Been lurking for years, finally decided to say hi!

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lcraft_chicken

In the Brooder
Jul 22, 2018
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Hello everybody! I have been a lurker on this forum for many many years, essentially since I was a kid. I'm now an adult and have broken into the world of chickens.

(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I have been fascinated with chickens in a theoretical way since I was a child, and it's been my dream since I was sixteen to have a breeding flock of barred plymouth rocks. I have an enduring fascination with capons - particularly after trying one for Christmas a few years back and being an instant convert. I got my very first batch of chickens this past February, and attempted to caponize my first cockerels. The much desired barred rock flock will be happening next year, and I intend to perfect my caponizing technique with a more modern touch - potentially selling surplus for meat, pets, or ornamentals.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Right now I have five.

(3) What breeds do you have?
I have two red sex-link hens, a barred plymouth rock hen, a red ranger hen and her caponized brother. All five are regarded as beloved pets.

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
I found out about this place googling about chickens when I was thirteen.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Honestly, my work and my hobbies are one and the same. See below.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I am a young farmer fresh out of university where I specialized in sustainable agriculture and animal behavior. I have a dog and a cat, and I'm currently working towards getting a small goat dairy off the ground. My life is currently consumed by developing my farm design. Most of my free time is spent reading about anything directly related to that end, or about chicken husbandry.
bubba.jpg chickens 1.jpg chickens 2.jpg chickens 3.jpg helen jojo.jpg
 
Hi and welcome to BYC - thanks for joining and also realising your dream of owning chickens. I wish you the best of luck with your projects.

As a seasoned veteran of BYC there’s no need for me to help you navigate - just make yourself at home.

Best wishes
Pork Pie
 
PouleChick said:
:welcome:welcome Hi and welcome! Sounds like you have some great plans.

Capons are very popular here in France - I've never tried them myself and do worry about pain etc for the birds as read it can be traumatic. What are your thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

Pain is something I was very concerned about, and it's why for several years I actually gave up on the idea of doing it myself. What changed my mind was when the only major commercial capon producer in the US went out of business. Unless I special order one online, there is no way for me to acquire capon locally. That got me determined to find out not only how to do it, but to find a better way.

My capon that I keep now as a pet was originally intended to be this year's Thanksgiving dinner, but I kept him because he was the only one out of my three attempts so far to survive. The other two died due to error on my part. Before I made an attempt at all, I read everything I could find about avian physiology, pain, and anesthesia. I also familiarized myself with the position statements of folks like the Association of Avian Veterinarians and the American Veterinary Medical Association to get a handle on where the modern consensus stands on the issue.

After I was done, I came away with some critical points:

1. Caponizing is an excruciatingly painful procedure because it involves cutting into highly innervated intercostal muscle. This isn't immediately obvious just by watching a bird having the surgery because birds express pain differently from mammals. The bird may appear calm and stoic, but that doesn't tell you anything about its internal experience of pain.

2. The top two causes of mortality in capons historically have been shock and infection. Bar none, these are the things you need to concern yourself with most.

3. Because of these things, caponizing can only be done humanely by offering some form of anesthesia and post-operative care including antibiotic therapy, aseptic technique, and pain killers. In a perfect world, this would be done with general anesthesia - but it can be done with local with caution.

This ideally means finding a veterinarian who can provide you with the drugs you need. In my current location, I had no access to a veterinarian for such a thing and I had to do my best with the materials I had. My capon that I have now was given an injection of penicillin just prior to surgery, and then given over-the-counter benzocaine injected into the skin and the intercostal nerve. He was given ibuprofen after the surgery for pain relief. If you have a veterinarian available to prescribe drugs, it's far better and safer to use lidocaine diluted to a safe dose with sterile saline. Carprofen is also better for this purpose than ibuprofen if you can get it.

I'm very glad that I will be starting my farm in a place where veterinarians are actually available for this. Winging it with the materials I had available was very nerve wracking.
 

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