Plucking cornish x

[Squishychicken]

First time butchering cornish they will be ready soon and I was wondering about plucking.

I dont wanna spend the money to get a big plucking machine or to rent one. Someone on at tsc mentioned a plucked device that attaches to a drill or something in that fashion. Anyone know anything about that or somthing similar?

 

[Compost King]

First time butchering cornish they will be ready soon and I was wondering about plucking.

I dont wanna spend the money to get a big plucking machine or to rent one. Someone on at tsc mentioned a plucked device that attaches to a drill or something in that fashion. Anyone know anything about that or somthing similar?

I saw a video of it on youtube and it looked time consuming although faster than hand plucking and slightly easier. I came to the conclusion that the skin doesn't taste good enough to spend that much tome on it so I skin my birds now. I found that I process a lot more chickens now that I do not have to pluck. I was giving away roosters for others to eat before I did that.

 

[Beer can]

First time butchering cornish they will be ready soon and I was wondering about plucking.

I dont wanna spend the money to get a big plucking machine or to rent one. Someone on at tsc mentioned a plucked device that attaches to a drill or something in that fashion. Anyone know anything about that or somthing similar?

You don't have to but it is easier I'm sure. Depends on how many you are processing. Hand plucking works just fine, just takes more time. I have a really old craftsmen table saw that is a electric motor that runs a belt to the blade that I have wanted for yrs to set up as a plucker like the drill style. A old washing machine can also be converted to a plucker. Skinning is easier and I do it sometimes but when you like the skin on not what you want to do. I've even seen 55gal barrels converted to chicken pluckers run off a belt and motor. All depends on how much work and time you want to put into it and how many birds. If you keep it to a half dozen at a time hand plucking isn't that bad.

 

[Compost King]

I have washing machine that works but has a broken seal, I thought about converting it to a plucker then it dawned on me... its so much easier to skin them than it is to build another gadget which would end up being a maintenance nightmare. I know some people love the skin enough to go through the hassle but not me.

 

[Mimi13]

I have skinned and plucked by hand. Neither is that bad, but for some reason I asked my DH for one of the rubber finger plucker drill attachments (say that ten times really fast) and he got me one. Now hang on for this ride cause it’s gonna be wild.

I had three cockerels to process using this new piece of equipment. My processing table is an old glass patio table and I tried every which way to clamp my electric drill to the table, but wasn’t successful. The vibration of the drill made it keep coming loose.

So then I rigged the drill to an uprighted pallet that I had to secure to an old trailer axle that just happened to have been left in my back yard by my DS. Now this is just me moving and strapping all this stuff down so I could even attach the drill to something at the correct height and angle and it not vibrate loose. Oh, and I haven’t even told you that my first bird is laying there ready and waiting, already cut, drained and scalded. Yeah, so much for planning ahead. I was just too dang excited to use this plucker I never dreamed I’d have all this trouble. I thought it was gonna work just fine clamped to my table. Uh, no!

So now, it’s all set up and ready to go. Or should I say goooooooooo!

I turned the drill on and picked up the bird and barely touched it to the plucker. Feathers went EVERYWHERE! Did you know that a bird has 100,000 feathers on it? Well neither did I. (Not really, but it sure appeared that way.) There were feathers shooting 15’ over into the pasture and there was no way possible for me to even think about cleaning them all up. AND, some of my chickens were running all over trying to find a tasty morsel in all these flying feathers. By this point I already had a humongous mess and I’d only done about half of the first bird, oh, and about half my hand!

I used it again on one more bird only because my DH came out to see how the plucker thing worked. He thought it was cool.

My third bird...he was hand plucked. It was much easier and took less time. Just a side note to the hand plucking: after I cut the artery, I then “pith” the bird. Pithing is inserting your knife into the bird’s mouth and quickly jabbing it into the brain. It is very easy to do and I do it for two reasons: the bird is instantly killed AND it helps to release the feathers from the follicles making plucking that much easier. I do still scald the bird however.

So there is MY story of using the rubber finger plucker drill attachment.

I now am exclusively a hand plucker or skinner.

 

[Squishychicken]

Thanks for everyone's insight I appreciate it. I have only 8 in this batch so I think I'll try half and half with skinning and hand plucking and progress to maybe machinery as I do more larger batches. I've heard about pithing do you have a good video demonstrating it? Which is better splitting the throat or pithing.

I heard about the knife in the brains and how it's less

 

[Mimi13]

Thanks for everyone's insight I appreciate it. I have only 8 in this batch so I think I'll try half and half with skinning and hand plucking and progress to maybe machinery as I do more larger batches. I've heard about pithing do you have a good video demonstrating it? Which is better splitting the throat or pithing.

I heard about the knife in the brains and how it's less

I hope this link works. I like anything produced by John Suscovich. His videos are very informative and easy to watch. I am not one who feels I have to set records when processing my chickens. I don’t have the need for speed. I’m more about a quality kill and processing of the bird. That extra two minutes on a carcass could mean the difference in a healthy meal and an unhealthy one. JFFT (Just Food For Thought)

I forgot to mention that I believe you need to do both, slitting the throat and pithing.

 

[jvls1942]

plucking is misleading.
the quickest way to get the feathers off by hand is to rub them in the opposite way they grow.
work from the back to the front.
this is what I built and use.
I can pluck two or three chickens at a time in about one minute.
It is modeled after the Whiz Bang.
Google Whiz Bang to see how it works.
the drill attachment is very messy.
Look for a drum type plucker.
I have one of those, too. you have to hold on to the chicken and can do only one at a time. but it takes less than a minute.
scalding temperature is critical for a good pluck. 140F works the best for me.

 

[charthorn]

I have literally hand plucked 100s of chickens. The key is to get a good scald on them. Get the water temp to 144 degrees dip them in until the wing feathers easily pull out, around 15 seconds or so. If properly scaled, you should be able to pluck a bird in about 45 seconds to one minute.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

I have hand plucked, used the drill attachment, and have now upgraded to an automatic plucker. I think its good to either hand pluck or use the drill attachment for your first few dozen to get the hang of things. I was not a real fan of the drill attachment, but it worked and was faster than plucking by hand. My wife bought me an automatic plucker and we have more than doubled how many birds we can process in an hour now.