84 CALIFORNIA POULTRY PRACTICE 



Favorolles .are good birds for caponizing; they are large and 

 have a good breast and the meat is white and of good quality. 



The largest capons are those having a Dorking or Orpington 

 male cross on the Brahma hen. These cannot be improved upon for 

 size, quality of meat nor quantity of breast meat. And that is what 

 people want who buy capons. They do not want a lot of leg muscle 

 to fight with but all the nice, juicy breast meat that is possible to 

 get on one fowl. 



This fact should be borne in mind when you attempt to create 

 breeds for capons: Always choose a male from a breed that carries 

 good breast meat. A White Orpington capon is just about as good 

 and as nice a looking capon as can be found and they will weigh 

 twelve pounds at one year old without any special feeding. 



There is a great deal said about the enormous weight of capons, 

 but a great deal of it is just talk. It is not so much the gain in 

 weight that makes capons profitable, but the quality of meat and 

 the fact that you can keep them in peace in flocks that would not 

 be possible unless they were caponized. And this is worth consider- 

 ing if you have neighbors who object to much noise. 



When the bird is raised to fryer size it has taken a lot of food to 

 make the bony structure. Now instead of selling then, when it is 

 just a question of how many cents you can make out of that bird for 

 your trouble, if you can hold him over to finish his growth, you can 

 count on a dollar for your trouble. 



The increase in price for the capon over what is paid for the 

 fryer will more than make the difference besides paying for the 

 extra feed. If there was no money in fattening poultry and caponiz- 

 ing would the packers have men going around buying up farm range 

 stock? I think not, those kind of people have to be sure of a profit 

 before they venture into an enterprise. And yet farmers and poultry- 

 men for years have been in the habit of letting the very stock that 

 could be caponized and made into dollars go for a few cents. 



