Frasier Vally avian flu.
- Thread starter new210/22
- Start date
I was out yesterday and got two snow geese and three mallards.
They're in the freezer.
What I can't figure out is what people do who claim they get limits or close to it all the time. How do they process that many birds?
I got home at 1:00 in the afternoon and after a quick lunch got busy plucking and gutting. it took me five hours to have the five birds freezer ready After getting up at 6:00 to go hunting and getting birds into the deep freeze at 18:30 it was more than a 12-hour day.
It is still pretty damn cool to live in a major metropolitan area with a population of 2.5 million and be a a 45-minute drive from awesome waterfowling.
They're in the freezer.
What I can't figure out is what people do who claim they get limits or close to it all the time. How do they process that many birds?
I got home at 1:00 in the afternoon and after a quick lunch got busy plucking and gutting. it took me five hours to have the five birds freezer ready After getting up at 6:00 to go hunting and getting birds into the deep freeze at 18:30 it was more than a 12-hour day.
It is still pretty damn cool to live in a major metropolitan area with a population of 2.5 million and be a a 45-minute drive from awesome waterfowling.
Are you not using hot water to loosen the feathers? Or wax?
There is a good 'Sticky' up at the top of the forum, for processing. I know waterfowl are a little different than domestic poultry, but I have seen dozens of chickens and turkeys stripped clean and packed for freezing, in that amount of time!
Congratulations on the birds MD.
As for processing I suspect many of those huge limits don't get plucked at all and have just the breasts, and sometimes the thighs, taken off.
Snow geese are not my favorite "roasting" geese and I usually use them for sausage meat.
Big mature mallards on the other hand get the "wax" treatment. I use an old stock pot on a propane burner. I rough-pluck the birds while the water is heating and add the wax - 3 or 4 blocks of paraffin. I also have a large bucked of cold water sitting close by. When the wax is all melted and floating on the water grab the ducks by the feet and drop them down through the wax layer. Pull them out and dip in the cold water to set the wax. I repeat tis 2 or 3 times. After the ducks are coated and the wax has hardened I peel them like a mandarin orange.
After all the ducks are naked and feather-free I then gut them. Gutting after the wax treatment eliminates worries about wax getting into the cavity.
Thank you. I was wondering what other folks do.
I enjoy whole roasted birds skin-on way too much to skin 'em. I don't make sausages or other prepared meats.
I'm the only one eating them any more so I won't shoot too many a season anyway. I still have ducks and geese from 2021 in the freezer. Even though my wife was the one who got me started waterfowling because she loved to eat them, she has developed a digestive intolerance to meat so even a small mallard hen will turn out to be four meals for us. I'll eat part of one half a breast with a leg one day, the other one the next day, with leftovers and then she'll make a soup with the skeleton (she can eat a few morsels of the meat with that) that we'll eat for two lunches plus little bits and bobs I might put on my toast in the morning.
So what I do is not shoot in one day more than I can pluck. It's usually not a problem as my spots don't always have birds in them anyway.
Last year my best field I have permission on didn't turn on because an adjacent field had been left in grass and the birds flocked there.
i wouldn't eat any but that's just me
IMO the avian flu affects flying birds as much as floating or walking ones
i did not pluck for years and when i did it with our wives and our why not? few years they were feather all around in the freighter canoe ...
We used to pluck all our waterfowl. Geese are a real pain but I can dry pluck a duck in about 5 minutes.
Since most of our waterfowl meat goes into sausage, last year I obtained a "bird Hitch". We can make short work of a limit of ducks. I will normally save the hearts as well.
With geese, I will save hearts, gizzards and leg/thigh meat.
As far as bird Flu, I am not worried about it. I suspect that a lot of the wild waterfowl has been exposed to it and there is some natural immunity created, whereas domestic poultry turns over so fast and there is no contact with new and old birds, there is no immunity.
Since most of our waterfowl meat goes into sausage, last year I obtained a "bird Hitch". We can make short work of a limit of ducks. I will normally save the hearts as well.
With geese, I will save hearts, gizzards and leg/thigh meat.
As far as bird Flu, I am not worried about it. I suspect that a lot of the wild waterfowl has been exposed to it and there is some natural immunity created, whereas domestic poultry turns over so fast and there is no contact with new and old birds, there is no immunity.
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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One of my hunting partners has a bird hitch. Scary darned piece of equipment and messy as all get out. I can breast a limit of ducks and geese both in half an hour just using a filet knife and not have anywhere near the bloody mess of a bird hitch and don't pull my butt inside out pulling on a gooses wings to pull it through the hitch. LOL
We don't use it on big Canadas. I am not strong enough for that. For snows and smaller Canadas it works ok.
