The Great Capon Experiment

[RareBreedFancier]

Yup, it's illegal here too, as I found out today while researching it.

Sorry to hear about today's slips. Hopefully they will be ok. Worried about the one it dropped back in.

Glad your first batch are doing well. Interesting you can tell the slips and capons already. Would love to see pics of them as they develop to compare them.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

How are they and you doing Tiffrz?

 

[GJ_Kate]

Just read this whole thread and am very interested in how things are going! I have been wanting to find something other than a Cornish X to raise for meat and I already have assorted DP hens and one EE rooster. Not sure I could actually do it, I'm just squeamish.

Maybe reading your results will give me a boost! Plus I doubt hubby will appreciate me thinking about ANOTHER project (cause he knows he'll just have to take it over).
Do they do this with turkeys at all?

I have Bourbon red turkeys....

Good luck!

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

Quote:
i have heard of it done with turkeys but don't really know much about it i think i saw something about it on one of eatmorechickens links

 

[valley ranch]

Greetings, After my brother returned from the service, WWII, he opened a poltry outlet on our ranch. This thread is the first I've heard of Capons or Caponettes, if i spelled it correctly, for years. I haven't read all the posts on this thread.
We bought capons and caponettes as chicks and raised them for sale to the public cleaned and cut up ready to cook.
We were told a pellet was injected into the comb that stopped the sex production of the chicks and that energy was used to produce flesh. They gained much more weigh then standard chicks and much faster.

When I was a boy I raised one capon for a pet, a Plymouth Rock. Once the pellet wore off he became a full blown rooster much heaver and bigger than the others on the ranch, he was the toughest around.

I never heard it had become illegal.

I'll read more of the posts.

 

[Holly31]

Hi All,
I've been gone a while, but wanted to check in and see if anyone has been caponizing this summer. I didn't caponize any of my boys this time, finding that people wanted roos, now they don't want roos. I give up.

However, a community member has a roo that he wants caponized. The roo is much older than he thinks, at least 4 months old. I attempted to caponize the bugger, and I'm pretty sure I found the testicle on the left, but I could not find one on the right; there was a VERY large white ball inside that kept getting in my way. After a while we closed the bird and they are going to bring him back in two weeks so I can look for it again.

HOWEVER, in the middle of the night, I siddenly realized that the big white ball is probably, well, a ball after all ! I forgot they get large, but that thing was about the size of a kumquat. has anyone opened a mature roo for dinner and found white kumquats inside with the entrails? Good God that thing wouldn't have come out the incision I'd made in his side! AND, i am curious, does one testicle atrophy in the same way one ovary atrophies in a hen? If that is so, that would explain A LOT of confusion I was having yesterday.

I have read some intersting things about how testicles can be transplanted from one to the other by just popping them into the body cavity thereby making a capon a rooster again, although incapeable of inseminating; but the endrocinology is fascinating.

So my two questions are : does one testicle atrophy like a hen's ovary, AND, was that giant white kumquat a mature testicle? I have never removed anything larger than a navy bean before.

ALSO, I found a simple way to anesthesize the bird, although it is probably not practical for most of us. I put about 1 ml of Sevoflourane on a couple of cotton balls, placed them in a plastic baggie sandwich size, and placed the roo's head in the bag, but didn't close the bag to allow for some room air to circulate with the Sevo. It was highly effective and he prompty recovered within 30 seconds of us removing the bag. But, the cotton balls were dry in about 30 minutes, so have to work quickly. The trouble is getting the Sevoflourane - it is restricted to doctors (DVMs) and so you need to beg your vet for a cotton ball of Sevo and convince them you are not going to abuse it. it's also very expensive, but each cotton ball would give you time for one or two roos if you are quick. Isoflourane would probably be just as effective, but it's not quite as safe as Sevo.

Has anyone come up with some better tools yet?

Hope all of you are well and up to your ears in chickens! Holly, Las Vegas

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Holly, I have no clue how big a kumquat is, but I have seen "golfballs" in a rooster. I thought I had cleaned him out pretty good, then went to wash the body cavity. POP, the white golfballs popped up. Startled the heck out of me. I've only been processing birds for about a year.

Search for the thread titled "Huge testicles" and read all about different poultry. It was a popular thread a few months back, lol. Hope this helps you. I've learned a lot from your thread. Thank you!

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

I did not caponize this summer, but I did buy a 5 acre farm outside the city limits so once we get all moved in, I will get started again. I have a buttload of eggs in the incubator and plan to caponize the roos.

One of the capons I processed had a pebble sized thing in him that had to be a bit of residual testicle. I did not notice any difference in weight, but I did think the capon was broader across the breast and a bit less chewey than the roo.

They were both salivatingly delicious! And the STOCK! Lord have mercy it was a meal by itsself. I am itching to be done with this move so I can get some decent chicken back on the table.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Congrats on buying the farm! You'll have so much freedom to do what you want out there.

Glad to hear how yummy those birds were, keep us posted on the next round.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

Tried it with 25 BSL. 1 kept his bits, got processed at 11 wks as he was a NASTY bird. 2 didn't make it, I tore the aortas. 22 did fine. At 14 wks, 1 is a broody boy and stayed with neighbors vs moving. The rest all are over 10 lbs easy.