The Great Capon Experiment

[ben&momschicks]

Tiff, Please keep us updated. I am very interested in this project. I would love to not have to rely on those hatchery cornish x that, for whatever reason, just die. I do use every extra roo, no matter how scrawny, but a capon that could be left alive until I needed it would be great. I feel that anytime a vet is involved, the cost would skyrocket. Every living thing has to feel pain from time to time, including me. They seem to recover quite quickly from castration and I would like to learn to caponize also. For the record, all my pets have been neutered or spayed by the vet, but they squeezed every cent that they could from me in the process. Castrating a cat at home just doesn't seem very inviting to me. Karen

 

[Stefrobrts]

I've gone ahead and placed my order for straight run BOs, plus some extra pullets to sell. We'll see how it goes. I also plan to try to keep close track this year of how much the birds eat so I can figure out how much it really costs to produce what we do. Of course, there are many intangible benefits, like the joy of raising little fuzzy butts, or as we call them 'McNuggets'

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

Barred Rocks F. -
I do hope you'll consider joining in, it'd be nice to have some company in this. I don't take this venture lightly, and it surely will have some down sides. But, lots of people, both here and i-r-l have expressed interest in caponizing. Since I live in a city, the ban on roosters prevents us from raising decent sized roosters for broiling and I hope this can be a viable alternative for some of us 'city folk' who don't want to be completely beholden to 'the man'.

There are several threads on figuring feed pounds to meat pounds, but they are mainly geared to CX or other broilers. The gist I got from it was to expect to feed about 2.5 - 3 lbs of feed for each pound of finished bird weight. Of course those breeds are feed-to-meat converting machines! I will be interested to see how capons do since I am looking at a longer period of feeding, probably a larger bird in general say 7-8 lbs and birds that are not using the feed for reprodictive development.

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

Stef -

McNuggets!

Stealing that.

 

[snowflake]

Were do you live? I would love to try this with some one as I am chicken to try it on my own. I have hens that are good setters but there are always a #of roo's and finding them homes is impossible and waiting for them to get large enough to butcher means my hens take a beating and lots of fighting with each other. I have read the meat is more tender then regular roosters

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

I'm in Texas. However, with the internet, you have lots of support wherever you are.

Anna - I was worried about that. A friend is a vet so I am going to ask her about the possibility of a topical anesthetic and the benefit/liability of numbing the area before cutting. I want them to suffer as little as possible, but I don't want to do MORE harm by numbing than if I just get it over with quickly. (As an aside, she is only licensed for domestic small animals, dogs and cats and the like, so she CAN'T work on my animals or she faces losing her livelyhood. How's THAT for an Eff You from the powers that be?)

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

They're here! I though the ship date was supposed to be today, but they were shipped yesterday (via AIRMAIL no less) and arrived today at noon.

And I couldn't be happier because they sent ALL the same breed. Araucauna/Ameraucanas! Talk about getting a chance to work with the leftovers of the hatchery world! Everyone wants the hens for the colorful eggs, but the roos are the redheaded stepchildren. I know they won't reach CX production levels, but if they can 'be all they can be' I will consider this a success. And I do realize that all I may prove is that it's not worth caponizing. I am good with that as an outcome as well.

Initial stats:

104 shipped

- 2 doa
_____
102 live peeping babies eating and drinking and pooping just like they're supposed to.

I did not weigh yet because I got to thinking that all day old chicks start about the same size. I will start weigh-ins on Saturday. That way any that are going to 'fail to thrive' will not be in the weight stats.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

VERY neat thread!

 

[CDennis]

Great thread, I can't wait to see your findings. I

 

[shanyalv]

Who did you order them from ?