510 POULTRY CULTURE 



.from the operation, and will- eat heartily immediately after 

 the operation. 



On the third day examine each bird to make sure there are 

 no "wind-puffs" or emphysematous conditions — that is, air 

 worked under the skin from the edge of the wound or incision. 

 If wind-puffs or emphysema is present, puncture with clean 

 sterile sharp knife or pin and allow the air to escape. Birds 

 have a great resistance against germs of the ordinary wound 

 infection, as the pus-producing organisms, as staphylococci 

 and streptococci, and fatalities from this cause are very rare, 

 if at all. 



The wound should be entirely healed in three weeks' time. 



SPAYING THE HEN 



An unsexed (spayed) pullet is called a poulard. Spayed 

 pullets make more rapid growth without the handicap of egg 

 production at a later stage, and the meat is of improved 

 quality and flavor. The spayed pullet takes on some of the 

 appearance of a cockerel. The poulard, like the. capon, 

 becomes an outcast and is never known to cackle. 



The pullets are usually operated upon at about the same age 

 as in caponizing the cockerel, and usually in the late spring or 

 early summer. The pullets are prepared in the same manner 

 as cockerels for caponizing. The incision is made in a similar 

 manner as in the cockerel, and the undeveloped egg cluster is 

 found in a similar location in the pullet as the testicles in the 

 cockerel. With a pair of artery forceps grasp the undeveloped 

 oviduct, which will be found to be about the size of a broom 

 straw, and remove about 1 inch of this and the cluster of eggs. 

 Care must be taken not to cut or rupture any of the large 

 abdominal blood-vessels laying just back of the ovary and 

 against the vertebra (a similar precaution as in caponizing). 

 The I'emoval of the ovary and a section of the oviduct prevents 

 the formation of eggs or the further development of the egg 

 canal and functionating of the cells of the canal. 



The after-treatment is the same as for capons. 



