Hello! I have recently decided to get into meat birds after about five years of raising layers + a few pet guinea fowl. My first attempts at it are arriving Apr. 1st from McMurray Hatchery--- 7 Cornish (Regular, not CX) cockerels.
Recently, I have been seeing a lot of threads about caponizing. Would I need to caponize them? I know Cornish take 5-6 months to reach butchering size, and that they would start acting like roos at (and correct me if I'm wrong) 8-10 wks. I have not had roos before so I don't know their behaviour exactly, but I do know they can be aggressive to each other. Would I be able to keep them in a 275-300ish sq. ft. run together that long?
I really don't want to caponize, no offense to the people who do it but it looks painful to the bird. If the answer to my question is yes, I will probably just change the order to hens.
Sorry for the all the stupid questions, like I said I am a major newbie.
Also, semi-off topic, I had a thought after reading some of the caponizing threads- has anyone considered considered using human sore-throat spray to numb the area to be cut before caponizing? Just an odd thought, I haven't actually researched it so I don't know if chickens are immune to it/it doesn't work for some reason, etc. but it seemed like an interesting possibility to make the operation less painful for the bird.
Recently, I have been seeing a lot of threads about caponizing. Would I need to caponize them? I know Cornish take 5-6 months to reach butchering size, and that they would start acting like roos at (and correct me if I'm wrong) 8-10 wks. I have not had roos before so I don't know their behaviour exactly, but I do know they can be aggressive to each other. Would I be able to keep them in a 275-300ish sq. ft. run together that long?
I really don't want to caponize, no offense to the people who do it but it looks painful to the bird. If the answer to my question is yes, I will probably just change the order to hens.
Sorry for the all the stupid questions, like I said I am a major newbie.
Also, semi-off topic, I had a thought after reading some of the caponizing threads- has anyone considered considered using human sore-throat spray to numb the area to be cut before caponizing? Just an odd thought, I haven't actually researched it so I don't know if chickens are immune to it/it doesn't work for some reason, etc. but it seemed like an interesting possibility to make the operation less painful for the bird.
