Chicken Pluckers anyone?

[rancherman]

It's that time of the year again.... stand around and hand pick 100 broilers. Boy, am I ready to 'mechanize' this part of the operation! Been looking at either EZ plucker rotary drum chicken plucker or buy the parts to make a Whiz-bang. (very similar to each other in design). I can 'pick' a chicken in 10-12 minutes, but these things can have 90-95% of the feathers removed on 2 birds in 20 seconds.

Anyone here have experience with these contraptions?

[Rogan]

Most experience I've got is:1. Watch your hand/finger placement2. Hold on tight3. Keep mouth closed

[Mopar1973Man]

Wow. That is a killer setup going from live bird to freeze in a short order. ...or for Dripley to bun in a short order.

[rancherman]

Mike, if you had tv, you would get a chuckle out of the advertisement for KFC chicken: "I ate the bones??? I ate the bones!!! (geez, I hate that commercial for their boneless chicken)

[Mopar1973Man]

I don't want TV...

[diesel4life]

Love the elevator music in the background!I have a couple of stray cats floating around I would love to drop in that drum!

[rancherman]

Love the elevator music in the background! I have a couple of stray cats floating around I would love to drop in that drum!

I suppose 'elevator music' is more publicly allowable... (these days) than say, Freddie kruger spool-up melody! Me, I'd opt for the "Flight of the Valkyrie" (Apocalypse Now) It amazes me how many people on Youtube think the chicken is still alive during the scalding/plucking process! (dumbasses) Probably think their chicken comes from Mc'ds anyways...

[sngsht]

Wow,that thing works pretty slick, can't get much easier than that! I'm thinking the music might need a bit of tweaking though, I kept waiting for Ron Popeil to jump in from the side and, want to sell me two for one low price:hyper:

[cetanefreek]

I'm pretty impressed with that plucker!

[dripley]

Wow,that thing works pretty slick, can't get much easier than that! I'm thinking the music might need a bit of tweaking though, I kept waiting for Ron Popeil to jump in from the side and, want to sell me two for one low price:hyper:

I can see that now and Ron would have a can of spray on feathers for the balding chicken . You gotta love that guy.

[Wild and Free]

I did that as a kid up through college, several hundred every year, as a kid I got the job of picking pin feathers after all the rest was done, that was the worst part of butchering chickens.:sleep:Actually you started at or should I say.....with the "Head" of the line and then progressed to pin feather picking.

[Rogan]

That would suck Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[dorkweed]

Most of the "hunt clubs" around my area use those devices on their pen raised pheasants, chuckars and ducks. Me personally, I "skin" all my wild birds vs. plucking...............and butcher them down from there. Ain't much "waste" on the birds I clean.

[Mopar1973Man]

As for me and grouse I do the stand on the wings and pull the legs routine. You end up with the breast meat attached to the wings and the feet and guts in your hand. Just throw them over the hill. Now pick up the breast and break of each wing and there you go. No feather plucking.

[dripley]

I dont consider myself a city boy, but I have to be honest the only thing I have ever skinned is a cat fish. Gutted some ordinary fish before, but that is my country experience. That chicken plucking machine was something.AT chick-fil-a, their chicken comes in a big bag. Please forgive them and me.

[hex0rz]

:ahhh:I've got 115 to do this 4th july weekend. I dunno if we are gonna be able to get one of them contraptions by that time. I'm really hoping to, but I'm one busy boy right now!

[rancherman]

I've got 115 to do this 4th july weekend. I dunno if we are gonna be able to get one of them contraptions by that time. I'm really hoping to, but I'm one busy boy right now!

I ordered the ez98 yesterday, and said it'd ship same day. It comes out of Ohio, so hopefully I'll see it early next week. out of the 100, I think there are about 10 that are so big they barely can walk... I might just get started on those big-uns this weekend. yep, the old fashioned way.... I could 'rent' this machine to ya.. I see they have a little different water temp they recommend for scalding.. they want about 145-150* water, and about a 45 second dunk time. I've always had close-to-boiling-if-not-boiling for a 10-15 second swim.

[LiveOak]

They work good. The thing to consider is that unless you regularly process this many chickens on a regular basis.....you can buy a LOT of chicken with the nearly $500 price tag. I had a few mean roosters who were intent upon tearing up the wife's garden. The latest foray was destroying the entire lettuce crop. Needless to say, the wife was PISSED. The same day, I found one of my hens dead compliments of a couple of mean roosters. My trusty 22-250 did the entire chicken processing in one shot. I did not have the equipment to process them at the time and I REALLY hate to do that as it is a huge waste of meat but the garden was being systematically destroyed by about 4 roosters. They stay out of the garden now. I have ordered a 42 quart scalding pot from wally world: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayou-Classic-Aluminum-Great-Lakes-Boler-with-2-Baskets-42-qt./20405502 I found a real nice processing table at Sportsmansguide: http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=956785 For the time being, I am going to try plucking by hand. I plan on processing just the excess roosters. My problem is that over time, we get too many roosters and they are tremendously destructive to the hens, the garden and the yard. They also get the hens so stressed out that they stop laying and raising chicks. Definitely NOT a good thing.

[Wild and Free]

The one I used as a kid was not a tub style it was an open wheel drum style with rubber fingers but I suppose the one in the video would be a bit safer although I don't remember anyone getting hurt.

[rancherman]

They work good. The thing to consider is that unless you regularly process this many chickens on a regular basis.....you can buy a LOT of chicken with the nearly $500 price tag. I had a few mean roosters who were intent upon tearing up the wife's garden. The latest foray was destroying the entire lettuce crop. Needless to say, the wife was PISSED. The same day, I found one of my hens dead compliments of a couple of mean roosters. My trusty 22-250 did the entire chicken processing in one shot. I did not have the equipment to process them at the time and I REALLY hate to do that as it is a huge waste of meat but the garden was being systematically destroyed by about 4 roosters. They stay out of the garden now. I have ordered a 42 quart scalding pot from wally world: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayou-Classic-Aluminum-Great-Lakes-Boler-with-2-Baskets-42-qt./20405502 I found a real nice processing table at Sportsmansguide: http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=956785 For the time being, I am going to try plucking by hand. I plan on processing just the excess roosters. My problem is that over time, we get too many roosters and they are tremendously destructive to the hens, the garden and the yard. They also get the hens so stressed out that they stop laying and raising chicks. Definitely NOT a good thing.

you are right, 500 bucks would buy a lot of chicken! We've done about 100 birds a year for the last 30 years... and I am SOOO done doing it by hand.... almost makes me look forward to the 'next' 30 years! I finally got my shipping notice from the supplier, should have my picker Thursday or Friday. Soon as it's delivered, it'll be schuckin' feathers asap!