GRAPHIC PICS of my day learning to caponize

[dfr1973]

Awesome thread! I have white jersey giants and black and blue langshans coming in a week from SandHill. I won't be caponizing until next year's hatch, but I'm subscribing to this thread so I can keep up on what you all are doing.

Glad to see you finally joining the fun, BC. Given the time frame, you should have ample time to read the entire thread. I did over the winter, and I recommend it. Also gives you time to get a set of tools.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

This thread is really taking off! Welcome

 

[Kassaundra]

True enough. So I went to an Essential Oils and Chickens site on BYC after googling "use of essential oils on chickens" and turns out people use lavender for trauma and nutmeg for pain.

That is interesting.

 

[dfr1973]

This morning's score: out of 4, I have one capon, one probable slip, and two full cockerels. One of the cockerels is from last week, and he was not inclined to hold still again. The other is a red broiler, who was too jumpy to comfortably operate on. In fact, I am not going to try on any more of the red broilers, as they are all jumpy/nervous/high strung. Three GLWs for tomorrow morning, then four on Saturday morning.

I did a slight variation on the grab-and-pull method of extraction. I grabbed, twisted, then pulled a bit and twisted some more. Along with making it much easier to snip the wound-up membrane, and reduce bleeding, it also helped keep track of the pieces when the testes broke. These are all a little more than 14 weeks old, so the testes are getting a bit fragile before expanding, I believe.

 

[LindaB220]

This morning's score: out of 4, I have one capon, one probable slip, and two full cockerels. One of the cockerels is from last week, and he was not inclined to hold still again. The other is a red broiler, who was too jumpy to comfortably operate on. In fact, I am not going to try on any more of the red broilers, as they are all jumpy/nervous/high strung. Three GLWs for tomorrow morning, then four on Saturday morning.

I did a slight variation on the grab-and-pull method of extraction. I grabbed, twisted, then pulled a bit and twisted some more. Along with making it much easier to snip the wound-up membrane, and reduce bleeding, it also helped keep track of the pieces when the testes broke. These are all a little more than 14 weeks old, so the testes are getting a bit fragile before expanding, I believe.

Yeah, last years hatch only had super blue egg layers which has high anxiety level so I didn't even attempt any of them. Just dead birds. So this year maybe I'll have some roosters available from my docile white rocks.

 

[Neuport]

I did a slight variation on the grab-and-pull method of extraction. I grabbed, twisted, then pulled a bit and twisted some more.

Nice going! On the two I have done, gently pulling, slightly twisting caused them to come right out with no need to cut with scalpel or scissors and no bleeding. One was 5-6 weeks with little jelly beans and the other was significantly older with 1 inch long testes. Both came out easily with gentle persistent tension.

 

[Neuport]

The rooster I did earlier his week is not yet calm by any means but he is definitely getting better. When I picked him up from the prior owner he was pretty wild and appeared not to have had much if any handling. He refuses to take any food by hand; we even tried tempting him with some meal worms. My daughter is working on him though and she is very patient. I think she will get through to him. We are calling him Winner Winner as a reminder of his ultimate purpose.




We let him have some time in the run today with the others. I was prepared to snatch him up if needed. It was very uneventful. Some chest bumping and a very little pecking was about it. A couple of the smaller hens stared him into submission; he stared down and or put the foot down on a couple of others. Over all there was no drama and they looked like they would get along fine. We did take him back to his box for the night thinking it would be best to ease him into the flock over a couple of days. BTW, we put down a yard of sand in the run tonight and they loved that.

 

[farmhand]

jbkirk- Remember when a bird dies on the table, continue your learning. Use cotton or paper towels to absorb the blood, and continue the procedure. Turn the bird over and try the other. One other thing to try with a flighty bird is to cover the head with a dark cloth to calm them down. Try again another day.

I'm just in the reading stage so far. Would a head hoody which lightly cinches around the neck help calm the rooster with lights out?

 

[Neuport]

A sock works also.

 

[dfr1973]

This morning's score: two new capons and a possible slip. The last teste I took out looked like it *might* be missing a small piece, but I didn't see anything when I looked inside again.

This is slowing getting easier.