Building a drill mounted chicken plucker....

[Morning Dove]

We are building a drill mounted chicken plucker, as per the design here:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=130787&highlight=plucker

Anyone else try this?


BTW, after telling a few farmers in the CSA I belong to, everyone wants to give me their extra roosters....LOL Apparently no one has a Wiz Bang Plucker...I'm thinking about building one and renting it out, as needed....

Dove

 

[pdpatch]

Yes we have made and used one of those, except we used just four rows of two.

We use it on a battery powered drill that is hand held. I had it finished in time last year to use on a couple of turkeys and we have used it on about 15 Cornish cross this year.

It does not work to dry pluck, so you do have to dip the birds. It won't get the really large feathers, like the primary one on a Cornish cross wings or tail feathers, very well.

Using it as a hand held, feathers tend to go all over the place, and you need an extra person to help hold the bird still.

Tom

 

[Big George]

I made something similar. I used fingers from Strombergs, 25 of them, the soft ones. Best price I found. Mounted them in a 6" piece of pvc with caps on the ends and a threaded rod clear thru. I run it on my drill press at 850 rpm. It takes about minute to pluck a chicken.
I also pluck quail on this.

 

[minifarmer]

I love mine! I spent $10 on it and about an hour to put it together. Works great with an electric drill, my cordless didn't have enough power.
I lent my whizbang book to a friend and he was able to build one for about $200. It works really well for him. He has an issue with it breaking the legs, but that's probably just an adjustment issue. Karla

 

[kingmt]

It looks a lot like the idea I had but I used a 2" pipe cap & 4 fingers 4" long. I have these rubber fingers that I will sell $1 each + shipping.

If you would like I could take a pic & post it.

One of these days I will build my WizBang plucker.

 

[Morning Dove]

Quote:
Sure post a pic of your rubber fingers....if the rubber bungie cords we bought don't work out, we will try again with your rubber fingers!

Thanks!

Oh, new question...... Has anyone here ever built a Wiz-Bang plucker and rented it out? How much do you rent it for, and do you have any kind of written contracts on renting it out? Have you had any issues/damage occur?

Dove

 

[kingmt]

Here is the picks. I'm fairly sure these are the same fingers used in the Whizbang instructions. These are the ones used in the commercial & industrial pluckers. You just drill a 3/4" hole & pull these into place. Once in they must be cut out but the only reason I would want them out is to replace them. Cleaning is easy also I use the hydrogen peroxide that you get from Walmart for $3 a gal. Most use chlorine tho.

 

[Peruvian]

I built one on a 4" PVC cap with 8 extra plucker fingers and gave it to a friend. Just be sure the hole for the bolt is well centered or you will get a lot of shaking of the drill.

 

[JohnL11935]

Quote:
You may find that plucking 2 - 3 chickens at a time will stop the leg breaking as well as any excessive bruising. Most of the leg breaks I've heard of are a result of only doing one bird at a time.


.

 

[kingmt]

Quote:
You may find that plucking 2 - 3 chickens at a time will stop the leg breaking as well as any excessive bruising. Most of the leg breaks I've heard of are a result of only doing one bird at a time.

I don't think you can bruise them unless you try to pluck them while they are alive but I have heard the same thing about the broken legs & that is what the guy writing the book said about them. Even though: I would rather have a broken leg once in a while then hand pluck them.