How to pick a chicken plucker for the farm or homestead - PPT084

After listening to the episode on learning the art of scalding, listener Chad asked if I could explain how to pick a chicken plucker. I happy to help.

Quick disclaimer: While the advice in the episode is general purpose, the examples use the Poultry Man line of pluckers to illustrate the points because that's what I know the best.

The first question I'd ask is, "Do you need a plucker?"

This is a personal decision, but the question is for those homesteader and family flocks who may be doing 20 or 30 chickens at a time a few times a year. I'm a strong believer that your first purchase needs to be a scalder. You buy the plucker second because the quality and ease of the pluck is controlled by the scald.

I talk about scalding chickens in Pastured Poultry Talk episode 67.

The primary decisions points about selecting an appropriately sized chicken plucker comes down to the following:

• Match the scalder/plucker capacity.
• Purchase a scalder based on processing day volume.
• Know your power requirements.
• Evaluate the design.
• Factor in your budget.

Making a purchase like this is often follows a familiar pattern. You identify all the "requirements" and then you see if your budget supports your choice. If the budget and your requirements don't align, you make compromises.

Match plucker size to scalder size

For completeness, you should also match the kill cone size to the size of your equipment as well, but let's stay focused on the plucker and scalder. Here are the chicken plucker and scalder combos that you should select based on the processing-day capacity. If you're considering other brands, do the same evaluation.

• 2 to 4 chickens: 23" plucker and manual scalder
• 4 to 6 chickens (1 or 2 turkeys): 27" plucker and 30" rotary scalder
• 10+ chickens ( 4 to 6 turkey): 35" Turkey plucker and 41" rotary scalder

You want to avoid using a scalder with a capacity of four chickens with a plucker that is capable of 16 chickens. That won't produce a good pluck.

I recommend that if you do mismatch your equipment size, you choose a scalder that's bigger than your plucker. Then kill to the capacity of the plucker.

In the episode, I list the capacity of the 35" chicken plucker with a conservative estimate. Remember that the size of the chickens will determine the number of birds you can put through at one time. Depending on the size of the bird, the Poultry Man 35" plucker may be able to handle up to 16 birds.

Purchase a chicken plucker based on quantity

For this evaluation, I'm going to focus on the number of birds in a processing day. These number guidelines are just guideposts to help you make good selections. If you're doing 50 birds a day, 6 times a year, and you think you need a 30" rotary scalder and 27" plucker, don't let me stop you.

If you process:

• 50 birds at a time, select a 23" chicken plucker
• less than 200 chickens at a time, select the 27" plucker
• 75 to 100 turkeys a year, select the 27" plucker
• more than 200 chickens at a time, select the 35" plucker
• More than a 100 turkeys, select a 35" plucker

The 27" plucker from Poultry Man is an all-around, versatile plucker. It will handle a lot of chickens with a few turkeys and defeather the ducks and geese, too. If you're plucking any turkeys at all, the 27" would be your starting size. The 23" and smaller sizes of other brands are not suitable for turkeys.

The outlier in the plucker discussion is quail. If you process quail, you need a plucker that is designed for them; usually, this means there are more fingers spaced closer together so that the quail do not fall through the plucker.

Power requirements

Make sure you know the power requirements of the plucker before you purchase. The Poultry Man, for example, is 110v by default across the whole product line. It can be converted to 220v. Other manufacturers have a mix of power.

Evaluating chicken plucker construction

I'm a fan of stainless steel, but not that flimsy stainless you can see through. Poultry Man is a heavy gauge stainless steel. I swear, you could roll it off a truck and keep right on pluckin'.

The Featherman plucker, which is the other small-scale plucker for serious processors, is manufactured from food grade plastic. It's heavy plastic, but still much lighter than the Poultry Man.

Then there are all the imports that are stainless steel in design, but I'd bet that the Featherman plastic tubs are more durable; that's how thin the metal is.

Let's talk budget

There is no way around the discussion. If you are an on-farm processors or small plant operator, purchasing a chicken plucker is part of a capital investment that is designed to make you money.  You shop on price at your own risk.

In the episode, I compare the cost of at Poultry Man 23" plucker and a Featherman Pro plucker, which are the entry points for affordable pluckers for small scale processors. The Poultry Man is roughly $300 more, which you know if you've done any price shopping. A big difference in price is the  material.

There's a whole market segment I dub the "Wal-Mart of chicken pluckers" out there who basically import parts in bulk from overseas using cheaper components and materials.

These Wal-Mart-like retailers assemble the pluckers in the U.S. while not talking about the fact they are imported and flood the market. If you're doing a few birds a year, then buy cheap from China; you'll probably never notice (aside from the broken wings). If you want a plucker that lasts a life time, but on something other than price.

Here's the question I'll leave you to ponder till a future episode of the podcast. If you're a local producer of pastured poultry, and you expect to earn a premium price on your craft product, how do you back that up when you shop for supplies for your business?

Do you try to get the cheapest possible input from the other side of the world to market your premium product? I think many cash-strapped farmer/processors shop exactly this way, and it's a mismatch in ethos.

Episode Timestamps

[mm:ss]

[00:54] Do you need to buy a chicken plucker?

[03:51] Summary of decision points

[04:58] Match the size of the plucker to the size of the scalder

[06:24] Avoid these two scenarios in the plucker - too many birds and too few

[07:56] Select based on volume

[11:26] Summary of size recommendations

[13:19] Consider power requirements

[14:05] Evaluate the plucker design

[15:39] Budget discussion and comparison