The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: suziequeue on December 04, 2011, 05:27:39 pm
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Has anybody built their own chicken plucking machine?
I have the plans for a "whizz-bang" machine from Herrick Kimbal.
Seems pretty straightforward.
Has anybody built one?
Any tips?
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I suppose it depends on how much you have to do but we have been there done that with homemade and this year with 17 geese 20 turkeys, umpteen cockerels and ducks we invested in a proper one and we did them all in a day! Well worth the money ( and a sinew pull as well, so much easier).
We found the homemade too fast or uncrontolable with feathers everywhere and ended up with torn skin. The whizbang is the washing machine one I believe , that is one we did not do but have seen the videos.... would like to see a video of it doing a black plumed bird!
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We decided that doing a couple of dozen birds a year, we'd just do them by hand. Looked at the whizz-bang, but it was too hard ;D
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I kill em, the wife plucks em. Works fine, no machiune needed. Please don't tell the wife there are plucking machines ;D ;D ;D
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a friend who runs our local smallholders group built one, works a treat, just need to make sure u get the scaulding right and it leaves them bare. needs running water though so using it when its very frosty/cold can be problematic
Mandy
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would intrested doing one are selves
if you do one & works well to get it ready for next Christmas
keep us posted
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No - but I have one in the outhouse surplus to requirements if anyone is interested .... electrics safe as spent a fortune getting them sorted only never to get into using it - we are near Goole - East Yorks
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I posted about this ages ago and I thought I would update you on progress.
So - here's the project so far.
Costs are: drum - nil, wood - nil, screws and bolts £20 (for whole project)
So far I have measured the drum, marked it out and built the frame.
It's not quite perfection but I think it is good enough.
Tomorrow I plan to do the motor mounting board..... after that things get interesting.
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Excellent, thanks for the update, looking good. :thumbsup:
We were looking at the Whizzbang plans but never went any further - if we were doing any sort of quantity we'd need to build something.
Are you using plans or making it up? ;) :)
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I'm using the Whiz Bang plans. Very easy to follow - except it's all in 16ths of an inch so I'm having to convert the measurements all the time but no other problems really.
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Plucking can be sooooo sociable..I love plucking!!!
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So - this project has sat in the workshop for over a year while we have been having the house rebuilt and then we've had such good weather - so been outside most weekends doing stuff. Now the weather has closed in a bit I have had a chance to make some progress.
I have completed the frame and the bearing boards, got the feather plate made and put the fingers in. I have caulked the frame and now it needs painting and waterproofing. Then need to put the fingers in the drum and attach that.
We have at least three cockerels from this summer's hatching and we have finally got a wall mounted dispatcher so am getting closer and closer to processing our own chicken :D
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Well - the machine is finally finished - just in time to do our two and a friend's five. so we had a productive afternoon and got all seven done and plucked.
http://youtu.be/WIXvnRilUM0 (http://youtu.be/WIXvnRilUM0)
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I find the plucking pretty easy and almost therapeutic, now if someone would invent a machine that sticks an artificial hand up a chickens 'harris' and guts it, then that I would be interested in. :excited:
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Oh well - can't please all the people all the time. I'm very pleased with it ;D ;D
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Well done - it looks absolutely excellent :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Wow that looks impressive, it's the plucking that puts me off keeping meat birds, I don't mind the "other" bits.
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Well done. Can you tell me how it works on trad breeds like rir etc? We did 12 the other day and even with scalding at 60 degrees, it was still a bit of a job to get all feathers out. We are hoping to do 50 meat birds next year so will need some sort of machine to speed things up.
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The 5 of mine we did were Ixworth x Maran.
I was really impressed how well it did them.
If you've got a lot to do and can afford it, definately worth it.
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As well as Dogwalker's birds we did our two cream legbars and I set the scald temperature to 72 degrees. I might take it down to 70 or 68 next time.
We are planning to get Ixworth eggs to hatch next year for a bigger bird.
