Plucker

kfod

Does anyone here have a plucking machine?
I love shooting birds but I hate plucking them, it takes me ages!

I have been thinking about getting a cheapish plucking machine but know basically nothing about them.

Maceoin do a range, this is the cheapest style they have:

http://www.maceoinltd.com/poultry-equipment/poultry-processing-supplies/wet-plucking-machine-novital-esterina/

anybody have thoughts / advice/ ways to make plucking easier/ on this?

jap gt

give me the 400 i will pluck what birds you have

you would want to be going through a serious amount of birds to make that pay, my understanding of that plucker is its fairly low powered mainly for chickens and they must be wet to use it, you would be better off dipping the bird in hot water and the feathers will fall off with a quick rub

kfod

Ya, they are a bit expensive, and thats a cheaper one. I've never tried wet plucking, does it make it much easier?
Have you seen the pluckers that go on a drill? You can get them for around €30 or so.

jap gt

kfod wrote: »

Ya, they are a bit expensive, and thats a cheaper one. I've never tried wet plucking, does it make it much easier?
Have you seen the pluckers that go on a drill? You can get them for around €30 or so.

waste of time, any time i do broilers i always dip them but thats just because i would be doing 50+ in a day, for pheasants etc i just pluck the ordinary way once you get used to it it only takes a few minutes

or you could do this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rJBe0X8TQ

kfod

I swear it takes me an hour to pluck a pheasant / chicken and longer for a duck. Will have to try the wet plucking next time I have a few to do.

Snakezilla

jap gt wrote: »

or you could do this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rJBe0X8TQ

I tried that once and I ended up just pulling the legs off the bird instead


When are you supposed to do it? When just shot or left hanging?

dodderangler

kfod wrote: »

I swear it takes me an hour to pluck a pheasant / chicken and longer for a duck. Will have to try the wet plucking next time I have a few to do.

An hour? You'd do a turkey in less. :P

As someone said it can be easier with hot water.
Or do it in the field. That way you can just reef the feathers off it in a few mins and not worry about the Missus moaning about feathers all over the place. Usually my case

kfod

Ya, about an hour to fully pluck I'd say. The feathers all around the kitchen goes down well alright! Especially duck feathers, they go everywhere lol!
I know it shouldn't take half as long. More practice I suppose!

Also, thinking about it, one of those machines would prob make ****e of a phesant hung for a few days. The skin seems to tear easily after a few days.

patdahat

Snakezilla wrote: »

I tried that once and I ended up just pulling the legs off the bird instead


When are you supposed to do it? When just shot or left hanging?

more less straight away while the bird is warm.

junospider

can dry pluck 4 turkeys in an hour.

Jacovs

Been involved with a lot of chicken abattoirs, the processing equipment, designed, built and installed a few pluckers myself.
With mass production they would stun, then kill the chickens, bleed out for about 60-90 seconds, then straight into a scalding tank with water of about 52-54 C for about 60 seconds, then straight into the plucker. The warm water opens the pores, making the feathers easier to pluck, less damage to the skin.
On that link you posted it has an item at the bottom "rubber finger for wet plucking machines". They should have different types of those. Some harder and some softer, might be different colours. On the automatic plucker you would use a harder finger set further from the bird to get most of the long feathers, then a softer finger on a second machine set closer to get the smaller feathers.
They should have something inbetween, which might work best for you in one plucker like that.
Also, ducks are a bitch to get clean properly. For that you have to add another process. After the stun, bleed and scalding, they dip the duck in hot wax, let it cool, then pull it all off, taking all the feathers with it. The wax is reusable.

dodderangler

kfod wrote: »

Ya, about an hour to fully pluck I'd say. The feathers all around the kitchen goes down well alright! Especially duck feathers, they go everywhere lol!
I know it shouldn't take half as long. More practice I suppose!

Also, thinking about it, one of those machines would prob make ****e of a phesant hung for a few days. The skin seems to tear easily after a few days.

Pigeon is just as bad but Now I just take the breast. Put fingers on the breast bone and slide the feathers off. Then cut out the breast.
May aswell be the same with pheasant. Realistically there's fcuk all on them.

Bogwoppit

Jacovs wrote: »

Also, ducks are a bitch to get clean properly. For that you have to add another process. After the stun, bleed and scalding, they dip the duck in hot wax, let it cool, then pull it all off, taking all the feathers with it. The wax is reusable.

I finish the ducks off with a blowtorch.

Bw

Snakezilla

If your dipping the bird into scalding water is that in any way going to affect the meat? As in would it cook the surface maybe 1mm of meat? You know like if you pour boiling water on chicken breast in a pot it goes white?

kfod

I use the blowtorch on the ducks as well. Thats a job best done outside lol

Ya the breast from the Pigeon is the handiest for what you get really. For the few Pheasant I get I like to fully do them.

jellybaby21

Make one of these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPl3wakxsg

dodderangler

jellybaby21 wrote: »

Make one of these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPl3wakxsg

Looks the job but I'd be worried the insides would burst and end up a big mess inside.

kfod

Last few hours gone looking at various homebrew chicken pluckers on youtube!!

meathstevie

A five year old cock will be soft as butter coming out of one of them yokes

CJhaughey

I bought a book and the fingers to make a plucker about 5 years ago but still haven't made it. I got fed up with plucking chickens for the table.
Google Whizbang plucker, thats the original homemade version of the drum plucker.

daithi55

two videos here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC051HphyvY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4nAKYoD3Y

dto001

I priced the components for a whizzbang and I think it would be cheaper to buy one!!

kfod

I'd be the same as you, CJhaughey, I'd have all the pieces and never get around to assembling them, like the bits for the larsen trap, bee hives, etc etc I have in the shed. Though I should throw the larsen trap together, but thats another story lol!

I think I'll just try the wet plucking next time around and see how that goes. From most of what I've read / watched anything less than the whizzbang style plucker isn't any improvement on wet plucking.

Stevegeraghty

I'll give this a go, any ideas on what to bodge up for fingers?

http://achornfarm.blogspot.ie/2009/06/how-to-build-chicken-plucker_30.html?m=1

kfod

maceoins have the fingers:

http://www.maceoinltd.com/poultry-equipment/poultry-processing-supplies/rubber-finger-for-wet-plucking-machines

dunno what you could use instead, cut up bicycle tyres?

CJhaughey

The fingers are a pretty specialized part, they have to be the right hardness to stand out straight but soft enough to not break and tear the chicken.
I'd buy them if you are serious about making one.
Inner tube doesn't have the little radial grooves to trap the feathers either.
I got mine here http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Plucker_Finger_for_wet_plucking_machine.html

patdahat

calf teat's?
http://www.magentadirect.ie/products.php?cat=70