Another muscovy question.... Skin color???

[jellybean]

Does color matter for a meat bird? I know a lot of people like a white carcass. I want Muscovies, and will sell whatever birds we don't eat. So should I get white birds? Or do people buying Muscovies really care about color of skin? I'm assuming here that a brown/ dark colored bird will have darker skin...... Do any of you have buyers who'd only take a white bird?
What about these? I'm really having a hard time finding some- these are about all I've seen close to me.


http://boise.craigslist.org/grd/1954337965.html

 

[Caprice_Acres]

The SKIN doesn't change color, however, the colored feathers will leave colored pin feathers behind on the carcass, making it look bad.

I produce both solid whites as well as pieds. MOST of my duckling sell before they even hatch, and usually they are to people wanting prettily colored breeders.

Most people want their breeding stock to be pretty eye candy as well as productive, I find. Some people who want them JUST for meat production will want the all white birds. I've only had a few people ask for ONLY all white birds, compared to the large numbers of people I get calling about blues, chocolates, lilacs etc.

I just keep both around for variety and to fufill everyone's demands.

 

[jellybean]

Ok, now I feel kinda dumb! I was thinking like a black chicken (that has black skin and darker meat), a black duck would also have darker skin. I do like the darker muscovies better, especially the blue and chocolate. Now I feel better about getting them. I will probably sell any extras as live birds, buyers can deal with plucking. Unless I just get really good at it.....

 

[savingdogs]

We have just the white muscovy, but find it really hard to pluck all those feathers out, we ended up skinning most of them, but they still tasted great.

 

[jellybean]

I plan on skinning any we eat I think. Unless I figure out the duck wax thing. That sounds interesting.

 

[savingdogs]

We found hand plucking worked the best and did not have duck wax. We used regular parafin and that did not seem to help much except for the legs. We heard the skin was the best part so we carefully plucked and cooked some with the skin on. We did not notice enough of a difference to make it worth our time.
We found the method of cooking the duck seemed to make more difference. So far our favorites were the duck carne asada or the teriyaki duck. Those were FINE without skin.