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Cool. We found below 60 the scald is not very effective. Does doing it at 72 affect the skin at all, some of ours went a bit sort of soapy like the skin had been cooked. Maybe held them in too long.
Also, are the plans to build it free or do you have to buy them? Where did you source them?
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Doing it at 72 was the recommended temperature on a number of websites and in the plan book I bought (http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/build-your-own-whizzbang-poultry-plucker-book.html)but we thought it was a bit too hot so next time I will do it a little lower.
I think I may have held them in a bit long but I found it took quite a long time to really soak the bird and get all the air out if the feathers if that makes sense.
So - next time……. ;D
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Look great and works fab welldone!!!
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Doing it at 72 was the recommended temperature on a number of websites and in the plan book I bought (http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/build-your-own-whizzbang-poultry-plucker-book.html)but we thought it was a bit too hot so next time I will do it a little lower.
I think I may have held them in a bit long but I found it took quite a long time to really soak the bird and get all the air out if the feathers if that makes sense.
So - next time……. ;D
If you put just a smidgin of washing up liquid in the water that seems to help, and if you dont fancy Fairy Liquid you could use one of the Biological ones made from orange oil or some such. ;)
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Doing it at 72 was the recommended temperature on a number of websites and in the plan book I bought (http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/build-your-own-whizzbang-poultry-plucker-book.html)but we thought it was a bit too hot so next time I will do it a little lower.
I think I may have held them in a bit long but I found it took quite a long time to really soak the bird and get all the air out if the feathers if that makes sense.
So - next time……. ;D
If you put just a smidgin of washing up liquid in the water that seems to help, and if you dont fancy Fairy Liquid you could use one of the Biological ones made from orange oil or some such. ;)
That's what I do with the ducks and geese but the cockerals usually just need a squish about.
I think the water could be a bit cooler next time, it did affect the skins but not important for family eating.
I normally just use a bucket and top up with a kettle so have no idea of the temp. usually.
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Yes - temp down to 68, a spot of fairy liquid in the water, quicker dunking and Mr Kimball suggests that hosing the water on whilst the chicken is going round helps aswell.
So all lessons will be taken on board for next time.
Spent this afternoon gutting and jointing the chickens from a blog on the subject. We now have tarragon and cider casserole in the oven as I type this.
:excited: :excited: :thumbsup: :trophy:
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Sounding good. I used to like to hang my birds for at least 3 days with the guts still in. I found it tenderized the birds and added flavour. You need to make sure they have not eaten for around 24 hours before killing, but make sure they have plenty of clean water.
With something like a CL I would just cut off the breasts and pull off the legs and skin them, as there is generally not a lot on them compared to one of my Marans, but of course that saved me plucking them which isnt a problem for you now. Doing the skinning thing you can still get the liver out as well. So the only thing you really waste is the stock from the carcass
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Well we had DELICIOUS chicken casserole last night. The improvement in the flavour is indefinable….. there's a depth to the taste which is indefinable and the texture was still lovely even after being slow cooked for a couple of hours. I managed to get eight pieces off each chicken and the carcass for stock so am pleased with that
I'm so relieved that it didn't taste like an old boot.
Unfortunately I couldn't leave it to hang more than 24 hours as I am only here at weekends so have to get this sorted before going home time (I was off Friday this week). However…… next time I will try to organise things so that I can let them hang a little longer.
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Well done - home produced anything is infinitely satisfying on both physical and personal levels
I liked to keep the breast for stir fry and slow cook the rest in some way
If I had an older bird then it would go in a big pot with plenty of nice veg and herbs bring to the boil on the top of the Aga with some salt and pepper then transfer to the bottom oven overnight. Take out the pot and leave the bird to cool in the broth for beautifully moist and tender poached chicken plus a pot full of wonderful stock for soups
In the old days all fowl was poached other than the young broilers or roasters of under 12 weeks old
Nowadays everything is termed "chicken" no matter what its age or purpose
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that machine looks fantastic..well done SQ :thumbsup: