What have you done today? | Page 65 | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

finished building the chicken plucker and processed two old hens.  It was a little tough since they were the first two chickens we got, but it was good practice for the meat birds.  Coincidentally, I got the email that the broiler chicks will be shipped out today.  I'll pick them up tomorrow or the day after.
Cant wait.

all told, probably around 600.  It was a lot.  I could have bought one already made on ebay and have it shipped for less.  The major costs are the featherplate, shaft, bearings, pulleys and motor.  But then there's a bunch of related costs that just keep adding up.  I didnt have a grease gun or grease so I had to purchase that.  I needed to tap where the pulley screw engages the featherplate shaft so know where to drill it out, I had to buy a pin push to do that. all the bolts, nuts, screws and washers.  It was all the little things that kept adding up.

I guess all in all, At least if something breaks, I know how to fix it.  I told my wife that in hindsight, I should have just bought a pre-made one.

The processing went well though.  I made the cones out of aluminum flashing and some rivets, so material to make 6 cost the same as buying one pre-made.  It doesnt exactly balance out the cost of the plucker, but I'll take the little wins when I get them.

The worst part of the whole process....pulling the rubber fingers through the featherplate and the barrel.  And wiring that damn waterproof switch.

Other than that it wasnt too hard to put together.

Yeah, that's what I went off of.  I was going to tinker and try to mod it a bit, but I had a ton of work into it and needed to get it finished so I just followed the plans I had.  If I had more time before I had to process the chickens I may have modded it.  I can maybe retrofit a splashguard, that's the only thing I'll change if I decide do any more work to it.