Follicles left in skin after plucking

[Lorain the chicken]

Hi y’all! I have a question about plucking and feather particles being left in the chicken skin. I am new to harvesting and just did it for the first time. I culled two roosters. I don’t have a plucker so I did it by hand. My water temp was around 145-150. The plucking went great and I was able to do each bird in about 10 minutes. Then a few days ago I had to cull the remaining rooster. He was young (5-6 months) and became very violent. My water temp with him was 150, but this time all these hair follicles were being left behind in the skin which didn’t happen with the other birds. What would cause this?

 

[sourland]

My guess is that the first two roosters had permanent feathers, and the younger bird had pin or blood feathers.

 

[Lorain the chicken]

My guess is that the first two roosters had permanent feathers, and the younger bird had pin or blood feathers.

I didn’t know about blood feathers. Thank so you much! I think that must have been it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, those are new feathers coming in. They go through juvenile molts as they out-grow their feathers. A full-grown chicken would look pretty silly if it still had the feathers it grew when it first feathered out as a 4-week-old chick.

Looks like that one had almost finished that process, just a few feathers to go. You probably got the other two before they started their last juvenile molt. If you butcher them in the middle of that molt they can be covered with those new feathers coming in.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

The others who commented are correct. They are pin or blood feathers. Many people aren't used to seeing these because store bought chickens are Cornish X, which are white. It makes these hard to see. With a chicken with colored feathers, they are much more prominent.

I just want to add that you shouldn't stress about it. Get as many out as you can, but don't drive yourself insane over it. I went a little crazy trying to get every single one out the first time I processed Red Rangers. But one day I said oh well and cooked one without getting every single pin feather out. It was absolutely fine! They soften up in the oven and are fine to eat, and you can't even see them much when the skin gets browned. But if you do want the meat to look extra nice for guests or something, just throw it in the oven anyway. The pins become easier to pull out after they are roasted because the skin recedes.

Edit:
I said throw it in the oven but I remembered this is an older rooster. Baking/roasting it would not be the best cooking method. But what I said will still apply, even in the crock pot or pressure cooker.

 

[Lorain the chicken]

The others who commented are correct. They are pin or blood feathers. Many people aren't used to seeing these because store bought chickens are Cornish X, which are white. It makes these hard to see. With a chicken with colored feathers, they are much more prominent.

I just want to add that you shouldn't stress about it. Get as many out as you can, but drive yourself insane over it. I went a little crazy trying to get every single one out the first time I processed Red Rangers. But one day I said oh well and cooked one without getting every single pin feather out. It was absolutely fine! They soften up in the oven and are fine to eat, and you can't even see them much when the skin gets browned. But if you do want the meat to look extra nice for guests or something, just throw it in the oven anyway. The pins become easier to pull out after they are roasted because the skin recedes.

Good to know about the cooking! I skinned the bird because I thought it would be weird. I’m very new to all this it’s so fun to learn all these new things.

 

[Mountain Roost]

We do about 100 Cornish a year and 35-50 other heritage breeds/species. My son and I do the detail plucking after the plucker and we try to get all of that out of the skin. You can squeeze it with your fingers but we really like these tweezers with the angled tip. The wing feathers also have a degree of material that can get pulled and massaged out of the skin. Personal preference I know, but the tweezers make a huge difference.

On packing day, after the meat ages is another great time for removing remaining feathers as the skin has firmed up.

As others have said the molt cycle is good to work around, not during. You can always pick up your birds and look at their skin and feathers to try and determine that.

Family motto: Feathers are not Food