BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[LindaB220]

Awwwwww, LindaB!!!!  I'm so sorry!  I've been wondering where you were and never imagined it would be due to something this devastating.    Missed you on here and will be praying for you often. 

Thanks sweetie, I've been taking a month and I'm doing ok. Grateful for your kind wishes. I'm also grateful Aimee got me safely away before she made her decision.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

Thanks sweetie, I've been taking a month and I'm doing ok. Grateful for your kind wishes. I'm also grateful Aimee got me safely away before she made her decision.

I am very sorry for your loss. May the winds of change bring you comfort.
Best wishes,
Angela

 

[hellbender]

I just put the narrow backed (compared to the others) Chantecler cockerel in isolation to get cleaned out for dispatch tomorrow. Even being the smallest cockerel overall, He feels quite hefty and his thighs and breast are very meaty. Perhaps not much compared to a Capon but I'm just not in the mood to caponize older birds at this time and the walking Capons will only get more 'ripe' for later harvesting.

 

[DesertChic]

I just put the narrow backed (compared to the others) Chantecler cockerel in isolation to get cleaned out for dispatch tomorrow. Even being the smallest cockerel overall, He feels quite hefty and his thighs and breast are very meaty. Perhaps not much compared to a Capon but I'm just not in the mood to caponize older birds at this time and the walking Capons will only get more 'ripe' for later harvesting.

Yeah....I still haven't figured out the whole caponizing procedure. I understand it conceptually, but even practicing on butchered birds hasn't helped. I think my husband nailed it when he said, "You need hand's on instruction." Unfortunately, all of the "chicken people" I'm acquainted with around here think I'm either crazy for wanting to do this or simply don't know anything about it. The local poultry show judge we know told me very bluntly, "Just put all the cockerels in a pen together and let them grow out until you're ready to eat them. Don't waste your time with caponizing."

 

[Kassaundra]

Yeah....I still haven't figured out the whole caponizing procedure. I understand it conceptually, but even practicing on butchered birds hasn't helped. I think my husband nailed it when he said, "You need hand's on instruction." Unfortunately, all of the "chicken people" I'm acquainted with around here think I'm either crazy for wanting to do this or simply don't know anything about it. The local poultry show judge we know told me very bluntly, "Just put all the cockerels in a pen together and let them grow out until you're ready to eat them. Don't waste your time with caponizing."

I would be interested to know what actual experience that judge has w/ caponizing. If he actually has a knowledge base for that opinion or if he's just spouting what he's heard.

 

[DesertChic]

I would be interested to know what actual experience that judge has w/ caponizing. If he actually has a knowledge base for that opinion or if he's just spouting what he's heard.

I'm pretty confident in saying he's just expressing an opinion with no practical experience on this topic. He admitted that he's never eaten capon and sees no reason why it would make a difference. He's a super nice guy overall, but very set in his ways.

 

[Kassaundra]

I'm pretty confident in saying he's just expressing an opinion with no practical experience on this topic. He admitted that he's never eaten capon and sees no reason why it would make a difference. He's a super nice guy overall, but very set in his ways.

Just one of my many pet peeves, people w/ authority sounding off on stuff they don't know about, but b/c of their "authority" on related subjects their "opinion" is given the weight of an "expert"

 

[DesertChic]

Just one of my many pet peeves, people w/ authority sounding off on stuff they don't know about, but b/c of their "authority" on related subjects their "opinion" is given the weight of an "expert"

I've learned to take him with a grain of salt. He knows a lot about SOP for several breeds and I respect him for that, but I've learned the he and I have widely divergent perspectives concerning many issues in the chicken world. I like production birds, organic non-GMO feeding, etc., while he seems to favor "pretty" birds. Hence the reason I will probably never worry about entering any of my birds in a local show, even if they reach the SOP ideal. After attending one of the shows he was judging I saw a lot of really pretty birds, but the owners/breeders couldn't tell me much about production and some were downright insulted by my inquiries. I guess I'm just more prepper than poser?

 

[dfr1973]

Yeah....I still haven't figured out the whole caponizing procedure. I understand it conceptually, but even practicing on butchered birds hasn't helped. I think my husband nailed it when he said, "You need hand's on instruction." Unfortunately, all of the "chicken people" I'm acquainted with around here think I'm either crazy for wanting to do this or simply don't know anything about it. The local poultry show judge we know told me very bluntly, "Just put all the cockerels in a pen together and let them grow out until you're ready to eat them. Don't waste your time with caponizing."

Keep working on the idea with your just-slaughtered cockerels ... it will just "click" at some point. If anything, it is worth it to me just for the couple months' worth of peace for growing out, even though most of my attempts have been slips. One thing I read in an old caponizing book/let is that folks used some of the milder-tempered capons as chick nannies, and I have been trying that out here. Two of my good chick nannies ended up showing as slips, but one raised two groups of cockerels (one group was caponized, and the one full capon is my new chick nanny) and the other raised up all the splash Silkies.

Personally, I don't think of it as being a prepper to be so interested in the production value of our chickens. Might be part of why I joined and hang around this thread!

I see it as a more old-fashioned pragmatic mindset of demonstrating why our specific breeds or crosses were kept and done back in the day before our food production got so ... factory-like. I am also firmly convinced our eggs and chicken just taste better than what is available in the grocery stores nowadays, just as vegetables from the garden taste better than the produce section stuff in the grocery.

I'm preaching to the choir here ...

 

[gjensen]

Yeah....I still haven't figured out the whole caponizing procedure. I understand it conceptually, but even practicing on butchered birds hasn't helped. I think my husband nailed it when he said, "You need hand's on instruction." Unfortunately, all of the "chicken people" I'm acquainted with around here think I'm either crazy for wanting to do this or simply don't know anything about it. The local poultry show judge we know told me very bluntly, "Just put all the cockerels in a pen together and let them grow out until you're ready to eat them. Don't waste your time with caponizing."

Do not dismiss his perspective all together. He provided a view that holds a rather practical approach. When broken down to it's most basic form, that is essentially all that has to be done. He explained the simplest and most cost effective way to produce poultry meat. That may not be what you wanted to hear from him, but it is not un true.

Take in his perspective and find value in it. Sometimes taking in a perspective is like digging for something with value. You find what seams like a gem, and you bring it home to clean it off, and polish it to appreciate it.

I like gardening. I enjoy visiting gardens no matter how elaborate or how crude. I always walk away with a new idea or a more broad perspective. Often what I notice is what they emphasize, and why they do. I may still prefer what I do, and why I do it. They may have set my wheels to turning though. A gardener garden is an expression of him or herself. We can learn a lot about them, and about life. If we pay attention and listen.

If you are going to a poultry show, it is what it is. A poultry show. Go there to learn the different breeds, and why they prefer this over that. Learn what they have to share and offer. Do not try to make it what it is not. All of this to say to not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Concerning caponizing, you will learn it by doing it. If you kill birds learning the process, eat them. That is what we do. We kill birds and eat them.

The point in caponizing is to realize a young birds tender flesh at advanced ages and sizes. I enjoy this tender flesh by eating them young. No one else does this anymore because the grocery store bird is still tender and young. I will admit to wanting to try eating capon. It would be a unique product. But it is not an efficient way to produce poultry meat. It is an expensive way to produce poultry meat.

I do like the idea of producing capons for the holidays. A unique product for an occasion or occasions. Then there is the experience of achieving it. The mastering of a process, and another step in being another well rounded poultry man or woman.