A couple weeks ago my brother and I spent 6 full hours plucking and dressing 8 mallards (to the point of perfection--no pin feathers, hairs, or anything; they look store bought other than a pellet hole or two).

This would have been a lot easier!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b6d_1258598506

Actually you can find rubber finger pluckers used for fairly cheap;around $100 on many farm sites.

Think I paid $75 off craigslist when I raised 200 chicken roasters 2 years ago.

Instead of the bird bouncing around,it's a drum of fingers like in the video.Think 16" wire wheel,but with fingers of rubber.About 4 minutes a bird,still took me 2 days to kill and process.

Thanks, but I know about those. Difference is that with the one above, it seems like you don't need to manipulate the bird, as in the kind of rubber finger deal I think you're talking about. Also, and I know some of the ones you're talking about have a hopper below (some with vaccuums), this one doesn't seem to turn the area into a blizzard of feathers. Anyway, none of them are going to work for me, sadly, as I don't see the condo association where I live giving me the OK to install one in the parking lot...

As an aside, a buddy of mine a few years ago was given one of the ones with rubber fingers that fits onto a handheld drill. Worked great on geese. If the idea was a thorough massage. We couldn't get that friggin' thing to dislodge a single feather!

I've been picking ducks for more than 40 years, so I've learned a couple things along the way. The best way to pick a duck is:

#1; have someone else do it.

#2; do them in WAX. Wax picking ducks gives a superior final result, and you can pick large numbers of them much faster than any other way. IMO, there is no better way to pick them, other than #1 above.

Many organized duck clubs in the Mid-South have a cleaning room with the rotary drum rubber fingers. They pull the feathers into a large bin. They usually provide a chopping block, knives, cleavers, sharpeners, plastic bags and some means of disposing of the unwanted parts. Final clean-up may be a once-over with a propane burner. At one place the farmer's wife kept the feathers for pillows or quilts or whatever. The unwanted insides were dumped into a pen behind the barn whereupon the hogs would instantly appear and all would be gone in 10 minutes or less..you certainly wouldn't want your hand in there while all that was going on.

We did it assembly line style and each bird took about 5 minutes once we got it down. For less organized hunts one just uses the oldest method known, by hand. With lots of practice that goes surprisingly quick too.

There are/were commercial duck pickers at big waterfowling places like Stuttgart AR and Reelfoot TN, but picking to me is just part of it and nothing I care to pay for and then have to leave them and hope you'll get your own ducks back.

Fwiw, +1 on the over 40 years..

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
I've been picking ducks for more than 40 years, so I've learned a couple things along the way. The best way to pick a duck is:

#1; have someone else do it.

I completely agree. I just don't care for cleaning birds at all. I'm sure that is against the "being a real man" rules, but I would rather clean big game over birds any day.

quote:

Originally posted by Shack:


There are/were commercial duck pickers at big waterfowling places like Stuttgart AR and Reelfoot TN, ..

Buddies who hunt down in LA take all their birds to a lady who draws, plucks and bags them for a buck fifty a pop. I'd pay that all day, every day, all season long if there was somewhere up here that did it. Of course, that'll never happen...

I am relegated to this:



Pretty good wind blowing that night, eh? And as luck would have it, all the feathers were being blown out to sea. If we don't have snow I'll make my own, damn it.

Pity I can't have those conditions every time I pluck, as I usually end up looking like I've been tarred and feathered...

quote:

#1; have someone else do it.

#2; do them in WAX. Wax picking ducks gives a superior final result, and you can pick large numbers of them much faster than any other way. IMO, there is no better way to pick them, other than #1 above.

#1 is certainly my option, too.

Although when having to go to "Plan B"; (which is vitually 99% of the time) the Bucket of Wax Trick is definately my preferred method although when using Plan B "Where" to hide the Wax Bucket from Mrs. Gerry throughout the season?

Query though? The Turbo Plucker appeared to work really well but wonder why the feathers around the head/neck area aren't removed? It's actually no big deal since that part gets "Whacked" - just curious?

quote:

Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
A couple weeks ago my brother and I spent 6 full hours plucking and dressing 8 mallards (to the point of perfection--no pin feathers, hairs, or anything; they look store bought other than a pellet hole or two).

This would have been a lot easier!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b6d_1258598506

My goodness! Is the meat still good? Or is it all bruised up and less than top quality? Looks
pretty violent to me?

quote:

Originally posted by Don Slater:
My goodness! Is the meat still good? Or is it all bruised up and less than top quality? Looks
pretty violent to me?

This plucker is called the whizbang chicken plucker. It is essentially a homemade version of a commercial plucker. As long as the bird has been bled out, there can be no bruising. If you've eaten chicken, you've eat birds cleaned this way already.

quote:

Originally posted by daniel77:

quote:

Originally posted by Don Slater:
My goodness! Is the meat still good? Or is it all bruised up and less than top quality? Looks
pretty violent to me?

This plucker is called the whizbang chicken plucker. It is essentially a homemade version of a commercial plucker. As long as the bird has been bled out, there can be no bruising. If you've eaten chicken, you've eat birds cleaned this way already.

Learn something new every day, Thanks Daniel!

I found these on the same web page. I think I would rather have some of these.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8dd3b9450b

quote:

Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
A couple weeks ago my brother and I spent 6 full hours plucking and dressing 8 mallards (to the point of perfection--no pin feathers, hairs, or anything; they look store bought other than a pellet hole or two). http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b6d_1258598506

Since a few have mentioned the wax picking method and most are not familiar with it, I took some photos to show you a proper 'waxing' setup.

Here is a picture of our picking shed, with the propane burner, waxing barrel (55 gal drum cut off short) and cooling barrels.



