Had to cull our rooster. I have a (perhaps) NSFW question.

[Heather4nier]

Unfortunately, we had to cull and process him. He was a beautiful Buff Orpington, 5 months old, but he was super-aggressive. Upon processing (I.e, removal of innards) we found his gonads were HUGE!! Literally, the size of a pullet egg. Each. Has anyone else experienced this? I know often times at this age you should find bean-sized organs. But this large seemed a bit crazy to us.

 

[donrae]

The bean size reference seems to have come from Cornish cross, that are processed at 8ish weeks. When I process cockerels around 5-9 months, they're huge, like you're talking about. Absolutely no way to miss those things.

I did do a necropsy on a male chick that was about 5 weeks, they were rice grain size then.

 

[Heather4nier]

Well, this was our first cockerel processing. I guess we were a bit surprised as to see how quickly they grow up, so to speak. No worries, then! We'll be well prepared for the next one, should he make it known his desire is for cold steel. Peace, love, and chickens...

 

[aart]

That does sounds a bit larger than usual, might account for his super sized aggression.
Most cockerels I've harvested were less than 16 weeks and had kidney bean sized gonads.
Curious if others will chime in.