making a feather plucker..

[jvls1942]

good afternoon, I want to show you what I made today..


It is a waterer warmer..

I cut 6 inches off the bottom of a plastic 5 gallon pail.. mounted a light fixture inside it flipped it open side down and set my 5 gallon plastic water container on it..

the bucket was free,, the plastic light fixture cost $1.05 including tax.. the cord with plug I cut off of an old lamp.. and the light bulb we had on hand already... it is a 60W..

One note of caution: do not over tighten the bolts.. you could crack the fixture, like I did with the first one.. just snug it up ..

another note of caution and then I am done.. do not set the heater where straw or similar material can come in contact with the light bulb.. maybe set the heater into a shallow pan, like an oil drain pan..

the first one took about a half hour to build.. the second one I made in about 15 minutes..

I have it plugged into a thermo cube.. the power will come on after the coop temperature gets down to 34* F ..

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

 

[jvls1942]

I just want to follow up on the waterer base heaters..

we had a few nights with minus -15 F below zero.. I have 5 gallon plastic waterers sitting on the heated base.. no ice in either of the two coops.. and no, the plastic did not melt either..

the biggest problem I have is the geese keep knocking the waterer over.. I will have to build some sort of surround to keep that from happening.. I have a plan for it in my head.. just need a warmer day to go out and work in the shop..

today the temperature is higher outside,, so the coops warmed up nicely..
I have the bases plugged into thermo cubes and they have shut off because the temp went above 45* F....

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

 

[hdmax]

here is the chain and sprocket whizbang I built.. the frame is
solid red oak.. and yes, those are wheel chair tires..



this is the sprocket arrangement I came up with.. It reduces
the 1725 RPM at the motor, down to 192 RPM at the spinning
featherplate.. those heavy 1 inch bearings came from a salvage
yard,, each set of 2 bearing blocks, and the 1 inch stainless steel
shafts cost me only $5.oo a set ..

like I said, scrounge around ..

I tore apart an old wheel chair for the wheels, but after taking measurements, decided it would not fit through the 36" door I have. So I went with an old dolly. It works great. (I use my Chicken Stripper a lot, so getting it in and out through the door is important.)

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I see what you mean.. I built a yard cart for hauling sack of feed , or bales of straw.. I made sure it was narrow enough to go through my doors and gates.. I forgot about one particular gate.. but as luck would have it, the wheels rub, but it goes through..
this is the push cart with the brooder I built on it..the brooder is about 2 ft x 4 ft

...jiminwisc.......

 

[jvls1942]

today I finally broke down and plowed the driveway and the chicken yard.. we didn't have one large snowfall, just a series of small ones.. the snow on the ground got to about 8 inches deep..

as long as I had the tractor going anyway, I went behind the garage and retrieved the old table saw that I am going to convert into a drum type chicken plucker..

I left it in the tractor bucket and disassembled it.. I removed the cast iron top along with the motor.. then I removed the base/legs.. I might or might not put them back on..

I have the 8" PVC pipe/drum cut to length.. I took the saw body into the shop and rough fit the drum and shaft to it.. I should have room to spare after I get all the fingers mounted into the drum..

Now I am thinking I might make the final drive chain and sprocket ..

I figure there will be 78 rubber plucker fingers in the drum..

I will take some more pictures as I go along..

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

 

[jvls1942]

update on the plucker,, nothing happening,, Holidays and super cold weather makes me want to stay inside..

I am having good luck with those waterer heaters, though.. I have two large coops, one coop is insulated,, the other is not.. the only problem I had when the temp got way below zero, a little ice formed in the tray around the jug, the water in the jug did not freeze, though and the small hole did not freeze so the birds didn't go without..

soooo, I am going to try to insulate the heater base,, I still have the tops of the pails.. I will cut the top of the pail to the same height as the base and insert the base into it.. then I will fill the void between the two with expanding foam.. that is my project for tomorrow..

I will take pictures and let you know how it all turns out..

..........jiminwiscwishingyouallahappynewyear........

 

[Huntress78]

Thanks for the water heater update Jim. Happy New Year to you too!!

 

[jvls1942]

I figure it is time to bump this thread,,
I have been working with my sportsman incubators.. I have 3 of them,,
I use one of them for a hatcher..

what have I done lately ? I made 3 hatching trays for the bator..

and I fiddled around with some egg holding trays to convert the 2 sportsman bators into 552 egg bators..

I will send pictures for now.. If you want more information on how to do this, just post it here..

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

 

[jvls1942]

here are some pictures..

...
this is a picture of what I have set in one of the incubators right now..
the top turner has a full tray with a modified stacked tray on top of it..
the trays are 2 to a shelf of 48 eggs each,, that is 96 eggs on the bottom layer.
the stacked trays each hold 36 eggs , that is a bonus amount of 72 eggs on the top shelf,

In this picture, all the eggs in the base holders are Buff Orpington and Delaware eggs.
All the eggs in the stacked trays are guinea hen eggs..
the stackers on the middle and bottom shelves hold the full compliment of 48 eggs each.. so that is a bonus of 96 eggs,, twice ?? or 192 eggs..

..
this is the hatcher/bator with all 3 trays in place.. the wings on the top keep the chicks from climbing over the edge and crawling down along side of the tray,, they are forced to stay in their respective tray until I remove them..

I do custom hatching, so this keeps the batches of chicks from getting mixed together..
each of these trays holds 96 regular chicken eggs..

..
this is the profile of the tray,, the 1 1/2 inch wide crack blocker on top.
the one inch deep body ..
1/2 inch square wire bottom with slats holding it in place.
the slat on the right side is also a skid for sliding it in on.. I beveled the ends like a sled so it would not catch on anything..

all the wooden parts are clear red oak..
I purposely did not paint or stain any of it,, I don't want anything toxic in the incubator..

I was in a hurry, so I did not sand anything either.. I had eggs waiting to be transferred ..

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

 

[jvls1942]

I just finished my 3rd whiz bang chicken plucker.. \
It is chain and sprocket drive like the second one was, only instead of 50# chain, I used 40# chain,
It runs a little quieter .. next one I make I will try 30# chain and sprocket.

I have this one sold already,, I should have made two of them simultaneously .

..
I have the plucker tilted to show as much of the sprocket and electrical as I could.
that is a Marathon 3/4 HP motor.. the switch is mounted upside down to deter water from getting into the switch box.. the wires going into the box are sealed with bees wax to keep water out.
there is a protective cover for over the motor,, (not shown)

the wooden frame is 100% clear red oak..

this plucker has 152 rubber fingers in it.. 80 in the feather plate, and 72 in the drum,,

I did not salvage any parts for this one,, all parts are store bought,,

I sold this pluucker for $1000.oo..
this is the side opposite the motor,, the metal chute under the discharge opening directs the feathers into a container ..