At what age......................?

[Sylviaanne]

Oh my god, I didn't know we could caponize a rooster without anesthesia or anything! This sound so cruel. I stumbled upon this post and then read the referred article on caponizing. I am not sure I would ever feel ready for that.

If you attempt it Sylvia, please keep us posted to tell us how it went!

I will. I have a neighbor who has chickens but I'm not very friendly (?) with him, so I don't know if he knows how to caponize or not. My kids and husband have had more interactions with him, so I am going to get around to sending someone up there to talk to him. All the mailboxes are sitting together for this area and I told my husband that if he runs into the neighbor while checking the mail to ask him about it but knowing my husband, he will forget or won't feel comfortable asking so won't ask. LOL If he doesn't caponize, I'm thinking about posting on CraigsList to see if there is anyone somewhere local who does it. I have so many chicks right now that I thought I'd offer them some of my little cockerels in exchange. With my luck, they'd be over run with their own capons and not need any from me and want cash. LOL

I am a hands on type person and if I just can't figure it out, then I read up on it. LOL So I'd rather see someone do it and maybe have them teach me, before trying it all by myself.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Sabz, it's the lessor of two evils. Two million males are shredded each year at the hatcheries. Why? Because nobody wants them. Wouldn't it be nice to order 25 males and caponize them at 6 weeks and let them live for another 4-5 mo. You get a good meal, they get LIFE. Win-win.

I read that you can hypnotize them and I'd like to learn that also. I just don't if it's the same with chickens as it is with humans, after all chickens thinking and understanding is alien to our thinking and although we can be hypnotized not to feel pain, I really don't think chickens understand enough people talk to be convinced they don't feel pain. I think they can recognize some words, their names or when you are calling the whole flock but I just don't think they can pick up words like dogs can. Even with dogs, it might be repetition not understanding.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Kudos, that's the right mind frame.

Also, check out Page 109+ on Graphic Pics on my day of learning to Caponize. Thread You can order the BEST chinese tools from them also.

Thank you for the information. I am reading through it now. Sylvia

 

[WalnutHill]

From my lifelong experience with animals, they do not view pain in the same way we do. With humans, it seems we fear pain as much as or more than feel pain, and react in some interesting ways to anticipated pain.

Animals do not seem to anticipate pain. They do certainly feel it, but it does not seem that they "think" about pain in the same way. For the most part, their coping mechanisms seem more effective than ours, and horribly injured animals that have surgical intervention (amputation etc) are on the road to recovery as soon as the severe pain of the damaged limb is gone. Watch your dog at the vet's when it is vaccinated. My dog is being handled by a stranger in a strange place, and pierced with one or more needles, with no understanding of why it is happening...and he flinches less than I do.

Caponizing is a surgical procedure that really isn't any worse than docking lambs' tails, castrating pigs or steers, or any other typical farm surgical intervention. Bird metabolisms are extremely fast...they get sick and die before you know there is a problem, or a major wound is well on its way to healing within a very short timeframe. If that's the right solution for you, do give it a try. My three roosters are Sebright bantams, so I don't think caponizing would have any benefit for them. They are crowing their little heads off at 3 months and need to go.

I wonder how it would work on turkeys. I might try it next year. It would cut down on the "battle of the toms".

 

[LindaB220]

From my lifelong experience with animals, they do not view pain in the same way we do. With humans, it seems we fear pain as much as or more than feel pain, and react in some interesting ways to anticipated pain.

Animals do not seem to anticipate pain. They do certainly feel it, but it does not seem that they "think" about pain in the same way. For the most part, their coping mechanisms seem more effective than ours, and horribly injured animals that have surgical intervention (amputation etc) are on the road to recovery as soon as the severe pain of the damaged limb is gone. Watch your dog at the vet's when it is vaccinated. My dog is being handled by a stranger in a strange place, and pierced with one or more needles, with no understanding of why it is happening...and he flinches less than I do.

Caponizing is a surgical procedure that really isn't any worse than docking lambs' tails, castrating pigs or steers, or any other typical farm surgical intervention. Bird metabolisms are extremely fast...they get sick and die before you know there is a problem, or a major wound is well on its way to healing within a very short timeframe. If that's the right solution for you, do give it a try. My three roosters are Sebright bantams, so I don't think caponizing would have any benefit for them. They are crowing their little heads off at 3 months and need to go.

I wonder how it would work on turkeys. I might try it next year. It would cut down on the "battle of the toms".

I sure would ask about the turkeys. I think I read in an old book that it didn't benefit them. Maybe the rowdiness.

 

[WalnutHill]

I think it would only benefit late hatched turkeys that have to hold over until spring (over 9 months old at harvest). The juvenile toms hatched in February-April and harvested in November definitely don't reach full maturity in that time though they do scuffle and gobble a lot. Right now Daddy Tom is very distressed because his son Junior is starting to strut on the other side of the fence. Daddy Tom and Momma are going to a new home now to go start a new flock and I am keeping the best tom from the offspring.

I have a few toms I will be holding over this winter, one for breeding and a few for meat, and it may help keep things quiet amongst the meat birds.