Michigan

[snowflake]

over the hill have you done caponizing? I would love to learn, if you buy chicks or hatch them you always get to many rooster. I have a 8 to 10 week old EE I am sure it is a roo but already have 1 to many. I have watched the thread several times but am chicken

such pretty green legs and puffy cheeks, I hate to put him down and I know I wont be able to find him a home.
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Google capons / caponizing. It's not as hard (and in other countries not as uncommon) as you might think.

 

[Olive Hill]

First of all...

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... lets not rush things, okay?

We live rurally, ag zoned, no neighbors, no limits and raise chickens for meat so extra roosters are not a problem here. For that reason I do not, there isn't a demand for Capon as a delicacy here and the growth difference is marginal so it just doesn't make any sense for me to do so.

I will say I would be willing to help someone else do so though if they were so inclined. I am always up for a little blood and guts; it's absolutely fascinating to me.

ETA a disclaimer in case any one were to misinterpret: I use "blood and guts" loosely. From what I've seen caponizing is much like castrating, very little actual blood and guts.

 

[NovaAman]

Oh heck Olive, I don't care if they crow. I love to hear roosters crowing. Its just that I have 6 too many. They are such beautiful boys though, and I would so rather give the little guys to someone who wants to breed some silkies. I didn't really think of casterating. Will that keep my main man Mr. Fluffers from fighting then? Thats the only thing I worry about. The fighting. I could seperate out all the silkie roo's from the rest of the flock, but then I'd have to keep them penned up, all of them, and they are all free-range right now. But if caponizing will make them like... well, its, and they don't fight, might be something I could talk to my vet about doing...

edited to add- I just read about it. It seems we are far past the caponizing age. Oh well.

 

[M.sue]

Nova....I would love to have another Roo but can't since I need more hens per each Roo. I would be afraid of them fighting and I think my girls would be miserable. I do have to say though.....I love to hear those boys crow too!! What about the Fowl Fest in Oct @ the Birch Run expo?? You might find homes for them there.

 

[ChicwannaB]

I was shopping an antique store this afternoon and talked to a guy who told me over in Caro theres a company who will butcher, defeather and bag your birds for $1 each. I'm looking to find the name of the store, I think it is The Big Acre.

 

[Olive Hill]

If they are truly free-ranged, not just given run of a small backyard, IME fighting is not of great concern. And I would be even less concerned with silkies. At times we have one hundred+ roosters here all free-ranged together; fighting is occasional at best and even more rare is a fight that is actually serious. In fact, I have never had a rooster v rooster fight end badly. I have had one serious fight here and I'm not even exactly sure what happened, but it was not between two roosters it was a rooster who got too big for his britches and took on a mature Tom Turkey. The turkey won. I put the rooster down. He'd gotten skimmed over when we rounded everyone up for processing and got real cocky after all the other roosters were gone, I suspect he went after a hen turkey and earned whatever whoopin' was handed down to him from the Tom as the tom in question has never been aggressive towards any thing before or after.

 

[M.sue]

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What is the ratio for hens per Roo? Is it 7-10 hens for each Roo? Can't remember. My grandfather

always had a few Roos but he also had plenty of hens too, like 100 or so.

 

[RaZ]

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Have you considered one of those portable garages? I've had one behind my garage for several years now and snow, wind and rain have never been a problem. I liked it so much that I bought another one about a month ago.

You can find them at K-mart, Harbour Freight, and TSC. TSC is the highest price by about another $150.

 

[ChicwannaB]

http://compare.ebay.com/like/230664816109?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y

bought one just like this today in the antique store, the booth was having a 25% off sale, I got it for $17 plus tax.

 

[RaZ]

The prof finally responded to my project proposal...
"Hello Randy,
I think this is an excellent idea for a GIS project. The main components would be data assembly, geocoding, map overlays and spatial analysis. This could all be done within ArcGIS.

Since the results are topical, you might want to share some of the results with other folks in Michigan. There is the potential to create a web mapping application out of some of the data. Let's talk more about it this evening in class."

To everyone who has responded so far, Thank You!

More respondants would be nice. Nag, nag, nag.