Anyone Can Build a Tub-Style Mechanical Chicken Plucker Paperback – January 1, 2003

My husband built this for me last year using the plans in the book and I processed 91 chickens. The plans were relatively easy to follow but it does take quite a bit of time to put it all together. We had no parts laying around so everything had to be bought new and the cost was about $700. However, if you bought a readymade plucker of this size and power, you would have to pay about twice that much (a local friend bought a readymade one which cost over $1200 PLUS shipping).If you have a lot of hardware, lumber, a plastic barrel and an old motor laying around your cost will be much less. The metal connecting hardware (lag bolts, screws etc) cost around $100 alone. Rather than buying the working parts from several places online and paying separate shipping I just bought everything I could direct from the author -- fingers, tub plastic, bottom plate and rod predrilled and ready to assemble, flywheel.Putting in the fingers, especially in the bottom plate, can be difficult. We soaked them in hot, soapy water and used channel-lock pliers to pull them through. Grasp the finger and brace the top of the plier head on the plate pulling it sideways, then get a grip further down the finger and do the same in the opposite direction, until they pop into place.We put a 1hp motor in (that itself was over $200) instead of the 3/4hp the book recommends but it still bogged down on a large turkey -- when I say large I mean about 40 lbs! For chickens it worked fantastic. I process alone so could only scald and pluck two at a time. 30 seconds or so and they were plucked naked except for occasionally a few feathers still hanging on to the wingtips, tail or in the "armpits". If you leave them in too long the fingers will start to beat the skin off... I may have scalded them too long though.I plan to raise all of our family's meat birds from now on so I am very happy to have this machine, because plucking is the butchering chore I hated the most. I also bought the author's scalder book but that project will have to wait a few years. Meanwhile I just use a turkey fryer pot to scald in.

Great book. Easy to follow. But there is 1 mistake in the order in which you put the frame together. The book wants you to put the motor mount board on after the frame is complete. That is fine but there is not enough room for a drill, not even a 90' drill to fit between the bottom frame board and the top of the motor mount board to drill your holes for the bearing board. I suggest you take a measurement and drill your bearing boards and your motor mount board BEFORE you secure it to the frame.I had to take mine apart .......I hope this helps.I built my whizz bang exactly as described in this book and it is ROCK solid.Thanks

a few details are missing,like the tube doesn't fit if you already put the fingers in the tub.. the book says to make the frame to fit the tub.. no mentioning of the back of the fingers that stick out half inch on all sides..This is in regards to the including comment of instead of cutting out the bottom, to cut a hole and putting a few finger on the bottom of the plate to get the feathers to get out of the cutout slot..If you cut the bottom it might be easier to squeeze the tube into the frame.. now I don't know..Will contact the book writer..

Extremely helpful.

This was great. Built the plucker and it has worked amazingly! My only complaint is that the suggested "parts list" is at the very back of the booklet. I read the instructions on building before beginning the actual construction but didn't see the parts list until I was virtually done and had been back and forth to the hardware store multiple times. As for ease of understanding, it's great. And who can complain about chickens plucked clean, 2 AT A TIME, in less than 15 seconds! Would definitely recommend if you're trying to build a plucker.

The resulting product from this instructional guide is a nifty and necessary tool for getting a job done. However, despite knowing chicken pluckers, the author is not a draftsman or a writer. He should have consulted both before putting this book into print. It has no flow and jumps around sporadically so you can't follow as you work the project. The diagrams do not include an exploded view drawing or a typical top, front, and right side construction drawing to give full interpretation.Eventually you can figure it out and the end product works as intended.

This book is amazing, It is by far the best out there if you are looking to make a chicken plucker. We built this over a year ago and it is still in perfect working shape. The directions are perfect even for someone that isn't very skilled. It has such great step by step. The only thing I recommend if you are going to build it, is to purchase the kit that has the plate, fingers and a few other items to help with the internal stuff.

I am new to raising meat chickens and saw these pluckers in youtube videos. Originally I thought maybe we could just figure it out and build it without directions. I am very happy I bought the book though. It is extremely detailed and makes building this plucker so much easier.The day we fired this plucker up for it's trial run, we actually had several neighbors gather for a demonstration. These were all old-timers who had hand-plucked chickens as children. All were amazed when they saw it in action. Three of us processed 18 chickens in just over two hours from start to finish, thanks in part to the speedy plucking.

I have yet to build my first chicken plucker, but it does not look too complicated. I have shown the book to friends who after the initial laughter, cannot wait to help with production of the "plucker", and no doubt with the processing of the chickens. Worth watching the video on youtube of the author using his chicken plucker!

Haven't tried it yet but it looks good

Instructions are difficult to follow.