chicken plucker plucker question

[The Blacksmith]

I recently bought the book and built a whizbang plucker. My wife and I both agree we can smell rubber on the plucked chicken from the rubber fingers. Has anyone else encountered this? is there something special I should have washed the plucking fingers in or a particular brand or supplier. I just bought these at random from ebay from someone who sells a lot of these

 

[Roland C]

I built my own version of a plucker but I did not have that problem

 

[dhommes]

The plucker fingers come with a "mold release" agent on them to help remove them from the injection molding dies when they are made. This mold release agent will wear away quickly with use. It can be removed with mild detergent and some light scrubbing, too. It is possible that this is what you are noticing when you smell the chickens. The rubber itself should not come off on the chickens.

 

[dhommes]

By the way, congratulations on building your own whizbang! We processed our first batch of meat birds this summer (70+) and used a drill head plucker that we made. While it was somewhat faster than plucking by hand it still took a very long time, and was difficult to control. We tore some skin in the process. So, we bought a drum plucker to do our turkeys this fall and future batches of chickens.

We are hoping, in order to help offset the costs, to rent it out. Otherwise it will just sit unused between batches of birds We live near Lapeer, Michigan -- so if anybody in the area is interested in renting we'd be happy to hear from you. $60 for the first day, $30 for each subsequent day, and a $100 refundable cash deposit which is returned when it's brought back clean and in good condition.

 

[DaveOmak]

I recently bought the book and built a whizbang plucker. My wife and I both agree we can smell rubber on the plucked chicken from the rubber fingers. Has anyone else encountered this? is there something special I should have washed the plucking fingers in or a particular brand or supplier. I just bought these at random from ebay from someone who sells a lot of these

I'm thinking of building a plucker.... which fingers did you purchase... I would like to investigate and avoid that problem if possible....

Dave

 

[mgrant]

Is this still available to rent? My friend and I live in Lapeer and were looking to rent a plucker.

 

[dhommes]

We are still renting it out. Email me directly at [email protected] and let me know when you wanted to rent it. I'll check the calendar and let you know if it's available.

 

[TripleOval]

I've moved off my acreage and can no longer raise chickens. I'd built a whiz bang plucker and used it 5 times or so. If anyone's interested in it, let me know.

 

[sweetrootfarm]

Thanks for noting this. We are building a plucker from a whizzbang plans as well. I was going to purchase lower quality fingers, but I'll go with the Kent fingers. Thanks.