Harvesting-First timer...help!

[Bettyboop7499]

Hello Everyone!

Wow it has been awhile since I’ve been on here I have missed you all!

We are harvesting our chickens and I’m a little lost. Every YouTube video makes it look so simple...150* 1-2 minutes pluck feathers..2 minutes later clean bird! I‘m plucking by hand...The feathers come out easy but I have a ton of shafts left in the flesh, what am I doing wrong?

I also have a thin yellow film on the flesh that comes off fairly easily but I don’t ever see it on YouTube chicken...

Thanks for any feedback, I appreciate it!

 

[RLockhart68]

I've helped harvest chickens several times this summer. Not sure about the plucking issue, the lady I helped had a plucker. Although we did have some shafts on wings and legs that we had to hand pluck out. The yellow film seemed to be a normal thing on them. I tended to rub it off the ones I did, she didn't worry about it. Good luck! Nothing better than home raised chicken

 

[RLockhart68]

Just thought of something. The shaft issue might have something to do with the breed of meat birds. Can't remember where I heard that, but somewhere during the summer I do remember hearing about it.

 

[Bettyboop7499]

Just thought of something. The shaft issue might have something to do with the breed of meat birds. Can't remember where I heard that, but somewhere during the summer I do remember hearing about it.

These are Cornish hens, though they are a bit older than recommended for harvest be had a bit of a delay so they are about 4 months. I don’t know if that makes a difference. This will be my very first home grown chicken, last Christmas we had a turkey and smoked it..it was the best darn bird we’ve ever had!

 

[springvalley123]

The shafts that remain after plucking normal looking feathers, sound like pin feathers. It's a matter of timing: if you process the birds just after they're feathered, but before they start to molt their juvenile feathers into their adult feathers, you won't have hardly any pin feathers. But if you catch a bird right in the middle of molting into the adult feathers, you'll have plenty, at various parts of their body. An option is to skin the birds instead of plucking, or wait even longer, until the birds have finished molting (or process each one after it seems to finish molting, just don't leave a lone survivor). You can pick up a bird and run through its feathers to see if you see a lot of pin feathers, so you're not "surprised" by this once it's time to try to pluck, also.

 

[Bettyboop7499]

The shafts that remain after plucking normal looking feathers, sound like pin feathers. It's a matter of timing: if you process the birds just after they're feathered, but before they start to molt their juvenile feathers into their adult feathers, you won't have hardly any pin feathers. But if you catch a bird right in the middle of molting into the adult feathers, you'll have plenty, at various parts of their body. An option is to skin the birds instead of plucking, or wait even longer, until the birds have finished molting (or process each one after it seems to finish molting, just don't leave a lone survivor). You can pick up a bird and run through its feathers to see if you see a lot of pin feathers, so you're not "surprised" by this once it's time to try to pluck, also.

So we are plucking at the worse possible time...of course! So that I‘m clear these are hard plastic like things that are stuck in the skin and I have to scrap them out or tweeze them out. Does that sound like a “pin feather”?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, that is a pin feather. Chickens go through some juvenile molts as they grow. They outgrow their feathers and need to replace them. A full grown bird would look pretty silly (and bare) if it still had the same feathers it had when it was 5 weeks old.

Some people claim that the chicks molt at specific ages but I haven't seen that. Maybe if you are talking about the Cornish X that are fed and managed a specific way by the commercial operations. Maybe you are consistent enough in managing your operations (and breed) so yours pretty much molt at the same time. I think you are talking about the Cornish X, not a pure Cornish, two different things. But mine don't. I don't raise the Cornish X, I do dual purpose birds. Some are fast molters, some slow molters. That's genetic and regulates how fast feathers fall out, not how fast they grow back. I don't process them all at the exact same time so the molt would be a problem, but I skin them so it doesn't matter.

Those pin feathers are safe to eat but especially those liquid ones can be very unattractive. That's why Cornish X are white, those pin feathers are harder to see than on a black or dark red bird. Those feathers are still there but are harder to see.

Some people pass their birds through fire to burn off the fluffy feathers that are left. This doesn't do anything for the liquid ones.

 

[Bettyboop7499]

Yes, that is a pin feather. Chickens go through some juvenile molts as they grow. They outgrow their feathers and need to replace them. A full grown bird would look pretty silly (and bare) if it still had the same feathers it had when it was 5 weeks old.

Some people claim that the chicks molt at specific ages but I haven't seen that. Maybe if you are talking about the Cornish X that are fed and managed a specific way by the commercial operations. Maybe you are consistent enough in managing your operations (and breed) so yours pretty much molt at the same time. I think you are talking about the Cornish X, not a pure Cornish, two different things. But mine don't. I don't raise the Cornish X, I do dual purpose birds. Some are fast molters, some slow molters. That's genetic and regulates how fast feathers fall out, not how fast they grow back. I don't process them all at the exact same time so the molt would be a problem, but I skin them so it doesn't matter.

Those pin feathers are safe to eat but especially those liquid ones can be very unattractive. That's why Cornish X are white, those pin feathers are harder to see than on a black or dark red bird. Those feathers are still there but are harder to see.

Some people pass their birds through fire to burn off the fluffy feathers that are left. This doesn't do anything for the liquid ones.

I took a picture so to be clear is that a quill or pin feathers...and do you know why they don’t come out with the feather? It isn’t just a few it’s a ton...thank so help!

 

[Kiki]

I took a picture so to be clear is that a quill or pin feathers...and do you know why they don’t come out with the feather? It isn’t just a few it’s a ton...thank so help!

Can you get a few more pictures please?
Including the whole bird too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Definitely a molt. Those dark spots are probably blood from where a growing feather was pulled. Feathers have blood at the base when they are growing. Those were further along than the hairs.

I see a couple of fine hairs as the feather is breaking out. Those are the ones that can be burned off.

And some liquid pockets where feathers would soon be growing out. Those liquid pockets are probably what you are talking about. They are not made to come out but the feather will grow from them.