The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Charlie1234 on February 09, 2017, 06:09:29 pm
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Hi All
Just curious how many of you that are producing for home consumption pluck by hand or use a plucking machine , bought or homemade ?
I live off grid and have a modern twintub washing machine,that has just retired so I am considering using the spinner side to make a plucker,with a few fingers purchased off ebay it should work shouldn`t it ?
Any pictures of your homemade or bought pluckers welcome.
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I find hand plucking okay and doing four birds in one session is manageable, plucking straight after slaughter while still warm. Ducking in hot water I find makes plucking marginally easier. Turkey's are easier to pluck than chickens. I've tried one of those (expensive) rotating pluckers that you hold the bird against but didn't find them much quicker. I've seen the drum pluckers on YouTube but the chickens appear to take a bit of a battering, although I have no direct experience of them.
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I hand pluck too because not producing large quantities: just enough for the freezer. I think I've done three in one go too. That's my limit.
I don't dry pluck anymore though as it takes FOREVER. So I dunk in very hot water and most of the feathers just fall out. We also don't like eating the wings here, so I don't bother to totally pluck them which saves a lot of time. Same with the tail...I mean, who eats the parson's nose? So I simply cut that bit off during butchering so I don't need to remove the tricky tail feathers either.
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I have the use of this old plucker
But to be honest it's not much quicker than hand plucking.
If hand plucking I also dunk in hot water and do about 3 at a time.
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I have the use of this old plucker
But to be honest it's not much quicker than hand plucking.
If hand plucking I also dunk in hot water and do about 3 at a time.
Bloody hell,we had one of them when i was a kid Dave,not the best for chickens but worked a treat on ducks for some reason.
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We hand pluck. OH swears by
Plunge into hot water (60 - 65 celsius) for a few (5) seconds and then remove and see if the feathers come out easy, if not give another couple of seconds.
Then remove and plunge into cold water
Then the feathers almost fall out by the handful.
Hope this helps