YOu start by roughly picking the bird, not taking very many feathers from any one area, but taking a few from all around the body. You want to make sure to pull off the tail feathers and get a good amount between the leg and body picked, as that is a hard area to get good wax contact. YOu cut off the legs at the joint, and cut the wings off eihter at the junction of body and wing, or at first joint. You keep the head attached. You must have the head attached or a fully feathered wing, so you leave the head on as it is what you hang onto when dunking the bird in the wax. Once you have the bird 'rough picked' then you dunk him in the wax and water solution, like this.


Once you have dunked the bird, you take a stick (we use paint stir sticks) and wipe most of the wax/water off the bird, leaving only a thin layer. Once you've done that, you throw the bird into the cold water to let the wax set up.

Here is a cooling barrel, which we throw the bird into after applying the wax. The birds sit in this cold water for about 10 minutes to completely chill so that you can strip the wax off, taking all feathers, down, and everything else.

Once the birds have cooled, you take them out of the cold water and lay them on the table, as shown here.
http://i674.photobucket.com/al...ough/crackingwax.jpg

You press down on the bird to crack the wax. I usually put the bird breast side down and crack the wax on the back. You then start pulling the wax off, and it comes away very cleanly, taking all pinfeathers, down and fine hairs.







When you're done, the birds look great, no pinfeathers, no down, no needing to singe them to get rid of the fine hairs.



One of the best things about waxing ducks is in how fast you can do a large number of birds. Two hunters can do a 14 bird bag in about an hour or a bit less, and you'll never see a better picked duck than one that has been waxed.

i wonder if it will work the same on Pheasants, as i hate hand plucking and the machines are so noisy

plucking the pheasants



we also wax our ducks too
home made waxer for the ducks

dip the ducks

hang to cool and wax harden off

wax off and now ready to start dressing

close up of the waxed duck

now dressed time to wrap
these are placed in a tray , then shrink wrapped



finished job
nice and neat


can't beat it
Rich

Rich and DLS, thanks very much for taking the time; looks like the way(s) to go, especially for large numbers of birds. I usually let birds rest in the fridge every week to age, and I tell myself I'll get plucking when I have some time, but invariably I wind up with 20 birds stacked up and end up breasting the whole lot. I love whole roast duck, but I just don't have 12 hours for plucking every week...

Some day I'll go that route, but my other problem remains that where I live now I have no outdoor space of my own, and somehow don't think my wee wife would got for the hot waxing deal in the kitchen...

Thanks again for sharing the knowledge.

KG

Richard, NO- Do NOT try to wax pheasants! The skin is too delicate and you'll simply tear all the skin. The way to pick pheasants is to keep a 2nd bucket of water and use that when picking pheasants. You simply heat the water to the boiling point and then take the heat off. Clip the wings and feet, and then dunk the pheasant briefly into the very hot water. Then (you'll want to wear a rubber glove on one hand, as they're hot now) you can literally 'wipe' the feathers off the pheasant carcass. The hot water greatly loosens the pheasant feathers and makes them very easy to pluck cleanly.

I have a question about how you wax your ducks. It appears that you're dipping them in a bucket that is entirely paraffin, with no water. You'll find that you have better luck if you fill your bucket/barrel with about 9" or so of water, and then put some wax on top. When you heat the water and wax to boiling, the wax will be on top. You want a layer about 1" thick, or a bit less. You'll find that you have better luck with this if you float the wax on top of water.

Also, I see that you leave the feet and wings on when you dip the birds. I'm not sure why you'd do that, as you end up wasting wax that gets on the wings and feet. It works better if you clip them before dipping. Finally, you'll find that you don't cook the skin if you throw them into cold water after dipping them; rather than hanging them to drip and eventually cool enough. You'll also save a lot of time this way.

I hope those tips help. We've picked thousands of ducks this way, and through trial and error have found which ways seem to be better.

DLS
i know what you mean about waxing pheasants
but in answer to your question about waxing the ducks
because of our lay out we go from plucking shed to waxer to gutting room then to fridge
that is why the legs and wings are left on when we dip the ducks
the reason we dip in neat wax is because the local poultry farm owner who is a good friend and uses this method it seems to work well and to be honest never new any different than the way he taught us

the whole duck is dipped in neat wax except for the head, neck and wings then hung to cool
from there we just peel the wax off and the used wax is put into a hessian type sack
the bird is then taken to the next shed to be processed
the waxed coverd legs are then cut off and put into another hessian type sack

then at the end of it all the sacks of used wax and feet are then placed into the burco boiler where the wax melts ,the sacks are pulled out
leaving just feet and feathers in the sack when the boiler is turned off wax then hardens ready to be collected in a solid state ready for re-use
as it was sat in boiling water that will of sterilised the wax keeping it germ free
so very little wasted wax at all
but i see where you are coming from on cooling the dipped birds in water
never gave that a thought, we basically now hav it all set up and hav got the wax temp about right where we don't get scolding anymore, but it did take a bit of sorting
plus as we normaly do around 100+ ducks per weekend (sundays as a rule)during the season by the time you hav rough plucked and sarted to dip them , it normally time to hav a coffee so cooling becomes an ongoing process as we still are dipping whilst some one is peeling then the dipper goes and starts cleaning the birds out
a system that we hav used for quite a few years now
but i was really interested in your set-up , as it is the first time i hav seen another lay-out to ours so thank you for posting the pics and giving me a few decent tips
many thanks
Richard

Richard, I agree that it is good for each of us to see how someone else does this. I too have not seen many different set ups, and the way we do it is the only way I've tried. I have, however, had other people comment that they were surprised at how much more efficient our arrangement is than the way they've done it.

100 ducks per week, that's a lot of picking.