GRAPHIC PICS of my day learning to caponize

[Zootopia]

The lady teaching me is local to my area found her on the Okie thread here on byc.  She is awesome and has had very good success even at older ages.  There is a local (several hours away but still in the state) vet school that will caponize here, but she has a better success rate then them (at least w/ the people I know that have gone to the school to have it done)  She has agreed to help me when my batch just now hatching are ready.  When this batch finishes hatching I will over the several week grow out time mark the females I want to keep everyone else will be caponized or pollardized and grown out for food.

Pollardized??? I gotta learn to spay now too?? Wow, never even heard of it. Teach us please Kass

 

[Kassaundra]

Now, think about that......who would want to pay $50 to have a rooster caponized just so it can get big enough to eat and not be tough??? You would think they would do it for free in order to get the experience.....but they may not want to do it so they make it so costly that no one will bring their roos in.

The people I know that did it, did it not for meat but pets, so they could have the pretty roos, that they thought were females at first and not have the fighting, or over mating of the actual girls.

 

[Kassaundra]

Pollardized??? I gotta learn to spay now too?? Wow, never even heard of it. Teach us please Kass

I haven't actually done it yet, but it is actually more simple then the caponizing, since the birds only have one ovary. That is why when you caponize you start on the left side incase it is a female, you can abort the surgery w/o damaging the female. So you only have one organ to remove on the one side, at the same age/weight as you would have for the young boys (you cannot do the procedure on older females). Instead of looking for the "kidney bean" shaped organ, you are looking for the "pea" shaped.

The reason you are even doing it at all it so the DP female has time to grow into a larger, tastier bird. Doesn't waste time and energy growing a reproductive system she will not use and uses that time and energy to grow bigger. She will not look like male or female when she is grown. By all accounts the pollardized female is as good or better meat bird then the caponized male.

 

[BCMaraniac]

The people I know that did it, did it not for meat but pets, so they could have the pretty roos, that they thought were females at first and not have the fighting, or over mating of the actual girls.

Oh, OK. The roos are definitely pretty. Some suburban ordinances don't allow roosters either because of the crowing. Kinda like having their dog or cat neutered. Makes sense.

 

[bbsnooks]

Several avenues may be available for finding a willing teacher.

Try asking on your state byc page.
Talk with your local agriculture extension service who may know of someone.
Talk with your feed store agents, if someone capons they will know about them.
Pose the question "In Search of" on your local/state craigslist farm and garden section.
What state are you in?

Great Suggestions.. I live in Kansas.. will try your suggestion.
and thanks Kassaundra for bringing all this information to the post.. and forum.

 

[bhaus]

Any chance you have or can find photos of a poulardizing procedure. I'm still having trouble with clutch of straight run birds - I just tried two and could not locate the testes. I will wait til morning for the others as they just haven't fasted enough. Thought it would be nice if I knew better what to look for in an ovary. Also what ages are you still able to poulardize?

 

[PoultryGirly]

I feel dumb for asking this, but what is caponizing?

 

[bhaus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutering

Male animals

Neutered males of given animal species sometimes have specific names:

• Dog
• Cat, ferret – Gib
• Cattle – Bullock, Ox, Steer, Stag
• Chicken – Capon
• Deer – Havier
• Goat – Wether
• Horse, Donkey – Gelding
• Pig – Barrow
• Rabbit – Lapin
• Sheep – Wether

Female animals

A specialized vocabulary in animal husbandry and fancy has arisen for spayed females of given animal species:

• Chicken – Poulard
• Ferret – Sprite

 

[Kassaundra]

Any chance you have or can find photos of a poulardizing procedure. I'm still having trouble with clutch of straight run birds - I just tried two and could not locate the testes. I will wait til morning for the others as they just haven't fasted enough. Thought it would be nice if I knew better what to look for in an ovary. Also what ages are you still able to poulardize?

I don't have pics now, but will have after I do the procedure, as far as how old is to old, I'm not sure there is not alot of detailed info out there. Are you starting on the chickens left side? That is the side the female ovary is on, actual locating the testes has been hard for me too, and why I asked my mentor to come help me w/ this batch, I was trying to locate on practice chicks that had not been fasted before they died of other causes so I'm thinking it will be easier on fasted chicks.

 

[bhaus]

I don't have pics now, but will have after I do the procedure, as far as how old is to old, I'm not sure there is not alot of detailed info out there. Are you starting on the chickens left side? That is the side the female ovary is on, actual locating the testes has been hard for me too, and why I asked my mentor to come help me w/ this batch, I was trying to locate on practice chicks that had not been fasted before they died of other causes so I'm thinking it will be easier on fasted chicks.

Thanks. My current clutch (straight run) is 5 1/2 weeks. And I processed a couple last night - they were not sufficiently fasted - and then a couple different ones more this morning. One male I located and removed one testicle and just can't find the other (tried from the right side too - no luck). I'll be interested to hear what you learn of the ovary. I examined a female and did not see anything particularly distinct from the intestines. These was a structure pretty tightly attached to spine that may have been the ovary. If it was, then 5+ weeks is likely too old.