Home-Built Chicken Plucker Works Fast

Home-Built Chicken Plucker Works Fast LIVESTOCK Miscellaneous Jack McGee couldn’t justify a commercial chicken plucker for his family’s small flock So he made his own with wood and other scraps he found around his Lake City Mich farm His model is a copy of a commercial model “I had treated plywood and 2 by 4 scraps and the white top is a 12-in food grade pvc pipe heated and flattened out ” McGee says explaining the chickens are placed on the pvc and never touch the treated wood The drum is also a piece of 12-in pvc pipe with the ends of disassembled squirrel cage blowers The drum spins on a 1/2-in steel shaft secured on the outside of the wooden unit with bushings and metal pieces from the blowers McGee purchased plucking fingers $1 30 each from Cutler’s Pheasant Poultry and Beekeeping supply Inc www cutlersupply com They snap in place in the 3/4-in holes he drilled into the drum He wired a waterproof electric box and uses a 3/4 hp Wagner water pump motor to turn the drum “I adjusted pulleys – 1 3/4-in pulley on the motor and 4-in pulley on the drum – to get the right speed ” he says “The feathers just shoot out of there up to 5 or 6 ft ” Once set up it only takes a few seconds per chicken to pluck the feathers clean After he’s finished McGee hoses the unit down to clean it up He stores it in an outbuilding and the plucker is in like-new condition after 5 years of use “It works very well and it didn’t cost much ” McGee concludes “It’s really nice for a small flock ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jack McGee 4330 W Houghton Lake Rd Lake City Mich 49651 ph 231 839-2765

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