Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1919 — OF INTEREST TO POULTRY GROWERS [ARTICLE]

OF INTEREST TO POULTRY GROWERS

It is especially important that surplus cockerels be utilized as capons to increase the meat supply. Capons, or male birds whose reproductive organs have been removed, increase in weight and their meat is of good ity.To determine the best time to caponize one should be guided by the age and size of the bird. A cockerel two to four months of age and weighing one and a half to two and a half pounds is a convenient-sized bird with which to work. There are three essentials to good results in caponizing. First, the bird should not be fed for 36 hours prior to the operation so that the intestines will be empty and the reproductive organs exposed: second, the operation should be performed in a strong light irf order that the 'organs may be clearly distinguished; third, one should have a good set of tools. The skilled operator can caponize a bird in a short time.. Birds which have been operated on should be placed in a house from which the roosts have been removed. Give caponized birds a soft feed for ten days after the operation, after which they may be placed.on a scratch food ration. The wet feed may consist of two pounds corn meal, one pound of bran and one pound of middlings mixed with skimmilk or buttermilk. The first two weeks capons should be examined for “windpuffs.” These can be easily relieved, by pricking the akin with a needle or a knife. Two or three weeeks prior to marketing, confine and fatten capons in crates. Every of garfi~nt“tMs'iimFadrtK to the appearance of and the profits from the bird.