Rooster or Hen? Thoughts on de-sexing?

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Those animals have their testicles on the outside of their body cavity. Poultry do not. You have to go into their abdomen, and underneath organs to get them.

If someone cuts off my breast or otherwise pulls out one of my kidneys, it’s all going to be equally painful and unappreciated! And of course for a male, insert testicles instead of breast. Yeah, none is going to be happy about any of that!

 

[BelovedBirds]

So what happens with pigs and cows and such being castrated? Does that seem like a walk in the park for them? Ouch! And newborn human babies given nothing for circumcision? Wow, talk about ouch! I heard my sons screams and I will never forget them. I’ve heard that those experienced in caponizing perform this is less than one minute. Then a happy roo for 10 years if this is done for pet reasons. I held my dying chicken at the vets office, tears streaming down my face, begging for them to give her something for the pain and the vet says “We have no approved pain meds for chickens because we eat them.” The medical profession as a whole is a joke, whether for animals or people.

Like Jacin said, it's a less invasive surgery
Also as far as I'm aware, this procedure is most often done by vets for these animals, with proper tools and the possibility for pain relief.

For a bird? At home? High chance of death and definite suffering and extreme stress.

 

[BelovedBirds]

So what happens with pigs and cows and such being castrated? Does that seem like a walk in the park for them? Ouch! And newborn human babies given nothing for circumcision? Wow, talk about ouch! I heard my sons screams and I will never forget them. I’ve heard that those experienced in caponizing perform this is less than one minute. Then a happy roo for 10 years if this is done for pet reasons. I held my dying chicken at the vets office, tears streaming down my face, begging for them to give her something for the pain and the vet says “We have no approved pain meds for chickens because we eat them.” The medical profession as a whole is a joke, whether for animals or people.

Also that is really awful of the vets.
I keep ducks, and when my duck was hurt the vet gave her pain medication, it was just like what is given to dogs.
And it worked perfectly for her. Even if it did cost a pretty penny!

If the rooster in question is such a beloved pet, I don't see why other options aren't available, other than castrating. It's completely ridiculous to me.

An animal like a dog needs to be castrated so it can't impregnate a female and end up with unwanted puppies. It is a good option to prevent suffering from overbreeding or creating a bunch of homeless dogs.

A female dog is best of spayed for the same reason and it can benefit her health.

For poultry none of these reasons apply. You can prevent breeding by collecting the eggs and house the roosters in a way that does not cause overbreeding to the hens (or at least avoid this issue, that's a whole other debate).
There is absolutely no reason for castrating a rooster.

 

[Holdthechicken]

If someone cuts off my breast or otherwise pulls out one of my kidneys, it’s all going to be equally painful and unappreciated! And of course for a male, insert testicles instead of breast. Yeah, none is going to be happy about any of that!

I think we can (should) all agree that all creatures are meant to keep their reproductive and all general organs in tact if possible.

I heard my sons screams and I will never forget them

I am sorry that you had a terrible experience with your child, that’s just awful.

In the case of farm animals, humans have created necessary solutions in cases of meat quality or safety for those farming the animals. You can eat a fully developed male chicken without spoiled meat, and while a rooster can cause damage, not to the same extent as a horned billy goat or bull.

I think the argument for caponizing a rooster gets muddled when people want to do it just because they don’t want their animal to crow, it’s not a safety issue for the chicken keeper, it’s not a quality issue with the meat, and it’s not guaranteed to keep the animal from crowing and arguably does not improve the animals life.

But like you, I love all my chickens and wish there were better options..or less regulations where roosters can live, cause in my opinion my hens are continuously louder than a few crows a day.

 

[tripletfeb]

It was said before but bears repeating. Roosters can be prevented from mating with hens, by keeping them separate. Eggs can be collected daily to keep them from developing. If you don't want to eat the eggs that may be fertilized, you know the options to solve that issue. Whether you like it or not, chickens are farm animals and are classified as such. Even if yours are pets to you, they are farm animals to the majority of chicken keepers. Therefore we will not caponize our roosters and risk them dying because of the surgery. And we can't get baby chicks with a caponized rooster

 

[Smokerbill]

But like you, I love all my chickens and wish there were better options..or less regulations where roosters can live, cause in my opinion my hens are continuously louder than a few crows a day.

I think it depends on the chicken. Some days my cockerel probably crows over 100 times and it starts to drive me batty, especially on a nice day when the windows are open. Other days, not so much, maybe 20 ror 30 times. I'm sure some only crow a few times.

 

[Smokerbill]

It's a good discussion, but the OP hasn't posted here for a long time, and it looks like the OP resolved the problem.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...a-black-australorp-roo.1582436/#post-26892734

 

[Holdthechicken]

I think it depends on the chicken. Some days my cockerel probably crows over 100 times and it starts to drive me batty, especially on a nice day when the windows are open. Other days, not so much, maybe 20 ror 30 times. I'm sure some only crow a few times.

True, my dad had one that crowed every few minutes, all day, his entire life.

My boys crow pretty regularly throughout the day but I swear my RIRs and barred rock girls are gossipy and LOUD about it .. just bock bock baaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggoooooock all day.

 

[Smokerbill]

True, my dad had one that crowed every few minutes, all day, his entire life.

My boys crow pretty regularly throughout the day but I swear my RIRs and barred rock girls are gossipy and LOUD about it .. just bock bock baaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggoooooock all day.

Haha! Mine just crowed twice in 15 seconds!

Make that 3 times in 25 seconds...

 

[FunClucks]

Caponization is supposed to occur no later than 5 wks old, so that the incision stays small and the testes are very small and can be removed completely and quickly during the incision. It must be performed before the animal matures in order to prevent male behaviors. Anesthesia is not used because it's very hard to calculate for individual birds (presents more of a risk of killing the bird than the surgery does). Done properly by someone who knows what they're doing, the procedure takes a couple minutes. It heals within a week or so if I recall correctly. A one year old rooster has testes that are approximately 1.5-2" long and 3/4"-1" wide, shaped like a kidney bean, and at least half an inch thick. I don't even want to imagine the incision through the breast of the bird that would be needed to remove both testes of that size, another reason they do the caponization while the birds are small.

Caponization is meant to allow a bird that is headed to the dinner table to grow larger, for longer than 16-20 weeks, while still having tender meat when processed, and also allows more flexibility in processing timeline. It was a valued and useful skill when the commercial chicken industry was in its infancy and the cornish cross did not exist. Nowadays, homesteaders may need this skill in order to produce a larger bird for the table, without relying on commercial chicken growers for chicks (which is what happens with cornish cross). But many folks get along just fine by growing out their roosters to 16-20 weeks only, or processing year old roosters via pressure cooker.

Caponizing cockerels to make pets out of them? Doesn't seem right to me. If you want a pet chicken that doesn't crow, I'd suggest getting a hen. But that's my opinion.