Hmm, I've never heard that about plucking ducks, kinda makes sense tho... maybe that's why they are so water proof, from all that oil, haha! I'll have to ask my mobile butcher guys if they've ever had duck plucking issues or not, lol. With the scary plucking machine these guys used, I don't see how anything would be hard to pluck, lol. It was super fast, even with 3 Guineas in it at once! So fast my jaw hit the ground when he flipped the switch, reached in and pulled out 3 naked Guineas in less than a minute, I was in complete awe, lol. But then again, I read somewhere that Guineas are one of the easiest birds to pluck, so I don't know if everything gets plucked that fast in that scary machine or not
I've never own/raised ducks, only eaten duck twice in my life (and I think it was wild duck both times)... it was all dark meat and greasy
... I didn't like it, lol. Duck eggs are good tho!
I'll be interested in knowing the breakdown of feed costs for your batch of "meat guineas", so I hope you can keep track. A while back I read somewhere each bird only needs basically 1/3 to 1/2 cup of feed a day... (my birds eat like 3X that much tho, lol). I never did the math to figure out how much feed that broke down to per bird from hatch to butcher (or from hatch to SALE, as a live adult) tho. I didn't keep track at all with these 6 I had butchered (I really don't even wanna know, lol), but I know that I spent wayyyy more on feed for mine than I had to, because I fed them high protein game bird pellets from 6 weeks on to slaughter, with lots of greens and veggies from my garden, but not much scratch or wild birdseed (and they were fed high protein starter feed before that of course). I probably could have fed them a lot of scratch or corn once they were 8 wks old or so (which would reduce feed costs a little), but I was raising them to be healthy productive birds... I wasn't plumpin' em up for consumption, lol. They did have some fat deposits here and there, but I pulled all that off before cooking them... since this was basically just a "test" I also wanted to see how lean Guinea meat actually is when cooked. It's pretty lean, even compared to store bought skinless boneless chicken breasts. Maybe older birds have more fat, but I'd imagine the meat's a little tougher if they are free ranged...cuz my free rangers do about 15 miles a day I think, lol.
I'll be interested in knowing the breakdown of feed costs for your batch of "meat guineas", so I hope you can keep track. A while back I read somewhere each bird only needs basically 1/3 to 1/2 cup of feed a day... (my birds eat like 3X that much tho, lol). I never did the math to figure out how much feed that broke down to per bird from hatch to butcher (or from hatch to SALE, as a live adult) tho. I didn't keep track at all with these 6 I had butchered (I really don't even wanna know, lol), but I know that I spent wayyyy more on feed for mine than I had to, because I fed them high protein game bird pellets from 6 weeks on to slaughter, with lots of greens and veggies from my garden, but not much scratch or wild birdseed (and they were fed high protein starter feed before that of course). I probably could have fed them a lot of scratch or corn once they were 8 wks old or so (which would reduce feed costs a little), but I was raising them to be healthy productive birds... I wasn't plumpin' em up for consumption, lol. They did have some fat deposits here and there, but I pulled all that off before cooking them... since this was basically just a "test" I also wanted to see how lean Guinea meat actually is when cooked. It's pretty lean, even compared to store bought skinless boneless chicken breasts. Maybe older birds have more fat, but I'd imagine the meat's a little tougher if they are free ranged...cuz my free rangers do about 15 miles a day I think, lol.
