Caponization

[Wolf-Kim]

Anyone here have any experience with caponization? Ever eat a capon? Have you yourself ever caponized? Please share any experiences!

Just another thing I was learning about and was hoping to get a few first hand experiences!

Thanks
-Kim

 

[rooster-red]

There are a lot of threads on this subject, here's a link to 1 https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=40782

Try using the search function using caponizing as the key word, lots of good reading out there.

 

[arlee453]

Caponizing is very rarely done anymore since the advent of the cornish X meat birds. It used to be done to get a large tender bird for the table. Since the cornish X fills that need, caponizing is not done very often.

Never the less, there are those who still do use the technique. Here's one website with good information:

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Caponizing.html

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Okay. Thanks. I didn't even think of searching the threads, just because I thought it would be a less common subject.

Thank you!
-Kim

 

[greyfields]

Yeah, I've eaten them from speciality meat markets. But, there really is no point with the meat hybrids available to us. It seems like an unnecessary ordeal for the bird to experience, just to get a bird which is probably inferior to a modern broiler anyhow.

Lots of threads on this.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Greyfields, did the capon you ate taste any different from the normal rooster?

-Kim

 

[twigg]

Caponising is illegal where I come from!

 

[tx_dane_mom]

Quote:
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...

 

[d.k]

* Would it be necessary to capon a roo for the table anyway, or could you raise it on broiler feed to whatever age broilers are 'dressed'? (un-dressed??).

 

[silkiechicken]

Even if you caption, the bird lives though it, and you feed it high protein feed in a box, it can't reach the weights the meat birds reach. My baby meat birds have been gaining about an ounce a day for the past 8 days of their lives... they are now 12 days old... and 9 or so ounces each.

Captionizing is not quite like a dog or a cat, but is rather intensive. You have to get them just old enough but not too old and cut into their backs, pry apart some ribs and hope to find the goods and pull them out. Almost like trying to remove a human kidney in my mind. Never tried it before though and probably won't ever so maybe my mental analogy isn't quite right.