Caponization

[greyfields]

Quote:
It just tasted like your standard grocery store chicken to me. It's never been done for flavor, it was just the only way to make large roasting fowl before poultry genetics improved. I would say it did not taste as 'strong' as a rooster. But, honestly, I like roosters because they're a bit different.

 

[tx_dane_mom]

OMG that discription made me NEVER want to see/much less DO this...I'm out

 

[Oblio13]

I read up on it at one point and even practiced on a couple already-dead roos. I decided that it wasn't in me to put a live bird through that. I'll just eat my excess roos tough and skinny.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Thanks everyone. I was just learning about it, it peaked my curiousity so I started doing some research on it.

I was thinking it would be a good way to deal with my cull cockerels. I have dual purpose, so the caponizing would not be for meat purposes only. I free range my flock, so it is hard to control what breeding goes on unless I have all my males locked up. I just figured eventually I would have a ton of extra cockerels and if I were to caponize them, I could let them free range with the hens until their number is up. Without the fear of my hens being bred by the culls.

I understand that being such an intensive surgery there would be a risk of fatalities, but this would only be done on birds who would eventually be eaten. My thinking was that if I caponized all the extra cockerels (1) they wouldn't have to stay crammed in a cage until they were a decent size (2) be fighting and beating each other up because they are a whole flock of roos in a cage (3) they would eat less as free rangers.

I haven't decided what I'll be doing yet. I'll try it on a few dead birds first for sure and then take it from there.

Thanks everyone for your input.
-Kim

 

[tx_dane_mom]

You really do make a good point Kim about them being able to 'play nicely w/other's'

 

[Wolf-Kim]

It would be nice to have a flock of long-feathered friendly roosters no?

 

[twigg]

No way...are you serious??????
I would think it would be a decent thing to do w/excess roosters, but nothing I have ever done myself...

Oh yes, I am deadly serious.

You would go to jail if caught doing it in the UK. Any vet found to be helping would lose their license.

It falls in the category of *causing an animal unecessary suffering*, and was banned some time ago.

Battery cages have gone the same way, so have veal crates.

Declawing cats, and docking tails beyond a legal minimum is unlawful. I could dock my lambs, but had to leave sufficient tail to cover the anus in the boys, and the vagina in the girls.

I wholeheartedly support all these laws, btw

 

[Wolf-Kim]

The vets can't even do that? That's crazy! Are the vets in the UK allowed to castrate any animals? Because if you think about it any 'preventative' surgery is unneccessary, castrating dogs, cats, cattle, horses. I just think it's strange that a docter(vet) would be banned from performing a surgery.

Now I can understand the 'cosmetic' surgeries, docking and cropping of ears and tails. Those do not usually bother me, as long as they are done under the hand of a professional and antibiotics and pain medications are provided.

-Kim

 

[RebelsHope]

For most castration the animal is either sedated, or the surrounding area is numbed, with caponizing, the bird is fully awake and aware of what is going on.

 

[arlee453]

For many if not most farm animals, they are NOT sedated or numbed before castration, if done at an early age.

I've seen an old farmer friend castrate fully grown billy goats without the aid of anesthetic, etc.

And, what about banding? I don't think sedation of any kind is used to do that...

And, I am not really 'cheerleading' for doing this type of procedure without anesthesia, I do have to say that in a chicken's case, they are VERY tricky to anesthetise without giving too much or not enought. The survival rate is probably better when anesthesia is NOT used (albeit probably not as much fun for the bird in the short term...)