Ever had a couple of chickens to pluck, and don't want to spend hours pulling out the pin feathers one by one???
WAX IT!!
OK... I had to share this... ZykloniaDark-GothikRanchr had posted something about this in another thread, and as I had just spent the last 3 days doing fine-detail plucking on 17 meat birds, I decided to pick Delight's brains on it. I cannot take the credit, but we did it today on three roosters (yes, my extra lt Brahmas are no more) and I was amazed at how easy it was. I decided to document it for other "visual" learners. WAX IT!!
You will need:
~a chicken
~Water
~Paraffin wax
~A large pot for the water, just warm enough to melt the paraffin wax, and large enough to dunk a whole chicken.
~A large bucket, or another pot, with ice cold water in it, deep enough to dunk a whole chicken.
The paraffin we bought came 4 chunks to a box for around $1-2. Melt 1 chunk in the water.
![P7190001.gif P7190001.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340227-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
While that is melting, dispatch your chicken in a manner of your choosing. Ours seem to lose their heads more often than not.
Rough pluck by removing the large wing feathers, tail feathers, and a few handfuls of the back and chest feathers.
![P7190003.gif P7190003.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340228-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190005.gif P7190005.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340229-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
Take your chicken to the pot of wax, and dunk. Hold for a 20 count. Remember, the water should not be HOT, just WARM.
![P7190009.gif P7190009.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340230-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190010.gif P7190010.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340231-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190011.gif P7190011.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340232-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
Take your chicken to the bucket (here we only had a cooler left to use) of ice-cold water and leave it there for several minutes.
![P7190012.gif P7190012.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340233-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
We dispatched the next chicken and waxed it in that time. When we put the 2nd chicken in the ice-bath, we took out the first one and started plucking.
![P7190014.gif P7190014.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340234-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
I took my hands and pressed around the chicken, breaking the wax into pieces. Then just start peeling it like an orange.
![P7190016.gif P7190016.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340235-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190017.gif P7190017.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340236-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190018.gif P7190018.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340237-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190019.gif P7190019.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340238-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190020.gif P7190020.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340239-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190021.gif P7190021.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340240-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190022.gif P7190022.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340241-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190023.gif P7190023.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340242-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190024.gif P7190024.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340243-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190025.gif P7190025.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340244-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190026.gif P7190026.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340245-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
![P7190027.gif P7190027.gif](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1340/1340246-76f9d58b976393b6f51a800cdd6085cc.jpg)
Afterwards, I rinsed the chicken to get the rest of the wax off (as instructed ) and once indoors, I used small needlenose pliers to remove the last few little feathers that the wax missed, and finished removing the neck. Running a butter knife against the remaining pinfeathers removes most of them easily - kind of like scaling a fish. I would say all of that took maybe 10 minutes, when I've been known to spend 2 hours plucking the pinfeathers off of a chicken.
For each chicken, melt a new block of wax. If you melt it all at once, it will all come out with the first chicken (trust me on that!). This is good for a small number of chickens, but I could see it getting expensive if you have a LOT of chickens to do. We're in the process of gathering parts for a Whiz Bang plucker, but for the 3 birds we did today, this worked fabulously! Thank you, Delight!!!
And thanks to hubby, for taking the photos!