We are harvesting 44 white rocks today. I mount three cones on my tractor bucket. I have cut them down to widen the mouths. I put the tractor between the chicken house and processing area.
On the left, a homemade scalder. It’s an electric water tank cut in half with the thermostat replaced with a commercial thermostat (the temperature can be set higher than a residential one) and a replacement element (110V versus 220V.)
In the center is our homemade plucker. It has a spray bar around the top and a solenoid valve that turns the water on when the plucker is turned on.
We process the birds through to ready for the freezer 9 at a time.
I can post detail pictures of the plucker or a video of anyone is interested.
Here’s a video.
Warning, it’s definitely NSFV (not suitable for vegans.)
What the pluck?!? That is plucking efficient. I will have to show this to the missus. Last weekend she spent 2 hours on three birds from picking them from the roosts to cleaned, gutted and bagged. And she is faster than me.
How well does it do against small stubs of feathers or do you have to time it carefully with the feathering cycle?
How do you do the killing? I mean, I get that the bird goes head first down the cone, but do you knock the bird unconscious first? Do you behead it or just slit its throat?
Hi.
If the bird is well scalded it is rendered naked including the stubs. If I don’t get the scalding quite right it can leave the stubs and some big fathers on the wings. Big birds often don’t turn well in the plucker and their backs tend not to be plucked very well. Most of those fathers can just be pulled out or rubbed off by hand. Even so it is a huge time saver.
I kill by beheading with a single stroke of a very sharp knife. The man who owned it local abattoir showed me how to do it years ago and I use that method to this day. I have considered adding a stunner but they are expensive and we don’t do enough birds to justify the cost.