Wth is this? (Tiny feathers on butchered muscovy)

[Kaiori]

So.. I've butchered a few ducks lately. 1 Pekin and 1 black swedish mix or something. Didn't have this problem with them. They were both 19 weeks (or 18 weeks and some change). Yea, I meant to butcher much sooner but time got away from me.

Now I decided to do one of my muscovies. I've done plenty before but they were for my dogs (raw fed) and I didn't worry about getting all the feathers. This time, I was butchering one for myself. Well.. These feathers, bruh. Wth? This duck is exactly 13 weeks today (I was set on doing them at 12 weeks but we got swamped with rain for the last week, ugh!)

Is this normal? Are these teeny tiny "pin" feathers? Can I still eat this? I'm not sure what to do.

P.S. I plucked the pekin, the other duck, and this muscovy by hand, but have used my yardbird plucker before, although I don't remember if I've seen this on past ducks because, again, they were for my dogs.

My guess is I missed that window in between growing out feathers..?

 

[AltonaAcres]

Maybe you could remove the skin before you cook it. I wouldn't eat it if I were you unless you remove the skin and it looks better. Those look like feathers just starting to come in,

 

[NatJ]

Looks like pinfeathers to me.
They're safe to eat, but probably not very appetizing! (That's why so many meat birds are white: the pinfeathers are less obvious.)

If you're going to roast the whole duck, I would probably leave the skin on for cooking, but pull it off before eating.

If you intend to make soup, I would probably pull the skin off before cooking, to avoid little feather bits in the broth.

 

[Kaiori]

Thank you guys!

Ugh, what a bummer. I was going to say "I'm guessing this is why meat birds are white..?" But one of the other ducks I did was mostly black and had nothing of this sort at all.

So is it specifically because I missed the window to butcher? Do I have to wait til 16 weeks or some crap now? Anyone have experience with this with muscovies in particular?

I spent forever on it, plucking out as many tiny feathers as I could. I think the breast and kiiinda the legs might be ok. At worst, I'll just skin it. Bleh.

I hate when I get screwed with rain for a week or more!! I need a shed....

 

[NatJ]

So is it specifically because I missed the window to butcher? Do I have to wait til 16 weeks or some crap now? Anyone have experience with this with muscovies in particular?

No experience directly with ducks, but I think what works with chickens would work with ducks too: pick up the bird, part the feathers, and look for pinfeathers. Look at several parts of the bird. Different individuals may grow feathers at different rates, so you need to find the right time for each individual duck (or eat the "best" few yourself, and use the others for pet food, since you've mentioned you do raw-feeding.)

White breeds would have just as many pinfeathers, they would just be less visible. So it's really a matter of how much the sight bothers you. You could try making a mushroom sauce to disguise it Or, as you mentioned, you could skin it (or parts of it.)

 

[Kaiori]

Yea, I'm thinking that's what I'll have to do. lol Might be harder though since ducks are much more densely feathered than chickens but I'm gonna try!

 

[iwltfum]

Some people singe duck pin feathers with a flame. It's an old technique from before wax was commercially available. I've done it on chickens that were particularly hairy with fine hairs, but I've heard it works for duck pin feathers as well. Just wave it over a lit propane burner or the flame of any fire, even a candle (unscented of course) would work, although it would take alot longer. Move it quickly so the skin doesn't start to cook, but the flame will singe those feathers right off.

 

[Kaiori]

Some people singe duck pin feathers with a flame. It's an old technique from before wax was commercially available. I've done it on chickens that were particularly hairy with fine hairs, but I've heard it works for duck pin feathers as well. Just wave it over a lit propane burner or the flame of any fire, even a candle (unscented of course) would work, although it would take alot longer. Move it quickly so the skin doesn't start to cook, but the flame will singe those feathers right off.

Already tried it with a torch on this one. Lol Didn't work. Just shrunk the skin and would have cooked it before doing anything to those tiny hair feathers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't do ducks but I'm sure it's similar. Chickens go through juvenile molts. They outgrow their feathers and have to replace them. A chicken would look pretty silly of the only feathers they had were the ones grown when they were three or four weeks old.

My chickens don't all go through a juvenile molt at exactly the same age. It can vary by individual chicken and batches, not sure what controls that. I don't know how regular ducks are. Looking at the size of those it looks like you just missed your window.

Those are not dangerous, it will not hurt you to eat them. As mentioned above if that was a white (or buff) bird you'd probably not notice them. Depending on how you cook it they can be unappetizing.

I can't add anything to your options that hasn't already been mentioned. Good luck!

 

[Parront]

Commercial Pekin ducks have a very exact time to process them, they are very uniform and you HAVE to do them then. Or wait until the next window, like 10 more weeks! Your muskovies might have more variation than the Pekins I used to have. You can feel the pin feathers better than you can see them. take a bird and feel the feathers on the neck or breast. If you feel little nubs, those are the growing little feather you have pictured. Depending on the use you make of your birds, you could just process them by boning out the breast meat for yourself, and feed the rest to those raw fed dogs. I love the legs, myself, so that is not what I would do. I would wait until all feathers were done growing, but the feed bill goes up!