Plucker chronicles with heritage birds

[aliciaplus3]

I just started into my 3rd year hatching and decided that to compliment my hatching addiction I needed a plucker! After much hee and haw ing around I finally settled on the one with the biggest drum I could find, it promises to be able to handle "smaller" turkeys.

this is is what arrived in the mail this past week. We unpacked it today

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it was packed well and came out of the box ready to go, no assembly required.
I was concerned about where the feathers would go so I built a wire basket to catch them

it worked like a dream!

it took a little bit to get the scalding just right... but it was much easier to pull a few feathers than pluck the whole thing. We plucked 17 chickens and 3 ducks, got them gutted and ready for the freezer in a little over 4 hours. My 2 daughters were my help.
This did not pluck the ducks perfectly but they were much easier to finish than without the plucker. We did not butcher any turkeys today but we will in the next couple weeks as Thanksgiving comes nearer.
I would love to have folks share their plucking experiences here, I plan to add updates as we butcher more birds in the future. With my hatching addiction it looks like we will have plenty of cockrels to practice using this plucker on.

 

[FortCluck]

I'm looking into getting a plucker for my dual purpose crosses. Hopefully I can find some good information on here. I will need it by March... Definitely looking for something that can do turkeys too.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I looked at the yardbird as well as the smaller version of this one, neither appeared to be promising for turkeys. This one has a 23 inch drum, yesterday was the first time we butchered more than one duck at a time because they are such a pain to pluck... we did add a little soap to the scalding water and that seemed to help, I would not call this unit a duck plucker but s helper. We still had a little under half of the feathers to take off but it was doable and easier than what we have done in the past. I was very happy with my feather catcher!

 

[FortCluck]

I looked at the yardbird as well as the smaller version of this one, neither appeared to be promising for turkeys. This one has a 23 inch drum, yesterday was the first time we butchered more than one duck at a time because they are such a pain to pluck... we did add a little soap to the scalding water and that seemed to help, I would not call this unit a duck plucker but s helper. We still had a little under half of the feathers to take off but it was doable and easier than what we have done in the past. I was very happy with my feather catcher!

I was going to do our ducks with wax,but it'll probably make a huge mess!

Or I'll just skin the ducks and won't have to pluck at all. I want the plucker for chickens and turkeys, I just haven't seen one that's promising for turkeys.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Next time I will make time for more pics, we were so busy and my hands were either covered in feathers or guts so the pics stopped there. I will post my findings on Turkeys for sure.

 

[FortCluck]

Next time I will make time for more pics, we were so busy and my hands were either covered in feathers or guts so the pics stopped there. I will post my findings on Turkeys for sure.

Sounds good!

 

[aliciaplus3]

Had 10 birds from 3 to 5 pounds dressed that were put up whole. And the other 7 were cut into pieces and we put up bags of thighs, drumsticks and wings. fried the breast for lunch, very good with a touch of garlic salt. Cooked up the remaining carcasses and canned soup starter in quarts, still have a few mins till it's done but should be wonderful to have for a fast meal. I put the meat in 3 jars and because the canner holds 7 quart jars I put fresh potatoes and canned them in chicken stock. Now open a jar of meat and a jar of taters and add noodles if desired. I love home grown meals.
I have a few folks that have asked about Thanksgiving turkeys and may let a few of our extera Tom's be invited to dinner.

 

[Mosey2003]

Plucking alone just isn't going to be super duper for ducks, because they're waterfowl. Which is why I refuse to do ducks, lol.

Glad you like your plucker! I got a super cheapy and I really like it, if I have the scald just right it plucks them 99% besides pinfeathers, can't ask for better than that.

 

[FortCluck]

Had 10 birds from 3 to 5 pounds dressed that were put up whole. And the other 7 were cut into pieces and we put up bags of thighs, drumsticks and wings. fried the breast for lunch, very good with a touch of garlic salt. Cooked up the remaining carcasses and canned soup starter in quarts, still have a few mins till it's done but should be wonderful to have for a fast meal. I put the meat in 3 jars and because the canner holds 7 quart jars I put fresh potatoes and canned them in chicken stock. Now open a jar of meat and a jar of taters and add noodles if desired. I love home grown meals.
I have a few folks that have asked about Thanksgiving turkeys and may let a few of our extera Tom's be invited to dinner.

I tried to do a garden and it wasn't very successful Im not good at growing anything but live animals. I don't have a green thumb!

 

[aliciaplus3]

I tried to do a garden and it wasn't very successful Im not good at growing anything but live animals. I don't have a green thumb!

It's ok the biggest things I grew this year were weeds.. some of them were 6 feet tall(no that was not planned) so we managed to harvest a few potatoes and a few squash. Try again next year right?