Anybody on here ever heard of Caponizing ?

[scbatz33]

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These discussions always remind me of the story of "the little red hen" for that very reason.....

 

[scbatz33]

J.R. Richards :

Ok here go's,
When I started raising chickens 3 years ago, I was interested in capons. I read everything there was on caponizing chicks. They are done early between two and three weeks. It's a very simple proceedure once you know what you are doing. I simply asked around and found an old Judge that was an old capon chicken farmer and asked him if he could show me this proceedure. After loading up 25 of my chicks, I headed over to his place that was about 56 miles from me. After doing five for me, he said now you finnish up the rest. There are very many misconceptions about caponizing here on this forum. The largest breed of chicken today will not get as big as a capon and the taste is not the same. I choose to raise capons as there are hardly any farmers raising them anymore and did not want to see this fall by the wayside as many things do because of people would rather take the easy way out. There is no super bread that can come close to a capon. If you think it's somehow cruel for someone to do this proceedure, then don't do it. just for the record, all of my 25 chicks survived this very simple proceedure. If you think you want to caponize, just hunt down the oldest chicken farmer in your area, if there are any farms left, and have an old master mentor you on how it's done. By the way, my capons averaged between 16 and 18 pounds, none of my Jersey Giants or Super X rocks ever came anywhere close to that size. I love my animals as much as the next person and when caponizing is done properly, it's is very safe and sound proceedure that can be accomplished in a matter of 15 seconds or so. I have 14 roosters as pets, and getting ready to place this years order for my meat birds and getting more hens for eggs. I have 72 hens now and have a variety of each standard breed, americanas are one of my favorites.

I think there is a disconnect when talking about people and their 'pet" chickens and those of us who are more into the "production" view of raising chickens. I had to take a poultry production course in college and to me chickens, like sheep cattle swine horses etc, are livestock.

I love my birds, they give me great pleasure to go out and watch them. I take good care of them. I worry over all of my chicks before they hatch and as they grow. but at the end of the day, they are livestock and they serve a purpose - either to be sold or to be eaten.

I have worked in veterinary clinics, animal shelters and on farms (Iwas not raised on one) and I have seen animals suffer. castration, if done properly, in any animal can be don safely and with minimal pain. However, an animal's threshhold fro pain is much greater than a humans. So to equate what we view as a painful situation to an animal is like comparing apples to oranges.​

 

[ibpboo]

Thank you all for this interesting thread.

 

[warmfuzzies]

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Just a side note- A lot of people castrate bull calves the same way as pigs- we call it 'cutting', as in we need to cut that bull. You can also do horses the same way. I personally think the only advantage to the clamping method is they dont lose blood and you can do it to older animals. You can't cut older bulls or they loose a lot of blood. But, I would think the pain is actually less with cutting, as it is over faster. The younger calves do good, some dont even seem to notice, though I am sure they do.

Is it the same for roos maybe, the younger they are, the less painful and stressful it is? It is also the same when you are docking dog tails, you do it when they are about three days old.

 

[warmfuzzies]

OK, sorry for the double post.... I just had another question. If you are going to practice on dead birds, do you have to do chicks, or could you wait until they were butchering age, and then do it before you butcher them?

I know, it would be a little different, as they would be more mature. But it would still give you a feel for it, and you wouldnt be wasting the chicks. That way you could still have them for supper that night.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Yeah you could do that, it's not going to be the same but it's going to be really close. The problem with older birds is the fact that there is an artery that is next to the testes and when cutting out the testes it's easier to nick the artery when the bird is older... resulting in death from internal bleeding after you close them up.

 

[jvls1942]

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I believe warmfuzzy's chickens would already be dead, so bleeding would not be a problem..

One thing to consider.. in the young bird the testicles are not developed. in a butchering size bird the testicles can be huge. keep in mind you have to fit them through the ribs..

 

[warmfuzzies]

Has anyone got anywhere on this? I was telling DH about it and he said he isnt going to be doing it anytime soon! He can do cows but not chicks...

 

[chinese capons]

I am China caponizer
Would like to make some friends
Photos of my library address http://picasaweb.google.com/zmyanji

E-Mail [email protected]

 

[horsejody]

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