Let the Feathers Fly!
Ever since we first got our shipment of Red Star hens and roosters, once they came of age, we have not been buying store bought chicken. I taught our eldest boy how to scald, pluck, and clean a chicken, and Cristian has since become fairly adept at plucking and cleaning chickens I must admit, however, it is a slow chore when he has to feed a family of 9 hungry mouths.
So, I started looking around for an easier way. Something to make that chore much faster and efficient. I first came across a number of commercially available plucking systems, some of which were nothing but tabletop models costing between $100 - $400 which still left much of the work up to the human running the process. I have never been what you might call a slow learner. I saw the inadequacies of this type of system, and went looking further. Next, I found the larger tub style commercial plucking systems, generally costing close to (or more than) $2,000. I could not see there being enough benefit, to us as simple homesteaders, to warrant that huge expenditure. I was about to give up when I came across a fascinating video on youtube demonstrating a homemade tub style plucker made from plans that a gentleman named Herrick Kimball had created. I was astonished to see 2 chickens plucked clean in 15 seconds flat from a homemade clone. (link to video) (link to get the plans)
Using that video and pictures from an article on Herricks Whizbang Chicken Plucker, I sat down and drafted out my own idea of what the perfect plucker would be. I always like to give credit where it is due, and to be honest, I did not purchase Mr. Kimballs plan book for the plucker, I simply created my own based off his design. To be fair, I did purchase the featherplate, idler arm parts, and some of the rubber fingers from him, as they matched what I had already designed out rather well. (I actually ended up not using the idler arm parts due to moving to a torsion based system)
We now have a tool that both Cristian and I are more than happy to use, which will save us both many hours of work per month. That fact alone makes this tool qualify for the Cross Family Seal of Approval.
Update: Quick video of our new chicken plucker in operation. It took about 16 seconds for the bird to be plucked to about 99% nekkid.
