Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[BCMaraniac]

So Taste is still to be resolved. I do know there is a Foodie market for Capons.... And thankyou for rambling on about the benefits and the practicalities of doing this. So I take it you are good at sexing your chicks because from what i have read it has to be done while they still have fuzz....

Do you use the feather sexing method or can you vent sex....?

deb

I don't do either. The youngest that I have caponized were 4 weeks old, so I do more comparison sexing than anything. Combs, relative size to the hatch mates, etc. If there is any real question about one, I just wait until it declares itself. One of the sources I read says is you can't determine by feathering or other means at the 4-6 week mark, pick them up and swing them around until they make noise......though I am not quite sure exactly what that means......, because the cockerels have a higher pitched voice than the pullets. Since I read that, I have noticed that there seems to be different sounds that the capons make compared to the pullets.....but that is probably just my imagination and the power of suggestion.....LOL.

Most sources recommend caponizing at 4-8 weeks of age, because it is less stressful on the bird, the testicles are smaller and less fragile, less bleeding and therefore it is easier on the caponizer. That age range usually is sufficiently broad to be able to get them all sexed properly.

 

[Kassaundra]

So Taste is still to be resolved. I do know there is a Foodie market for Capons.... And thankyou for rambling on about the benefits and the practicalities of doing this. So I take it you are good at sexing your chicks because from what i have read it has to be done while they still have fuzz....

Do you use the feather sexing method or can you vent sex....?

deb

They are usually not younger then about 4 ish weeks (1lb) the average age is about 4-8 ish weeks when most are done for food purposes. They can be done much older for those who have sneaky boys posing as girls that want to be kept as pets (or eaten for that matter just usually if you are doing it for eating they would have been done much younger)

I can almost always pic my boys out by that age.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Its the Jewish version of butter or cooking fat. All that fat you toss from your hens is rendered down to just the fat. It can also be skimmed off soup stock and have the liquid removed.

Making Schmalz

The little bits left over from the rendering are often used as seasoning for different dishes. They are crunchy kind of like cracklins.

deb

In my neck of the woods, cracklins were put in cornbread......

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:

 

[perchie.girl]

So I take it FF can be used for Ducks too?

deb

 

[AletaG]

Quote:

Caponizing a Cornish cross is foolish in my opinion. The whole reason for caponizing is to allow the roo to grow past sexual maturity and gain weight and fat w/o the added boy hormones mucking up the meat keeping it tender and tastey. No crowing or hassle w/ the female chickens and no fighting between the males. None of these are a problem w/ cx as they are harvested long before any of this is a problem.

I totally agree, but since he'd never tried it before, and he knew I was waiting for a batch to learn on, he called me over... and they're on the never again list now, along with Araucana's (I think that's what he said), apparently they have a similar structural issue with the placement of the hip bone to the ribs.

Except the point of learning and practicing caponizing is to be able to grow your own from your own stock w/o having to purchase chicks from a hatchery every time.

Do you mean caponizing the roosters that are born in a hatch? No more than a person would get, is it worth digging around in their backs to yield a perceived flavor difference? I for one cannot really distinguish between the taste of a hen and a rooster..they both pretty much taste like chicken.

Or, having to hatch 50 chicks to get 15 'extra' hens, and doing what with the cockerels? Making doggies snacks out of them at first crow? This will make the numbers game so much simpler for me... Has nothing to do with how it tastes... just the numbers game, like I said. And Schmalz. Boy that stuff is good.

Oh and I meant to mention the Chinese tools work so much better b/c they are designed specifically for this purpose, while most of the retractors that are used are repurposed from other specialties.

Ooh. I just purchased a vintage set... But where do you find the ones you are talking about? If I get good enough at it, I'm sure I'll want to upgrade.

So Taste is still to be resolved. I do know there is a Foodie market for Capons.... And thankyou for rambling on about the benefits and the practicalities of doing this. So I take it you are good at sexing your chicks because from what i have read it has to be done while they still have fuzz....
Do you use the feather sexing method or can you vent sex....?
deb

My mentor picks them out by weight, no more than 2lbs, and usually, once you get the hang of the breed you keep, should know who's who by then... except apparently Icelandics. Still chuckle. I got a free trio 'cause 2 hens really did show cockerel-ish traits at first... I've seen a few Chinese videos where they do them much smaller, but I think I'll start with them this size first! Good luck, deb!

 

[Kassaundra]

Poco Pollo on the caponizing thread has ordered some for several people on that thread. I do not know if she has ordered extra or not. It is a contact she made while searching high and low for that specific set. She has bought several times from them and know they are reliable and honest. The whole set has good tools, but far and away that retractor is the bomb! There is also a technique w/ the thread and thread tool that is not apparent what is being done in the videos, but she has figured it out. We are wanting to have another session together specifically for more pics w/ the specific Chinese tools.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
So crowing is the real issue and not so much the taste? Guess I never really thought about keeping roosters past 6 mo. anyway if they are extras, because you have to feed them past that age as well and I find the expense of feeding a bunch of roosters vs. gaining a little extra meat is not in my wheel house. I'd just break down and get meat birds if I was going to have to feed roosters for a year. I can't imagine a DP bird, capon, hen or rooster, getting more tender the longer you keep them around.

So the real issue is having birds that crow on the property but not so much about the taste of the bird. I can see where that doesn't compute with me because I don't use an incubator, nor do I hatch out large batches of chicks under a broody, so the issue of having a lot of crowing birds on hand has never really arisen. When you have an older rooster and then raise up younger ones, they don't often crow much...just the big cheese crows when crowing is to be done. Out where I live, I'm the only one to object if a rooster crows.

Neutering roos will not be in my game plan but I guess it's nice for folks who live in urban areas...I'd probably be more interested in it if I had to worry about neighbors or hatching with incubators and such.

 

[BCMaraniac]

So crowing is the real issue and not so much the taste? Guess I never really thought about keeping roosters past 6 mo. anyway if they are extras, because you have to feed them past that age as well and I find the expense of feeding a bunch of roosters vs. gaining a little extra meat is not in my wheel house. I'd just break down and get meat birds if I was going to have to feed roosters for a year. I can't imagine a DP bird, capon, hen or rooster, getting more tender the longer you keep them around.

So the real issue is having birds that crow on the property but not so much about the taste of the bird. I can see where that doesn't compute with me because I don't use an incubator, nor do I hatch out large batches of chicks under a broody, so the issue of having a lot of crowing birds on hand has never really arisen. When you have an older rooster and then raise up younger ones, they don't often crow much...just the big cheese crows when crowing is to be done. Out where I live, I'm the only one to object if a rooster crows.

Neutering roos will not be in my game plan but I guess it's nice for folks who live in urban areas...I'd probably be more interested in it if I had to worry about neighbors or hatching with incubators and such.

Actually, there will be more meat than a young cockerel would be at the time of butchering. Plus, because of the lack of male sex hormone, the meat doesn't get stringy and tough, and more fat is distributed through it, making it more succulent. Because they are more docile and aren't expending the energy that young roosters do chasing the girls and fighting with each other, they gain weight with less food than a rooster would.

I live in a very rural area too, so it isn't about the crowing for me. It's about sustainability of the meat source and making the most of each bird.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Schmalz? It's my turn to be lost now....

lol

now I feel a little better.