on bulls. Farmers have done these things for years.

 

[greyfields]

Caponizing is really a throw back to before we had the large Cornish Crosses available for meat chickens. It was the only way to get a large table fowl was to caponize and raise to roughly 20 weeks.

Now that wwe have the Cornish crosses, there are no reason economically to bother caponizing since you can get bigger meat birds, without caponizing at 8 weeks old.

If you are overwhelmed with extra roosters, your best bet is to sell them at auction at around 12-15 weeks old. I fetch roughly $8 per bird after comission, since some ethnicities actually search out roosters for traditional cooking. Take the money you make at the auction to buy a round or Conrish Crosses (or better yet, Freedom Rangers) and don't deal with this unnecessary step of caponizing.

 

[opihiman911]

How to caponize by.....Sears, Roebuck and Co. http://www.afn.org/~poultry/capon.htm
There is a link on the bottom for the actual instruction booklet that I guess came with this kit. Looks like the catalog in from the 1930's, wonder if they are still available? That would be a hoot asking the sears sales person where the caponizing kits are located and if the show us how it works

Cory