Caponizing my roooo?

[JBrook1941]

We got a rooster in our newly hatched RIR chicks about 6 weeks back. We are looking to rehome him but understand that is hard.

I have been thinking about having him neutered or caponized. He shows no aggression now and is a cool dude but he hasn’t gone through puberty yet.

Pros?
Cons?
Stop the crowing?
Stop the aggression toward the hens?
No fertilized eggs?
Stop aggressive acts on wife kids and I?

Really open to idea and thoughts here. God bless and thanks for the help.

JB

 

[fluffycrow]

From my understanding capons still crow, especially when they have already started crowing. No, he won't fertilized eggs after he becomes a capon. Not every male is going to be aggressive towards humans, so if your fear is that he'll be aggressive then I wouldn't go ahead with caponizing him. The procedure can be dangerous, especially if it's your first time doing it. Of course you can go to a vet, but I don't know if they'd specialize in chickens or know enough about the procedure to accept doing it

 

[JBrook1941]

From my understanding capons still crow, especially when they have already started crowing. No, he won't fertilized eggs after he becomes a capon. Not every male is going to be aggressive towards humans, so if your fear is that he'll be aggressive then I wouldn't go ahead with caponizing him. The procedure can be dangerous, especially if it's your first time doing it. Of course you can go to a vet, but I don't know if they'd specialize in chickens or know enough about the procedure to accept doing it

Sorry for confusion I would not be doing the surgery. I would go to a professional veterinarian.

I’m not worried about crowing so much as I am aggressive behavior towards my hens and my humans.

Just trying to find a way to keep him

 

[JBrook1941]

We got a rooster in our newly hatched RIR chicks about 6 weeks back. We are looking to rehome him but understand that is hard.

I have been thinking about having him neutered or caponized. He shows no aggression now and is a cool dude but he hasn’t gone through puberty yet.

Pros?
Cons?
Stop the crowing?
Stop the aggression toward the hens?
No fertilized eggs?
Stop aggressive acts on wife kids and I?

Really open to idea and thoughts here. God bless and thanks for the help.

JB

Additional info: I would be using a professional veterinarian and not doing this myself.

 

[fluffycrow]

Is he already attacking you or the pullets? Because having a male does not necessarily mean he's going to turn aggressive. How old is he? Are you sure he's a cockerel?

 

[JBrook1941]

Is he already attacking you or the pullets? Because having a male does not necessarily mean he's going to turn aggressive. How old is he? Are you sure he's a cockerel?

He is 6 weeks. He is not attacking anyone. He’s great. But we have a small window to caponize while young. Waiting around to see if he becomes a jerk is not ideal. And 100% certain he is a rooster.

 

[Hedgeland Farms]

Id say if you dont want a roo...
Or fear a roo...
Sell him off
Give him away
Or make stew...

Not sure if youre ok feeding a useless bird....

(Hed have no reason to be around if hes not fertlizing eggs....)

I know you said you tried to rehome...

I have too many to keep a non productive member of the chicken society...

 

[fluffycrow]

In my opinion it's just better to give him away to someone who can keep him intact

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum from Louisiana, glad you joined.

One reason to neuter cockerels, bull calves, colts, and a lot of other animals is that it changes their behaviors. It allows you to keep more than one male together without them fighting. It removes a lot of aggression.

You do not get guarantees with living animals regarding behaviors. Anything can happen, even a hen can become aggressive. Not all cockerels grow into human aggressive beasts. But neutering your cockerel will make him no more likely than a hen to become human aggressive. Maybe less so when you consider a broody hen can be aggressive when protecting her chicks.

One of your chickens will become flock master. With no rooster in the flock that is the dominant hen. She typically takes over many of the duties of the male flock master. With a capon in your flock that will probably not be him, it will probably be one of the hens.

Stop the crowing?

Probably, I don't know for sure.

Stop the aggression toward the hens?
No fertilized eggs?

These go together. By aggression toward the hens I assume you mean normal mating activity. An intact male will fertilize the eggs, that is nature. Typically once they mature that becomes peaceful but it can bed really rough to watch as they go through puberty.

Stop aggressive acts on wife kids and I?

Caponizing will reduce the possibility even below what those chances normally are.

We are looking to rehome him but understand that is hard.

It is real hard if you don't try. The more restrictions you put on it the harder it is. Most people that will take him would take him to eat. If you will only let him go to a forever home then it can be challenging but some people manage to find those situations.

I don't know where you are which makes it a bit harder to make suggestions. You can start a thread in the Buy-Sell-Trade section of this forum, giving your location in the title. Maybe you can find your state or country thread in the "Where am I? Where are you!" section of this forum and chat with your neighbors. If you are in the USA you can try Craigslist. If somewhere else maybe you have a similar possibility. Chat with people at the feed store. They may know of someone that would take him but they may also let you put a notice on a bulletin board.

Good luck and once again

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Caponizing is a pretty safe procedure… for those who have a lot of practice and have done it many times before. For someone who is doing it for the first time, even a vet, the surgery can be very dangerous, and if done incorrectly (everything isn’t removed), the rooster will still be able to produce testosterone and do normal rooster behaviors. Assuming the vet doesn’t have much experience with doing this procedure, it will be very risky for your cockerel.