Great question. We have considered this for a long time, and we continue to explore the idea. There are a lot of opinions on it, but at the end of the day, it seems like something worth doing if you can do it well. We are not ready to start doing so yet, but I expect it will be something we continue to study and investigate. How about you, have you given it a try?
-SF
Actually, I have. I decided to learn to caponize over the course of last winter. So I read everything I could, and finally took the plunge this spring. I guess you could say that I am self-taught. I lost my first one, but none since, I bought straight run AB chicks and ended up with 4 extra cockerels. Since there is a learning curve involved with caponization and the chicks were not cheap, I was hesitant to caponize them until I felt more competent, so they ended up being 10 weeks old before I caponized them. I caponized some mixed flock dual purpose males raised by a broody hen, and some White Rocks, Orpingtons, and Giants that I bought this past spring before I caponized them. The Bresse are 20 weeks old now, and I am growing them out with the other white males. I have ended up with one Bresse slip, but the other three appear to be full capons. It was absolutely amazing to watch those huge red combs shrivel and turn pink within about two weeks following the procedure. I need to make pictures of the capons and the intact males to show the difference between the two since they are the same age.
My Bresse pullets aren't laying yet, but I am looking forward to getting eggs to incubate to have younger cockerels to caponize, because the last cockerels that I caponized were 4 weeks old, and seemed to tolerate the procedure extremely well. They were a mixed breed lot that I incubated from my dual purpose layer flock in order to hone my skills a bit, and to determine what age seems less stressful for me and the birds. I have approximately 30 birds total that I have caponized, but a few of them are slips.....another part of the learning curve.
I have pullets from the same mixed hatch that are 13-14 weeks old now that I am going to poulardize in the next week or so to see how they turn out meat wise. They have to be older than the cockerels because the oviduct has to be large enough to identify(it is about the size of a piece of dry spaghetti at this age). Removing the oviduct actually prevents the ovary from developing, which I find very interesting. Apparently the poulard is even better than the capon in terms of the meat quality, and they are supposed to grow more quickly than a laying pullet because they aren't spending energy to make eggs. I guess I will find out soon enough.
It is going to be interesting to see how the three full capons compare to the slip when I butcher them in terms of the meat.
