AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

In here with the recipes seemed to be the best place to put this...

I made a cheap plucker which attaches to a standard drill which is then secured to a table before use.

Rather than specify exact materials, I'll try to let you decide what you use. Even when I specify what I use, please adapt to what you can find.

I went to the plumbing section of a hardware store and grabbed myself a 90mm end cap and a 90mm joiner.

I went to the ropes and bungy cords section and got 2m of bungy cord about 8-10mm thick.

I went to the nuts and bolts section with the end cap and joiner in hand and grabbed a bolt and 3 nuts, ensuring the bolt would be long enough. A piece of threaded rod would probably suffice. I also had split washers at home. If you don't have any, get some.

I joined the end cap and joiner together with Tarzan's Grip (as cable ties just won't do in this job) and then drilled three holes and whacked in three screws for added strength.

I drilled a hole in the centre of the end cap for the bolt.

I drilled a total of 12 holes in the joiner for the bungy cord (the plucker fingers). I drilled the holes in the formation of 2 then 1 then 2 then 1 then 2 then 1 (: . : . : . : . where the . . . . are centred).

I taped an end of the bungy cord to make it easier to feed through the holes. I fed the bungy cord through a hole, cut it and tied it off, and repeated that process for each hole. The last hole had a piece 5cm short, so I taped it rather than doing a knot. Not bad considering I didn't bother to measure. Thus each finger including a knot uses about 17cm of bungy cord. I recommend you get 2.5m so you don't run out. Due to the fact that I had to tape the end of the bungy cord to feed it though each hole, I suggest that you do not cut the cord into lengths to feed through individually.



I cut the head off the bolt as it was one of those ones with the rounded surface and the square thing underneath. No good for the plucker end (unless you can drill square holes) and no good to go into the drill.

I worked out how much of the threaded end needed to protrude through the top of the plucker and threaded two of the nuts with a split washer in between to that point. I did those two nuts up tight. I don't want the plucker flying apart during use.

I then pushed that through the hole, whacked on another split washer and nut and did that up tight as well.

I then secured it to an old table under the house using duct tape. Again cable ties just didn't seem appropriate. I quad-folded some non-slip matting for under the drill.



I grabbed one of the Orpex boys (now about 23-25 weeks old I think), chopped off his head, hung him for about 1-2 minutes only and dipped him in hot tap water for about a minute.

I then turned on the plucker (the drill) and plucked as best I could. It wasn't quite as successful as I had hoped and took a lot longer than expected, but it was easier on the finger muscles than plucking by hand.

Two problems. 1. I quite literally beat the crap out of him. 2. It didn't result in a totally bald bird.



There were a couple of thin areas of skin, but overall the skin survived the beating quite well. I had to finish plucking by hand.

I then removed his legs, removed his innards, removed his neck, cleaned the cavity and tied him up for packaging.



I'm not sure if it was beating from the drill plucker that did it or the short hanging time, but throughout the process the bird remained very floppy with no hint of rigor.

I hope my experience helps others.

Now I have to go and do another one of the boys.

I used hotter water and the plucking went better.

I'm still lagging way behind the experts here, but the second boy is in the fridge. From scared to prepared in around 30 minutes.

That included catching, killing, hanging, getting the water, dipping, plucker plucking, manual plucking, cutting, de-gutting, cleaning and tying.

...now I've got some raking and cleaning up to do. It looks like someone had a pillow fight downstairs that turned nasty.

Even the plucker was scared.

See...it's a-frayed-plucker.



Maybe that particular type of bungy cord isn't ideal.

Burning the end didn't work so good to get it through the holes when I building it, so I don't think that's the answer.

When I was in the "ropes and everything else" section yesterday, I considered electrical cord and even plastic/rubber tubing.

My parents used to kill anumber of chooks before a big party, such as families have a Christmas time. Dad did the chopping off, and Mum did the plucking with me acting as "Water Boy". They had me boiling the electric jug, and after they had hung the chook for its designated time, it was held neck down in a bucket, and the scalding water poured through its feathers, all over and around. This makes feather pulling much easier. They used their fingers to pluck, and sat on boxes in the old wide open yard, which soon had the feathers blowing all over it. I'd go with scalding water meself.

What an entertaining thread - you need to write a book at some stage!

I'm impressed with the contraption - but much more so with the story that goes with it.

Deb

Back when I was a kid my Dad disolved candle wax in the hot water dipped the chickens or ducks in then hung them out until cool. He then peeled them like shell'n peas. The wax held on to all those annoy'n pin feathers. Yep! clean as a whistle.


Surfer2

Greenaus

Just had a thought- Try using spear gun rubber: comes in various sizes and would retain its shape when operational

Surfer2

Wow that's different. Top idea needless to say.

Well done I reckon the speargun rubber sounds good

I used the plucker again last week. It sucked. I hadn't done anything to it since last time, so the cord was still frayed.

I'll use some kind of rubber when re-making it....whenever that is.