GRAPHIC PICS of my day learning to caponize

[TaraBellaBirds]

ON a couple of threads they create a table of contents for the more useful posts and attach it to the 1st page. I would think it would take some time but this would be the perfect thread for something like that!

 

[SharkmanDan]

If the gawd-awful, inhumane, treatment of chickens, by Tyson Foods and others, is legal, how would this NOT be legal?
I recently injured myself, doing bumblefoot surgery, on one of my New Hampshire Red hens. I had to go to my physician, for treatment, and was a bit hesitant, but needed to tell him, that the scalpel, which had JUST been in her foot, to debrede it, got dropped, and went through my shoe, into the top of my foot, thereby infecting me, with the Staph, that was in her foot. Unexpectedly, my doc said that similar injuries, are common, around here, because folks simply cannot afford to take a $3-$10 chicken, to one of the few Veterinarians, able to work on them, and pay hundreds of dollars. It would then be more likely for the bird to be slaughtered.
So, same concept here. While the bird does feel the pain, it is far more humane, than the alternative. Besides, humans get battlefield surgery, nearly every day, in war, under similar circumstances (no anesthesia, severe pain) and survive, because it is performed by trained people, who simply lack a degree in Veterinary Medicine.

 

[Mehjr10]

Any pics of the restraining techniques? little confused on how that works. Anyone in California teach this? If you are willing please PM me.

If you jump to page 109, you have some images of the bird restrained.

 

[Sylviaanne]

It took about five minutes on each side. The testes were huge, and I wanted to be sure they were removed intact. The older the bird, the more fragile the testicles become. I needed to hold the spoon tool under the testicle as I cut with the wire tool. I did not want to have to hunt around inside the body cavity for a legless jellyfish.

How is the coming clinic going? Getting more people to sign up?

 

[BCMaraniac]

Caponized 4 Bresse and 4 Marans today.......

I had a 16 week old Marans pullet that I was planning to sacrifice to learn the anatomy for poulardizing, but decided to give poulardizing a try since she was older than any of my attempts last year, but was not showing sexual development. Her ovary was easily identified right where you would expect the left testicle to be in a cockerel, but is larger and white. I could easily identify her oviduct laying up against the back with a large blood vessel underneath it. It was easy to loosen the oviduct, so I removed about an inch of it, the section closest to the ovary along with a piece of the lower pole of the ovary. With the anatomy identifiable, it was definitely easier than caponizing.

I think the key to the poulardizing is going to be finding the age at which the pullet is old enough to visualize the oviduct, but the ovary is not yet maturing. I think that age is going to vary according to the specific breeds and their age at POL. The age recommended in the literature is 12-14 weeks, but that was too early for me last year with the Marans crosses. The Bresse pullets are usually laying by 20 weeks, so I anticipate needing to poulardize them at a younger age than 16 weeks.

I have more Marans pullets the same age as the one today, so I may try to poulardize them this week.

It's going to be interesting to see if this pullet starts getting her " boy feathers" in the next few weeks.

 

[TeaChick]

This is a fantastic post! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Long time, no see; maybe PM me some time.

 

[jcinadr]

Will mention how I did this weekends batch - just to joke about low tech. We have a bunch of metal trash cans at the house (were feed cans at one time - perhaps again). I used 3 (and a yard chair), one to my left was for trash (feathers and accidents), one in front upside down with a large cutting board on the one in front, and one to the right (upside down) was for tools. I had 2 C clamps on the bottom left and upper right of the cutting board. I hung 2 water bottles (about 12oz) from strings, through the hoops the clamps made to restrain the feet/wings. Head got a baby sock. After I would get one side, I would flip the bird over and rotate the cutting board.

For whatever reason I tended to have issues finding the 2nd testicle. Several birds had them very deep. Started with 14 birds, ended with 13 (but the joke was all the birds escaped the holding pen - but somehow we found 2 extra birds. I suspect my stepson miscounted). There was some feed on the floor, so they got a bit of a pre-surgery snack (but not enough to complicate the procedure).

This was my stepson's first day - he did very well. 2 dead on the table (one of which was his first try), one shortly afterwards. Oh, I left one slip - could not find his 2nd testicle. 12 capons.

One more batch to go on this years hatching.

 

[Kassaundra]

Will mention how I did this weekends batch - just to joke about low tech. We have a bunch of metal trash cans at the house (were feed cans at one time - perhaps again). I used 3 (and a yard chair), one to my left was for trash (feathers and accidents), one in front upside down with a large cutting board on the one in front, and one to the right (upside down) was for tools. I had 2 C clamps on the bottom left and upper right of the cutting board. I hung 2 water bottles (about 12oz) from strings, through the hoops the clamps made to restrain the feet/wings. Head got a baby sock. After I would get one side, I would flip the bird over and rotate the cutting board.

For whatever reason I tended to have issues finding the 2nd testicle. Several birds had them very deep. Started with 14 birds, ended with 13 (but the joke was all the birds escaped the holding pen - but somehow we found 2 extra birds. I suspect my stepson miscounted). There was some feed on the floor, so they got a bit of a pre-surgery snack (but not enough to complicate the procedure).

This was my stepson's first day - he did very well. 2 dead on the table (one of which was his first try), one shortly afterwards. Oh, I left one slip - could not find his 2nd testicle. 12 capons.

One more batch to go on this years hatching.

Congrats! Restraining equipment doesn't need to be elaborate or expensive, some in the videos use their feet and the ground. You have had a great start you should be very proud of your success.

 

[Pinkaboo]

Why would you poulardize a chicken?

 

[TeaChick]

Oh, speaking of chicken testes...When I butchered my extra roosters a few weeks ago, the first two I did had three. When I first started, I thought, "If there had been two of these white-ish things, I would think they were the testes, but IDK what they have three of."

The rest had two, and your pictures confirm that I was right.
Why did a couple of them have three???