That's not too bad even if you have to hand pluck. With just me (one person) , from picking out the chicken from the coop to putting it in the fridge (entire process, including parting out the bird and packaging it up in plastic bags) was 2 hours per chicken with scalding/plucking, and 1.5...
What type of birds were you butchering? The breed def has something to do with how many feathers they have.
I did Cornish Rock Cross (CX) and they just don't have really dense feather coverage, so they're pretty easy to pluck. Many areas of bare skin. Only a few areas of dense feathers, so...
Ah, now I understand your issue. I don't actually eat the skin on any of mine - I cook them with it on sometimes to keep the meat moist, then boil it to make stock, so getting every last pin feather out is not super important to me, although I do my best. I tried with a couple of birds to be...
I haven't tried the drill attachment or drum plucker (due to lack of funds). Hand plucking isn't too bad, and is pretty fast if you get the scalding correct. Takes maybe 10 minutes? Of course the drum or drill would be done in a minute or two. Unless you're doing large amounts of birds, hand...