Plucking roosters vs. hens

[3littlebirds]

I've never processed a chicken before, but I do plan to at some point. Just out of curiosity- are roosters any harder to pluck than hens because of the longer feathering, or does it not make much of a difference?

 

[HEChicken]

If there is a difference, I've never noticed it, although I've only plucked one or two hens. If you have the water temperature right when you dunk them, the feathers come out pretty easily.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Gender really doesn't make a difference. If anything, the longer feathers on the roosters give you more to hold on to when plucking tail feathers. If you scald the bird properly, the hackle and saddle feathers (the other feathers that will be longer on roosters than on hens) will just wipe right off with no real effort on your part regardless of whether you're plucking a male or female. I have found that my cockerels were slightly more difficult to pluck than my own spent hens, but that is because of pin feathers (new feathers growing in) which are more difficult to remove than mature feathers. I have also found that some of the spent hens I've been given by a friend to process have been more difficult than my own because of their condition. They had seen a little too much rooster lovin', resulting in feathers broken close to the base (harder to pluck because there isn't much left to hold on to or grab) and an increased number of pin feathers where their mature feathers had been completely plucked out by the other bird(s).