Tub type chicken plucker build

[PHPaul]

I did a search and most of the posts on this topic are 4+ years old, so I thought I'd start a new one.

Wife and I put about 60 chickens a year in our freezer, but we're not getting any younger and the thought of standing out in the August heat and hand-plucking 5 dozen birds is just more than we could face. So much so, that we skipped raising chickens last year and tried store-bought.

Ewwww. :barf:

So, we're back to raising our own, and decided that it was time to make the investment in a mechanical plucker.

DANG, they're expensive! And I'm cheap...

I also love to tinker and have a good stash of jun....uh...."undesignated inventory", so decided to build my own.

Surfed around and found Herrick Kimball's site and bought the plans for his Whizbang Tub-Style Plucker.

The blow-by-blow and picture are here.

 

[dave1949]

Certainly a worthy project. I have priced chicken pluckers and they are ridiculous.

 

[mddorange]

Well Paul, I am sorry that you didn't ask first as my daughter and her husband built one a couple of years ago and all it cost them was for the fingers ($49.99+shipping), a light switch ($.79), light switch box ($.50), a metal cover ($.29) . They pulled a tub (drilled the holes for the fingers) and motor and wiring from an old washing machine and put it on wooden legs (old 2x4s we had in the barn), added a longer V belt ($19.99 at Napa) and put it all together. They did over 50 chickens the first weekend.

 

[DrRod]

The video is totally impressive. But as someone on the site asked, does it bruise the meat? Also, how do you kill the chicken [still has its head on]?