Ducks and Geese

Excerpt: ...the Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture.) Picking.. After scalding the picker starts removing the feathers. In doing this the duck is held either on the lap or on a board nailed to the side of the feather box. The feathers on the breast are picked first, then working down toward the tail, pulling the feathers with the grain. The soft body feathers as plucked are thrown into the feather box, the coarser feathers being thrown on the floor. The main wing and tail feathers are left on as are likewise some of the feathers of the neck next the head. The most troublesome part of picking ducks is removing the down. This may be removed to some extent by rubbing with the hand although care must be taken not to bruise the skin severely. In some cases the down is shaved off with a sharp knife. In some of the commercial packing houses the duck's body is sprinkled with powdered rosin and then dipped into the hot water. This melts the rosin so that the down and rosin can be rubbed off easily Pg 107 with the hand leaving the body clean. Pin feathers are usually removed by grasping them between the thumb and a dull knife. In some packing houses, ducks are steamed before picking. Where this is done they are picked clean and the wing and tail feathers are pulled before steaming takes place. Six or eight ducks which have been bled are hung at the same time in the top of a steam box or barrel which can be made air-tight and the steam turned on until the soft feathers of the breast come off easily. The length of time to steam depends on the temperature of the steam itself and varies from one-half to 2 minutes. In some cases the ducks are hung in a steam box with the heads outside so as to prevent the steam from coming into contact with the heads, possibly discoloring them. On Long Island women are used very largely for picking and they secure for this service 6 cents per duck. A good picker should do 75 ducks or even more a day. The value of the...