Processing Guineas~

[kellya126]

I have two Guineas that I am planning to process tomorrow.
I have only processed one chicken broiler previously, but hoping processing a Guinea is similiar.
Any helpful information about processing guineas would be very appreciated!

Thank You!

 

[Nestled Chickens]

We processed two guinea yesterday. They are very hard to catch, so we trapped them in our chicken house and two of us worked together. Their feathers were very hard to pluck (compared to the roosters we did at the same time) and we ended up tearing skin on accident. Gutting went a lot faster than the roosters and my husband was able to do it-although I thought his hands were going to be too big. Now we just have to eat them!

 

[PeepsCA]

There's a great thread with a video, by Fenika (click the link below)

How to gut a guinea (or any bird, really)

 

[kellya126]

Thank you for the replies!
A neighbor came over and we took care of the birds this morning. Instead of scalding them and plucking the feathers, we ended up just skinning the birds. Probably a wise decision on his part, from what I read plucking the Guineas is harder than plucking the chickens.
I was very surprised that both of my guineas had a lot of fat on the belly and inside the abdominal cavity. It wasn't hard to gut the birds, but it was a bit different than the chickens, due to the fat in the cavity, around the organs, and attached to the cavity.
I was also surprised to find the cavity full of eggs.... Wow!
I have never had Guinea meat before and am looking forward to trying it.
The meat on the birds looks BEAUTIFUL!
Thanks Again for the replies!!

 

[PeepsCA]

Just curious, what were you feeding the birds prior to processing them? I had 6 males processed last fall, they were about 7 months old...none of my birds had the amounts of fat you described, there was a little within the cavity, but not much. Guineas are lean by nature... I ended up leaving the skin on, because they looked so lean... I did not want to end up with Guinea jerky, lol. The next batch I have processed (or process myself) I would like to have a little more fat on them to help keep the meat more moist.

Pithing the brain up thru the roof of the mouth prior to cutting the jugular helps with the feather plucking (with or without scalding).

And letting them "rest" 2 days in the fridge before cooking them helps make the meat more tender, especially in the older birds.