Manual chicken plucker?

[boomdiddyah]

Slaughtered and processed my first 5 chickens today, and I would definitely like a plucker for the next time! Has anyone heard of one that is manual? Not battery or electricity powered.

 

[phalenbeck]

I have the drum thing with rubber fingers (bought of internet) attached to a old drill bolted to a board. Of course this is electric, and works good enough for a guy that does 5-8 a day, and about 50 a year. I guess that rigging this to a bike would make it non electric, but that is allot of hillbilly enginering.

 

[blucoondawg]

The only real manual one I've seen was on you tube a while back it was a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out with plucker fingers through the inside and the guy hung the chicken on a rope attached to the top and bottom so it held the chicken taught then he ran the bucket up and down over the chicken manually. It looked to work but certainly not as well as a power version

 

[123RedBeard]

Yeah, I saw the one bluecoondawg mentioned ... or ... do you have kids???

 

[eleaserek]

Lol

thats my plan... kid labor

 

[123RedBeard]

Lol

thats my plan... kid labor

No work ... no eat! That's how I was brought up ...

 

[Justin-Dallas]

Good people of BC!

Ive watched a few how to make a plucker videos, and there always seems to be a motor underneath the drum, on a pulley wheel type of system. Is there any real need for this? My thought was to have the motor (grinder / polisher / drill) mounted above the drum, with the plucking pan mounted on bearings (to aid less friction and easy rotating).

Does anyone with more experience see any issues on why this wouldnt work? I also thought to make it 'hand-powered' one would instead mount a crank to the top bar (like a salad spinner)
Would love any feedback.

 

[blucoondawg]

A grinder would spin way to fast and possibly not have enough torque to hold up well, in other words the weight of a chicken or 2 may snub out the grinder or burn out the motor. I'm sure something like that would work fine providing you can get a tool with the right rpm and built heavy enough to spin such a large plate with weight against it.
A hand crank unit may work well if it were done properly though I wouldn't bother unless I had no access to electricity.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I have the drum thing with rubber fingers (bought of internet) attached to a old drill bolted to a board. Of course this is electric, and works good enough for a guy that does 5-8 a day, and about 50 a year. I guess that rigging this to a bike would make it non electric, but that is allot of hillbilly enginering.

I resemble that statement.

 

[sniper338]

I want an electric one that works great. Heck with manuel labor!!