Seeking tips for plucking

[Moose Antler]

It's fall at my mini chicken ranch, and the spring chicks are crowing loudly. It's about time to butcher out the young roosters! I would love to hear any tips, pointers, tools, etc you use to make the plucking go faster. I generally do 10 or less birds at a time (once, maybe twice per year) but the plucking is the big hold-up. I generally scald and pluck by hand, but am very open to suggestions!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I also do it by hand. After trying temps of 150-190, I have found that a 160 degree sca!d gives me the easiest pluck. I also hang them by the feet for plucking so I can pull down with both hands. Hope this helped. happy plucking!

 

[Anime2lover]

We dipped ours in a pot thats brought to a light simmer. We dip it for about 5 sec. And recently we made a hand held plucker thats brought our plucking time down by half.

 

[Tre3hugger]

We dipped ours in a pot thats brought to a light simmer. We dip it for about 5 sec. And recently we made a hand held plucker thats brought our plucking time down by half.

How did u make the plucker?

 

[Anime2lover]

How did u make the plucker?

A interchangable hqnd held ddrill, a plastic tall tuppawear dush, and those tough rubber bungy cords. We cut six of those in half and attqtched them to the plastic dish wich acts as a guard to protect the drill from getting wet and attatched the drill to the inside of the tuppawear dish at the bottom.

 

[cassie]

I don't remember how hot I had the water, but 160 sounds about right. I read somewhere that if you can flick the skin off the leg with a fingernail the scald is about right. A squirt or two of dish detergent in the scald water helps too. If you scald the chickens properly the feathers come right off.

 

[Compost King]

If you give up on plucking you can always take up skinning the birds. It all depends on how valuable the skin is to you. I prefer skinning because I can process the birds on my kitchen table and away from flies that swarm me when I pluck.

 

[RoosterML]

Get yourself a plucker. Yardbird one is great!