building a chicken plucker

[jvls1942]

I am building a chicken plucker.
how many of you have done this?
Where is the least expensive place to buy rubber fingers?

All of these questions were probably hashed out already, but I just joined this group on 10-16-08

I tried the SEARCH thing already with no luck..

...jiminwisc..

 

[debilorrah]

What the heck is a chicken plucker???

 

[ibpboo]

Here is a picture of a plucker

http://libertyfarm.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-whizbang-chicken-plucker.html

 

[panner123]

Unless you plan on doing more than twenty at a time, it is faster to pluck them by hand. That is figuring the set up and clean up time.

 

[Opa]

I just built a chicken plucker. I bought head with rubber fingers from Sportsmans Guide for $20. It can be chucked in a drill motor. I had a small motor with the same shaft diameter a the plucker head. Made a bracket to hold the motor, attached it to a board. Installed some weight on the board to keep it from moving. Inverted a plastic box over the motor with a hole for the motor shaft to go through. Attached the head and started plucking. Works great. Less that $25 invested.

 

[schmije]

We saw this article a couple of months ago in Backyard Poultry Magazine.

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/3/3-3/affordable-homemade-poultry-plucker.html

 

[dlhunicorn]

here is article with link at bottom that has the instructions for building including where to get the needed parts etc.
http://www.farmshow.com/issues/31/04/310402.asp
(you might also look on ebay for second hand copies)

If you only need to do a few birds and are strapped for cash or mechanically incompetant then how bout the 6 dollar DIY plucker attached to a drill option?
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=130787&highlight=plucker

 

[jvls1942]

thanks for the input. here is where I am at.. .......

I have the Whizbang plans..they claim that you can do 3 at a time in less than 30 seconds.

I have the frame built and the drum temporarily mounted.. I have the plucker plate cut out and drilled for fingers.. I need
inexpensive fingers, 120 of them..

we do about 200 birds per year.

turkeys, ducks, geese and chickens..

we have raised chickens for over 40 years.. if I have to pluck one by hand, he will live another day..

I have two drum type pluckers
that we use.. and loan out.. can pluck a chicken in 20 to 30 seconds..

they are nothing to clean up.. just spray them down with the hose...

I am also going to build another
couple of that style and sell them.. I already have buyers..

.............jiminwisc.........

 

[PurpleChicken]

My Plucker thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=83557&p=1


Bought my fingers here:

http://www.meyerhatchery.com/get_item_finger_picker-fingers.htm

 

[farm_mom]

http://childreninthecorn.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-i-built-my-mechanical-chicken.html