Poultry defeatherers. Do they work well?

[cupman]

I was going to start processing chickens, quail and guinea fowl later this summer and was curious how these defeatherers work. I've never processed anything before but I've seen it done at a processing plant when my friend had his birds done. Will they work for small poultry such as quail or should I just do those by hand?

 

[Oregon Blues]

The plucking machines? For quail you need a softer rubber finger and the fingers spaced closer together. But, yes, you can pluck quail with a plucker.

If you look at the website for the EZPlucker, you will find a quail plucking machine.

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

Plucking machines are nice but the important part is the scald. If your scald is bad the plucker won't help much.

 

[FarmTillURdead]

We built a wiz-bang. Look it up on youtube. After a year of tweaking, I can pluck 3 chickens at a time or a 35lb turkey. A turkey will make that thing wobble back and forth like a washer with a load off center on the spin cycle but it gets the job done. In my opinion it's worth it's weight in elbow grease.

 

[hrhta812]

I'm very new to this topic & this was a great bit of info. It'll be my husband doing it, 'cuz I'm too squeamish nowadays. Not sure why, as I used to clean literally hundreds of fish every summer as a kid, but the idea of doing that now just gags me. LOL

 

[birdman1960]

Build a whizz bang, best money and time I ever spent, especially if you have any quantity or plan on doing this for a while, I rent mine to neighbors, 25 cents/bird, $20.00 minimum..helps to defray money I have invested in fingers, motor, drive parts, etc......

 

[MrsEEmomma]

Hi Birdman1960, I looked at all the video's on youtube and could not find one that shows how to make one. Could you possible tell me how you put it together? I am looking on ebay now for the parts to try to build one.

 

[birdman1960]

I bought the shaft, feather plate and fingers on e-bay, i used a double reduction chain and sprocket set up, no belts to get wet and slip, the feather plate turns at about 209 rpm, it is a plan I copied from a retired engineer, he did all of the figuring. It works great

 

[dixie&trixie]

Id pay good money to not have to pluck by hand. Im getting 10 meat birds in a few weeks and I dread the plucking in my future.