Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

We processed 4 of our Orlopp Bronze Turkeys yesterday. Now I know why white poultry is used commercially - whatever is left over from plucking is not visible.
Boy, trying to get all of the pigment, I'll call it, from under the skin, from the new feather growth was next to impossible.
I must be missing some technique.
Has anyone cleaned dark feathers off a bird?

When I have a chicken with dark left in the follicles I use the blunt back of a pair of tweezers to kind of squeeze out the last of the residue. It doesn't worry me though, still crispy golden skin!

Most of my birds are dark coloured, and plucked feathers leave behind lumps of dark blue pigment. As KB said, tweezers work, or just pop them out with fingernails White birds leave behind blobs of yuck too, like zits, you just can't see them; so dark or light I don't worry about it anymore unless it's a bird that's going to someone else.
Orlopps and Ridley's you just leave the black blobs in, tell people they are wild coloured turkeys and that's how they're supposed to be. While impressing people (or boring them) with a discussion about selective breeding

Yeah, I've been using my fingernails, either squeezing or stretching the skin and scratching in the direction of growth. That works, but not with every follicle. I stopped worrying about it after the second bird.
Thanks for the feedback!