Rental plucker!

[Dogfish]

SCORE!

It turns out that the local conservation district has a complete chicken processing set up that you can rent for $20. Kill cones, scalder, and plucker. I have mine reserved for the weekend of the 18th of June when my chickens turn 8 weeks!

Someone here suggested checking co-ops, but you might also want to check local conservation districts.

Feed store just called, my chicks have arrived.

At that price, I don't think I'll be building my own plucker, other than my drill mounted one for the odd lot of birds here and there.

 

[The Chicken People]

Thats cheap and great info for next year when I do meaties! Thanks!

 

[aclee]

I'm renting a featherman plucker with one kill cone for $35...I have to do 38 birds, but I still think it's worth it! I also might build the drill plucker in case we do some odd birds here and there, or if we do turkey's in the fall (we would only do a few)...I was excited to find the plucker though.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
The drill plucker seems like a relatively easy project. But, the last time I killed a couple cockerels and plucked them it went real smoothly. My 11 year-old son and I plucked two birds in about five minutes (including scald time). We each wore the knit work gloves with the textured rubber palms and fingers which seemed to make a big difference.

My first plucking experience involved one bird and maybe 45 minutes. I was ready for any mechanical help I could get my hands on.

Anyway, getting the temperature right and having the gloves made it a whole lot easier than the first experience. And, has me thinking that in batches of 10 or fewer there wouldn't be much difference in time between one person using a drill plucker and two people plucking by hand.

Just something to consider if the desire for a plucker is the result of a bad experience or stories of hard plucks.

 

[Dogfish]

Oh I'll certainly put my drill mounted plucker to use. Cull birds, ducks, grouse, pheasants and quail we bring home from hunting trips, and teh occassional small batch of birds I try for meaties. I'll also give it a shot on turkeys.

I like automation, and since it is just me doing the bulk of the work, the easier the better.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Wow...I wish I could find a plucker for rent, my problems would be solved.

 

[KatieH]

Wow, that's awesome! I wish I could find a plucker to rent around here, I hate plucking.

 

[schmije]

We built a plucker and killing cones this year for our first batch of meaties. We processed them last weekend, and everything worked great. We're considering renting them out, but we aren't sure how to go about it. Did you have to sign a contract or pay a deposit for possible damage to the equipment? I don't think we could rent ours as cheap as what you found.

 

[Dogfish]

There is a deposit, $25, and a simple contract. I'll see if I can get a blank copy when I rent it. We are considering building a tub plucker, but at $20 a use, once or twice per year for 25-50 bird, it doesn't make sense to build one, and I REALLY WANT TO BUILD ONE.

We'll see how far I get into this, and maybe I will, but until then, I'll rent one.

 

[jaku]

$20 sounds like a great price!