Homescale plucker recommendation

[jamband]

I am looking for something not very expensive that will do a good job. I want to use it for chickens and ducks. Any input appreciated.

 

[Farmer-John]

I wish I had some pictures to show you but this is what I did and it works great.

I took a 4" diameter piece of PVC that was 16 inches long, cut slots equally measured length wise, four slot per row, and then evenly spaced around the diameter with four rows. Cut six inch black bungies in halves, pull the small end thru the holes from the inside of the pvc, the hook end (remove the hooks) having the large rubber end will keep them from coming all the way out. using a section of half inch all-thread about 20 inches long for the center shaft. Drill the end caps centered with a half in drill, centering the all thread, bolt on both sides of the end caps with lock washers and sinch them down tightly. One little trick though, before putting the last end cap on with the all thread pushed thru stuff the pvc pipe with some kind of filler, such as plastic grocery bags. This will ensure that if the bungies come loose, they won't fall inside the pvc pipe.. Trust me on this one, because you'll have to take it apart to push them back thru. I made a wooden frame that allowed the all-thread to stick out a little farther on one end and I mounted a half inch drill (heavy duty with a slower speed) to the long end of the all thread. lock the drill in the on position and after scalding get to plucking.. Mine takes about 20 second to do a bird..

I have since replace the bungies with actual plucker fingers but to do it on the fairly cheap the bungies work great.

Hope that helps..

John