building a chicken plucker

[Whitehouse Quail]

For fingers, just make them out of Bungee cord, like this guy; http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=130787&highlight=plucker

 

[jaku]

I would wonder if that works as well- the plucker fingers you buy work really well. They have grooves to grip the feathers, and are easy to mount. It would be a shame to make a plucker and have it not work.

 

[jvls1942]

those bungie fingers might be OK for an occasional few birds..but they will not hold upfor the long haul and many many pluckings like the real fingers will.. I bought my first used plucker used from a chicken farm going out of business.

that was almost forty years ago.. I have not had to replace a plucker finger, yet..

we did thousands of chickens with it..

 

[jvls1942]

just an update.. since I wrote the initial post I have built two Whizbang pluckers.. I have two more started.. I have all the parts, but I might be short on fingers..

I ordered the fingers from Kimball.

I bought 300 and paid 75 cents apiece for them. it takes about 120 to build a whizbang.. my commercial drum plucker has about 150 fingers..