OH MY- I found the mother of all Capon threads.
Been searching on and off for this one for a bit (pretty much since my wife told me we were going to get a flock of Bresse- now only need a few days to read it. I will thank you in advance for all the work everyone has put into this.
fwiw I am the generation that has lost the art. At one point in my families history we raised turkeys, chickens, and sheep (but only cattle in my lifetime). Years ago when he was going through a chest long unused ranch tools, I recall a small box or a cloth sack with tools - when I asked about them my dad said they were for caponizing. We talked about it just a bit, he did some when he was younger - but when I asked why he stopped he paused and essentially said it was not worth the time. It was the way his generation saw things - and not altogether untrue - using the same time at his day job more than purchased the vegetables not grown in the garden, or the chickens not raised in the backyard. They had moved on from living off the land (2 generations - his grandparents were the last). My father only maintained the cattle ranching side - and that was mostly out of obligation to tradition than anything else. I managed to kill that tradition as well.
Anyway, last week I went out and looked at our old "incubator" Don't think it was an incubator - probably a hatcher - and it was 8x the size of a Dickey, so maybe a commercial turkey hatcher (dad said his grandmother raised turkeys - so maybe). I have not opened either of the boxes of long unused ranch tools since my father passed away-but know where both are stored. Will see if that bag of tools is still tucked away for the next generation to use. Also need to look arround the ranch some more - who knows what other chicken stuff is still stashed away - but don't think I am going to luck out on brooders... More I research, at least the more I know what I am looking for.
In the meanwhile, will read and reread this thread, dream about what tools my father might have used, and keep collecting eggs for the second staged hatch for the incubator (first 48 went in Sunday), hope to set about the same again next Sunday, and perhaps the Sunday after that as well. I am also temped to pick up some random roo chicks now. Sadly I know their will be casualties, kind of would prefer it to be on chicks I have less time invested in.
Oh, forgot to mention I live in a small rural town. My neighbor has caponized before, so will most likely try to do the first few with him. If he falls through, I have a few other friends (who learned in Ag classes) and a ton of acquaintances (who learned from parents and grandparents) that can most likely help.
