BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

That looks painful. At what age do you perform the surgery

I had originally thought you needed to use younger birds, like 5 weeks or so, but was thankfully enlightened about being able to caponize older birds. I have some cockerels that are 13 weeks old that I will be caponizing in the very near future...as soon as I've gotten enough practice on a few of my culls and have built up the nerve to perform the surgery on a living bird.

 

[JRNash]

I'm not REALLY scared to try this.lol
I am worried about not being able to see that well.

 

[hellbender]

Caponizing still a topic?

This being a production thread, the capon deal does raise it's head now and again.

 

[hellbender]

I'm not REALLY scared to try this.lol
I am worried about not being able to see that well.

All you need is a good light and in my case, my daughter bought me a magnifying set of glasses with light included.

Where there's a will or need or just plain desire...there's a way...

 

[hellbender]

That looks painful. At what age do you perform the surgery

Depends upon the person and their skill level. Some do it at three to four weeks. I'm more comfortable with 6 to 8 weeks.

As for painful, I'm not going to sat they don't feel it but I dis-budded some baby goats a few days ago and I'd bet the goat kids would gladly exchange the comfort levels.

 

[JRNash]

Lol

 

[gevshiba]

Gjensen, we agree to disagree on this topic. Recently a spectacled cobra killed it's owner and escaped in the dallas area. As far as i know its still loose. Zoos loose control of animals all the time and they have vast resources. IMO there is no justification for private citizens to have animals in their possession that are such a danger to the public. Animals follow their nature.IMO that's where they belong. I DON'T go around killing every snake I see. AS LONG AS I SEE THEM. From the comments I've read I know YOU are NOT one of the nut jobs. IMO there are too many irresponsible people with access to exotic wildlife often with fatal consequences

Just to ease your mind, the cobra was in either Austin or Houston and was found dead on a road. It was an 18 year old that had the snake. Why an 18 y/o kid has a cobra, I don't know.

 

[JRNash]

That's was my point.lol

 

[hellbender]

I started hunting timber rattlers when I was about 14 years old but always with a buddy or two. (We kept our own snakes) but a timber ratter is not a cobra or taipan. If they had been here and there had been a market for them, the top price would have been far more than $35 bucks each...but I would have still hunted them.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

Does anyone know at what age you can apply wing bands?

At any age. To be fair, I found it easier to handle week-old chicks than day-olds. I used colored sharpies to mark chicks hatched from different pairs, and wing-tagged at a week old, with colored zip ties loosely applied at 2-3 months of age. It is working well for me so far this year.
Angela