Why don't we eat rooster's/capons...

[User]

 

[Deleted member 1258]

We had a capon on new years day, large and very tasty. Its something we don't normally eat, don't see them very often, which is a shame.

 

[Greedo]

...instead of gassing them? I've just been watching Horizon, all about our eating habits since the war. We used to gas them on hatching. Seems such a waste.

Would you eat cock????

 

[Arch]

We had a capon on new years day, large and very tasty. Its something we don't normally eat, don't see them very often, which is a shame.

We had one for Christmas! Ordered from a local butcher. Huge it was!

 

[wafflycat]

Not sure about capon. Capon being a castrated chicken and as in a bird, the testes are well inside the body, it's not a simple or pleasant thing to do to castrate one.

 

[Gareth]

A lot are frozen and go to the pet food trade to feed: Reptiles, Snakes, Ferrets and Birds of prey.


My two Red Tail hawks eat 1 &1/2 day old chicks each, every other day, the other days I fed them Rats, Quails and Rabbit pieces.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Weirdly were discussing Capons today, when a kid we had them often. There's a region of Hungary where Chicken Testicles are a delicacy.... I gobbled them up...

 

[Greedo]

Weirdly were discussing Capons today, when a kid we had them often. There's a region of Hungary where Chicken Testicles are a delicacy.... I gobbled them up...

spat my drink out there laughing. Nearly came flying out my nose

 

[wafflycat]

Wonder what they did with the newly hatched roosters once gassed? Probably fed them to pigs I suppose.

As regards chickens bred as egg-layers, the day-old male chicks are killed (gassing IIRC). As ob viously the males don't lay eggs
.
As regards chickens reared for meat, they are kept & bred as normal part of flock as the birds are killed off at a matter of weeks old (6 for standard intensively reared birds, 12 for the slow-maturing free-range types). The birds have not reached sexual maturity before slaughter, so it's not an issue as regards tainted flavour.

 

[Riverman]

I agree. I imagine the capon would live for the same amount of time as a female bird.

Personally I just don't eat chicken, simple solution. :-) One of the easiest meats to cut ouf of your diet.

 

[Cubist]

Crock, there's a huge market for day-old chicks bought by owners of snakes, birds of prey, and anything else that would eat them.

Wafflycat, I believe they caponise them chemically, although there were surgical methods used.

We once hatched a clutch of eggs that turned out to be 9 cockbirds and three hens. Within a very few weeks the adolescent little cocks turned into utter hooligans, and the entire yard was littered with feathers from the fighting. Enough was enough, and we put them all into the freezer. The meat from the roosters was tough and stringy, whereas caponising means they would have put on weight without burning it all off by ********* and fighting.......

 

[wafflycat]

I agree. I imagine the capon would live for the same amount of time as a female bird.

Personally I just don't eat chicken, simple solution. :-) One of the easiest meats to cut ouf of your diet.

Free-range only here.

 

[wafflycat]

Crock, there's a huge market for day-old chicks bought by owners of snakes, birds of prey, and anything else that would eat them.

Wafflycat, I believe they caponise them chemically, although there were surgical methods used.

We once hatched a clutch of eggs that turned out to be 9 cockbirds and three hens. Within a very few weeks the adolescent little cocks turned into utter hooligans, and the entire yard was littered with feathers from the fighting. Enough was enough, and we put them all into the freezer. The meat from the roosters was tough and stringy, whereas caponising means they would have put on weight without burning it all off by ********* and fighting.......

One of the reasons I haven't bought a clutch of fertilised eggs for The Laydeez to hatch. I would love to let The Laydeez hatch some eggs but 1. I don't have a cockerel 2. I like my neighbours and get on well with them so I won't be getting a cockerel 3. If I got a clutch of fertilised eggs in for one of The Laydeez to sit and hatch, I'd likely be in a similar position to the one you were in and as I'm not experienced in slaughtering hens, I'd be unsure if I was doing it properly. It's one thing reading up about it in case you have to dispatch a very sick hen occasionally (which I have done) should Mr Fox manage to get through the defences and leave a hen in a mangled state, but another if you intend to raise some that will definitely end up in the pot. It's not as if it's something that you can do a lot of practising first. Mind you, I am considering whether I should actually put myself on a proper 'smallholder: how to kill a chicken humanely' type course. It's not something I relish and I wouldn't enjoy it in any way, but is perhaps, something I really should do as I have a few hens...

 

[Cubist]

One of the reasons I haven't bought a clutch of fertilised eggs for The Laydeez to hatch. I would love to let The Laydeez hatch some eggs but 1. I don't have a cockerel 2. I like my neighbours and get on well with them so I won't be getting a cockerel 3. If I got a clutch of fertilised eggs in for one of The Laydeez to sit and hatch, I'd likely be in a similar position to the one you were in and as I'm not experienced in slaughtering hens, I'd be unsure if I was doing it properly. It's one thing reading up about it in case you have to dispatch a very sick hen occasionally (which I have done) should Mr Fox manage to get through the defences and leave a hen in a mangled state, but another if you intend to raise some that will definitely end up in the pot. It's not as if it's something that you can do a lot of practising first. Mind you, I am considering whether I should actually put myself on a proper 'smallholder: how to kill a chicken humanely' type course. It's not something I relish and I wouldn't enjoy it in any way, but is perhaps, something I really should do as I have a few hens...

Waffleycat, I can understand the sentiment to an extent, but as a country lad who grew up in an environment where everyone kept hens the art of dispatching something humanely was a vital lesson for life. Without criticising, I do think it odd that people keep poultry as pets. We used to keep them for the eggs of course, and they spent their lives in a happy free range environment, but once they ended their laying life they were turned into boilers. I know of people who pay for feed for ancient hens and then bury them with full honours, but it don't seem right!

Each to their own of course, and you seem to have a wonderful attitude towards the Laydeez.

As for wringing their necks, hens are a bit of a difficult one for me, as their characters make them personalised little beings, but it's possible to do it quickly and as kindly as possible. Of course if you don't get attached to them in the first place it's much easier. Game birds don't seem to stir the same sentiment, neither do rabbits.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I'm not experienced in slaughtering hens, I'd be unsure if I was doing it properly. It's one thing reading up about it in case you have to dispatch a very sick hen occasionally (which I have done) should Mr Fox manage to get through the defences and leave a hen in a mangled state, but another if you intend to raise some that will definitely end up in the pot. It's not as if it's something that you can do a lot of practising first.

Does no one in your household have experience in choking the chicken?