How to pluck geese?

[houndit]

We dressed out 3 geese a couple of years ago. It was extremely difficult to pluck them. Their feathers are so greasy we could barely dunk them in the hot water. The picker only got off a few of the feathers. We picked them for quite a while and them froze them with some down still on. They tasted so good. I liked them better than ducks but they were even harder to pick than ducks. Does anyone know of a way to make it a little easier to pick them? I would not mind doing it once in a while, but the rest of our crew would refuse.
Thank you for any help you can offer!

 

[rainplace]

I know there was a controversial thread on here a while back about getting down off of live geese. I know this isn't what you're doing, but there was something from that thread that may be helpful. It seems that when they are going through molt it's pretty easy to get a lot of down off a live goose. Maybe the same holds true for a dead goose? Isn't that the same for all birds?

Which sort of geese are you eating? I dunno if I could ever eat one of my own, but you never know

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Put a small amount of detergent (food safe) in your scald water, it will make easier to get the hot water down to the skin which is holding the feathers in place. It sounds like you are using a plucker machine, is so don't over do the heat of the water or the skin will be partly boiled and tender and will tear with the plucker. After you have them rough plucked examine for pin feathers, they can be removed with needle-nose pliers. I wouldn't final pluck any waterfowl. Invest in some 'DUXWAX' or some other brand of removal wax (availalbe at online poultry stores) It is used like the hot wax method of hair removal. Dunk them in water just hot enough to melt the wax and it will float on the top of the water and coat everything with wax to speed things up you can dip in cold water to set the wax when it cools it will trap all the small feathers & down in the wax and you just peel it off feathers and all,
The thread rainplace was about ducks and they molt different than geese. Geese do pretty much a complete molt after the goslings hatch so they are all flightless together. This is not usually the season you want to process geese. So get some Duxwax or learn how to burn off the fine feathers and down with a gas torch!

 

[rainplace]

Thank you for that goosedragon!

 

[houndit]

Thank you for the responses!