i put so much effort into building it and making sure that it would last. i was worried that if it didn't work that i'd have to set the thing ablaze;)
the birds came out of the thing "slick" every single little pinfeather and part of the scales from the feet were removed.
i added the water sprayer to the top. that works ok. it looks cool but hardly worth the extra effort.
this is our set up.
the scald pot with propane burner and manual temperature control is on the left. tabitha's thermometer arrived to the event broken and we were worried that we'd have trouble. we have butchered and scalded plenty of chickens and have an idea what a good scald temperature/time is. we mostly just guessed at the proper scald time and temp. everything worked wonderfully.
we were making up little songs about the plucker and how wondrous it is.
15 comments:
awesome! i'm glad it worked out well! i'm hoping we will add one to our farm w/in the next year.
anonymous - better to eat animals that are humanely raised and killed than to eat factory farm raised meat that is treated poorly, fed poorly and killed brutally. it's a fact that humans eat meat and although some do well being vegetarians, some do not. i personally have tried vegetarianism and was sick and weak the entire 3 years. therefore, i choose to responsibly raise animals with love and compassion and when the time comes to butcher them, thank them for their gift for me and my family and give them a humane death which is more than i can say for the meat you see at a grocery store.
and besides, the plucker doesn't touch the chicken until after it's killed so sick looking or not, it's not doing anything to cause pain the the bird, it's only making the job a bit easier. get over yourself and fight over more worthy causes such as over consumption of junk made in china and created to break down immediately so consumers will run out and buy, buy, buy more useless crap to throw into the landfill and pollute our earth more and more while depleting precious natural resources.
and stop being a coward, hiding behind an 'anonymous' tag when you attack fellow bloggers.
(karl, feel free to delete this response if it's too over the top. people like anonymous irritate the crap out of me).
Congratulations on the plucker! It looks very well built and I hope you get lots of use from it.
I've never had a chicken that was a friend but I've had a couple friends that turned out to be chickens!
I have been lurking forever and I am so glad that this worked. Congratulations!!!
Wow! Great job; so glad it works well.
I can't help it, I'm still laughing with Tansy's comment! lol! Right on!
What a beautiful homemade Whizbang plucker!
Congratulations and welcome to the world of Whizbang Chicken Plucking.
Herrick Kimball
P.S. That is a great quote Ed.
Dear Tansy,
Sorry you were so sick eating a veggie diet, obviously you had your head up your butt tyring to figure out how to get your daily dose of protein. Go ahead and stick to your cowardly abuse of murdering animals and you'll probably reap the benifits of some type of nasty cancer that's caused by eating meat.
History proves itself, the most brilliant minds that graced this earth were vegetarians, do some research. That's o.k though, go on poisoning yourself with dead animals. Karma
p.s. no wonder you were sick on a veggie diet, just by reading your post I can tell you're not the sharpest tool in the shed!
Looks great! I'd have to set it ablaze if it didn't work after all that effort too. :)
Are you going to rent that thing by the day? :)
----
Wow, anonymous... hate to break it to you but eating veggies alone isn't going to make the critters of the world suffer any less, nor is it the most sustainable choice. Not that you care. It's more fun to lurk in the shadows and lash out at people who are less "brilliant" than you are. Perhaps you are the one who needs to do some research from unbiased sources.
Ron
Boy, does this bring back detailed memories of the chicken plucking days of my childhood (1940's). I can even recall the smell of singeing (sp) the pin feathers over a gas flame. How long does it take you now from start to finish?
When will supper be ready? :-)
Congratulations of a job well done.
Told you (in an earlier comment). I knew you would love it! The Whizbang Plucker makes home processing chickens so much easier.
Now you have me thinking we need one of these....
assnonymous, please spread your poison elsewhere--like your own blog. oops, you are too scared aren't you? taking passive aggressive potshots cloaked in fear is a sorry existence. i feel pity for you. you have no backbone and obviously are frightened to truly stand behind your cause. vegetarianism is a noble life but doesn't deserve a cowardly smug skewed moron like you as their representative. your poisonous, infectious behavior is a larger threat to humanity than meat eaters could ever be.
tansy, thanks people that stand around waiting to chop the heads off while others stick their necks out is a sickness that i wish there was a medicine for. obviously being vegetarian doesn't help.
ed abbey, thanks we love it
toni r., welcome and thank you.
annie, i really appreciate tansy's comment too.
herrick kimball--the whizbang creator, excellent booklet i followed your instructions to the "TEE" you made it so easy doing every calculation and most of the research i could need. your book saved me countless hours from trying to accomplish this on my own. plus it works perfectly and might not have if i were to attempt it without your trials.
ron, you are welcome to borrow it...
mary oh the smell of scorched feathers is something i won't miss. thanks for commenting.
sheila, you told me;) it is truly profound how it has changed our idea of slaughtering.
ang, unless you are prepared to get one never never ever use one.
Remind me not to piss you off Karl...lol
The plucker looks great! I'm glad to hear that it works as well as it looks.
I bought Herricks book but have not had time to build it yet, did you buy your fingers from Herrick or else where? Looks great and glad to hear it works so well.
Tim
woody, thanks.. yeah that was the toned down version.
kentuckyagrarianwannabe, i recommend buying everything from herrick that you can. you will feel justified/happy in supporting his cause once you try the plucker.
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