Small red wormlike creatures on chicken wings

[lindaelder4888]

Hello,
When butchering our 6 cockerels, I noticed red wormlike creatures (filled with chicken blood, I assume) hanging off their wing tips once the feathers were removed. What are they? I have seen no mention of these anywhere on this site. How do I get rid of them in our remaining live chickens?

 

[casportpony]

Hello,
When butchering our 6 cockerels, I noticed red wormlike creatures (filled with chicken blood, I assume) hanging off their wing tips once the feathers were removed. What are they? I have seen no mention of these anywhere on this site. How do I get rid of them in our remaining live chickens?

Welcome to BYC! Were they lice?

-Kathy

 

[Ravynscroft]

I'm betting those were feather follicles...

 

[casportpony]

I'm betting those were feather follicles...

You could be right!

 

[Ravynscroft]

You could be right!

After I read it, I remembered a pic someone posted asking you what kind of worms they were, and they were squeezing out the feather follicles, lol... they do look weird, especially when they come out with the feather...

 

[aart]

I'm betting those were feather follicles...

Yeppers!

Quote: ..... kinda freaked me out too the first time I saw them......never thought they were worms, but still-slimy.

I've found that they are pretty easily cleaned out by scraping over skin surface with the back of a butter knife(or front edge if it's not serrated) during final rinse.