Plucking problems

[realtreegirl]

Good Morning Processed my first batch of birds did 7. They were 15 wk old roos that where already a problem. I cut heads, hung to bleed. Had water bath at 145-150 degrees. Dipped for about 30 seconds checked feathers dipped again until wing feather seemed to remove easily. Most feathers came right out with no problem. Well the problem is after pulling all feathers I had lots of spots on the bird. The follicles had gunk in them. Some birds had a few here and there others had many on legs and body. I used tweezers to push out the gunk which was kinda like blood and part of the feather based. I removed as much as I could before freezing. Did I not dunk long enough? What can you do once the bird is plucked and all these follicles are still filled with stuff. Ugh very frustrate with my first attempt. Gotta do some more roos in about 2 weeks and want clean birds. I hope they are still ok to eat with the skin like that. Any suggestions would be helpful!!!!

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

They were going through their last juvenile molt. They shed their feathers a couple of times and replace them before they reach adult size. They just outgrow their feathers so they replace them. What you saw was the new feathers starting to grow in. It had nothing to do with the scalding.

There is nothing unsafe about that stuff being there but it certainly looks awful. I skin mine instead of pluck them, but we don’t eat the skin anyway. If you want the skin on, taking the time to squeeze that stuff off and rinsing it away is about all I know to do. If you have white or buff colored birds it doesn’t look as bad but it is still there.

Hopefully your next batch will have progressed enough that you won’t see much of that. I just processed some 17 week olds and the inside of the skin had all kinds of spots on it from new feathers growing out so it could still be a problem.

 

[aoxa]

I see these feather follicles no matter what age. Ridgerunner is right though, if there was a lot they were going through their juvenile molt.

This is why I prefer white birds. It's much less noticeable. I love the skin, so I just deal with it.. though it looks terrible, I agree.

 

[realtreegirl]

Ok thanks! I feel much better now...I thought I must have done something wrong lol