I am always surprised to see how many people dislike hand-plucking, who say it's such a daunting task that they'll either spend time & $$$ to construct a mechanical plucker, or choose to skin their birds. I find hand-plucking to be one of the easiest parts of the process. Like Sue described, it sure helps to get a good scald and then have the birds hanging upside-down by their legs, suspended from something sturdy so the bird is between your shoulder to elbow height. Then I can use both hands and swipe most of the feathers off with downward motions, like cleaning the lint from the dryer trap. It takes about 5 minutes per bird.
My processing station is a reclaimed metal yard swing frame with a 2X6 plank bolted sideways across the top. I have 3 home-made cones tacked there, with wire hooks placed in-between. I use zip-ties to hold the birds' legs together before they go into the cone (to keep them from trying to climb out). The ties also make a handy way to hang the birds from the hooks after they're scalded. A 5-gallon bucket is filled with pots of water boiled on the stove inside and brought out when I have birds ready to scald (this is my son's contribution to his chicken dinners). I do 2 at a time, and more hot water can be brought out for the next batch to re-heat the scalding water. I can add water from the hose to bring it down to about 150 degrees.
I dunk the birds about 10 times, up & down & twisting around to get the water down to the skin. When I can easily pull out a wing feather I know the bird is ready to pluck. I don't bother plucking the tail feathers, that part gets cut off anyway.
I did try skinning my birds but didn't like doing it nor the results. It's like trying to pull a really tight snow suit off a fat little kid and I found that I lacked the arm & hand strength to do it easily. Plus, there would be a lot of "chaff" from the feathers that got stuck to the sticky surface of the skinned bird, bits that would be nearly impossible to remove before cooking.
My hand-plucking method works well for me with the small batches of birds I process at one time. If I were doing dozens of birds in one day I'd consider a mechanical plucker.
