GRAPHIC PICS of my day learning to caponize

[Kusanar]

@Ningauble3020, using co2 seems like a really bad idea, especially with baking soda and vinegar.

Ok, I have to point out that this comment combined with your crazy scientist avatar made me giggle

 

[Ningauble3020]

. Anesthesia is rough for chickens. Chickens have a series of interconnected air sacks, so the process of respiration for chickens is much different from mammals. At the start of this post, I put a link to a short (2 min) video of a man caponizing cockerels. Watch what he does. You don’t see the prep, but his birds were fasted before he began work. Proper fasting before caponizing and then correct positioning and stretching of the bird, one quick incision in the correct place (the intercostal space between the last two ribs), and complete removal of the testicles by cutting the vas deference attached to each testicle is the best way to create capons. If you want further information, please contact me through my website. My contact page is working but my retail pages aren’t finished. MousePotatoFarm.com. I’ve been caponizing birds for about ten years, and I don’t think reinventing the procedure is good for you or your birds. Reduce stress and trauma for the bird by practicing on cadavers first. Learn the anatomy before you start to work on live birds. Study the procedures practiced in China. They have schools, much like our tech schools, where people pay to attend and learn how to caponize as a career.

Thank you very much! I appreciate that. The injectable calcium chloride at 20% has been used in a wide variety of mammals with better outcomes in dogs, cats, humans, guinea pigs, rats, mice and pigs. It leads to less inflammation and better survivability. I've not come up with anything new. I'm not that smart or brave! I hear of a lot of mortality when nicking an artery whereas with an injection directly to the testes, that seems safer for a newbie learning these practices. I have chickens coming and I've tried to get cadavers with no success. No one will sell me a cadaver to practice on. Unfortunate as I would vastly prefer to practice rather than going live. I've watched hours of dissection and caponizing videos. The chinese ones haven't been instructables, just some dude on the street who is skilled, but a casual video view, not that great...and too fast for me to learn. The big concern is minimizing pain, increasing survivability and reducing puffing and infection. In short, I want to do this ethically, even though the capons will be dog, cat, catfish, crayfish, freshwater shrimp, and wife food. I want them to be stewarded the best way I can before slaughter. Any bird that suffers I will put down mercifully and feed as ground meat to my dogs and cats. They won't ever go to waste, not a scrap. I will watch your materials and thank you for informing me on this.

 

[Ningauble3020]

Here's a few I read on the CO2 for euthanasia and for analgesia and anesthetic ...there's a lot of risk there for sure but I don't want the birds to suffer and I'm not sure how else to go about the analgesic piece of the process. I don't want to hurt the birds more than the minimum amount.

co2-euthanasia-of-swine-and-poultry.pdf (illinois.edu)
PoultryWorld - CO2 stunning for poultry - worldwide interest
Gas mixtures for anaesthesia and euthanasia in broiler chickens | World's Poultry Science Journal | Cambridge Core
Carbon Dioxide Stunning (Updated September 2018) (grandin.com)
PowerPoint Presentation (meatinstitute.org)

and one more, the one that taught me how to build a euthanasia/anesthesia chamber for CO2:
Small Animal Euthanasia at Home (alysion.org)
Thanks everyone!

I

 

[annageckos]

Remember that birds and mammals are very different and what works well on one may be very bad for the other. Also CO2, I do have experience with using it. Not for birds, but with small animals. I started out with the vinegar/baking soda route, I wouldn't recommend it. IF you must use it go with a tank like used for paintball. You have very little control over the CO2 with the vinegar/baking soda method.

 

[Poco Pollo]

Here's a few I read on the CO2 for euthanasia and for analgesia and anesthetic ...there's a lot of risk there for sure but I don't want the birds to suffer and I'm not sure how else to go about the analgesic piece of the process. I don't want to hurt the birds more than the minimum amount.

co2-euthanasia-of-swine-and-poultry.pdf (illinois.edu)
PoultryWorld - CO2 stunning for poultry - worldwide interest
Gas mixtures for anaesthesia and euthanasia in broiler chickens | World's Poultry Science Journal | Cambridge Core
Carbon Dioxide Stunning (Updated September 2018) (grandin.com)
PowerPoint Presentation (meatinstitute.org)

and one more, the one that taught me how to build a euthanasia/anesthesia chamber for CO2:
Small Animal Euthanasia at Home (alysion.org)
Thanks everyone!

I

If one is euthanizing 20,000 broiler chickens simultaneously, then gassing the facility makes sense. The rest of your plan... I suggest you study and practice first.

 

[Kusanar]

I have chickens coming and I've tried to get cadavers with no success. No one will sell me a cadaver to practice on.

At the very least you could get whole birds at the grocery store to practice on. A lot of them still have the testicles in them, if not, you can at least get used to the tools and finding the right spot.

Or, you could kill a few birds and work on them dead before moving on to live ones.

 

[Poco Pollo]

@Ningauble3020 - Have you considered raising the males until they are at butcher weight without caponizing them? They will be ready for the table at 4 months - feed milk-soaked grain (many people prefer corn) for two weeks prior to butchering. To improve the marbled meat, confine your birds to reduce exercise in the final two weeks. If you are serious about learning to caponize, consider ordering a fry-pan special (all males) from a hatchery and then use those males as your practice group.

 

[Ningauble3020]

At the very least you could get whole birds at the grocery store to practice on. A lot of them still have the testicles in them, if not, you can at least get used to the tools and finding the right spot.

Or, you could kill a few birds and work on them dead before moving on to live ones.

That's a great idea. Why didn't I think of that!

 

[Ningauble3020]

@Ningauble3020 - Have you considered raising the males until they are at butcher weight without caponizing them? They will be ready for the table at 4 months - feed milk-soaked grain (many people prefer corn) for two weeks prior to butchering. To improve the marbled meat, confine your birds to reduce exercise in the final two weeks. If you are serious about learning to caponize, consider ordering a fry-pan special (all males) from a hatchery and then use those males as your practice group.

Another cracker of an idea! Yes, very good idea.

 

[Ningauble3020]

Remember that birds and mammals are very different and what works well on one may be very bad for the other. Also CO2, I do have experience with using it. Not for birds, but with small animals. I started out with the vinegar/baking soda route, I wouldn't recommend it. IF you must use it go with a tank like used for paintball. You have very little control over the CO2 with the vinegar/baking soda method.

Ok glad to hear your viewpoint. I was suspicious that the baking soda & vinegar would be close to a lethal dose and would only permit very brief dipping of the chicken into the gas maybe only a few seconds and would be dicey. Then if the are unconscious they may just expire and reviving wouldn't work. I may just ice the incision site until they don't react to a pinch and get the job done.

The problem with the ice route is twofold. I understand that chickens get hypothermia easily when you open them up. So adding ice might chill them and increase mortality. The other factor is damage to the dermis and epidermis through frostbite but that's pretty remote i think.

Anybody use surgical staples to close the incision? I'd hate to go through all that work and get a lethal infection.