Best power drill plucker attachment?

[CNJ]

We do small batches of meat birds so we can't justify (and can't afford right now) buying a nice drum plucker. We are gonna get the power drill attachment one to save a little time. For anyone who uses these, what brand do you use and do you recommend it?

I was looking at this one but there are many other designs that have different amounts of fingers. Idk what's best. Any input is appreciated.

Those drill pluckers are a waste of time, its better to do it by hand. I have seen people on YouTube get a mouth full of feathers and splashed in the face with blood.

 

[CNJ]

Before I found out I could turn the temperature knob on my water heater to 150 F, I used to use a propane gas burner to heat my water and I didn't change the water. Now, its easy and fast to change the water when ever it gets gross. I use a foam cooler for the hot water bath.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Those drill pluckers are a waste of time, its better to do it by hand. I have seen people on YouTube get a mouth full of feathers and splashed in the face with blood.

Well they are not doing it correctly. They had the drill spinning so it was shooting the feathers upwards, but if you turn it so it's spinning everything toward the ground, you don't have that problem.

 

[Isadora]

Those drill pluckers are a waste of time, its better to do it by hand. I have seen people on YouTube get a mouth full of feathers and splashed in the face with blood.

Gross, lol

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I remember reading somewhere about timing the harvest to when the pin feathers are at their minimum. But, I don;t know when that is. It wouldn't work for me anyway. Getting it together to harvest is difficult enough without having to do it on the bird's schedule.

Right. And I've read that too. I thought it was better to do it when they weren't as young 6 weeks or younger) because they are still feathering out. I thought by doing it at 8 weeks I would be just fine. Maybe it was the strain of CX I had or something. I hope this time around is better.

 

[FunClucks]

Thank you. Yeah, I don't want to skin because we like to eat the skin and I like to use the feathers for compost.

We did hand-pluck last time but it took us FOREVER. The main feathers came off so easily. I think I got the scald right. But those darn pin feathers were just so time consuming!!! We spent so much time getting them out during processing, and even now when I pull meat from the freezer and thaw it, I still have a little bit of pinning to do before I cook it. Am I being TOO thorough or something? With the amount of pin feathers we had, I don't see how anyone could pluck the bird in 10 minutes. Our birds were 8 week old CX btw. I feel like I never hear anyone talk about having this much trouble with pin feathers, so idk what is wrong with us.

That was my first time processing anything, so I'm sure no matter what we will be better this time, but I just still see plucking as an issue. But now I'm wondering: would the drill plucker really do anything to help my pin feather problem anyway?

Ah, now I understand your issue. I don't actually eat the skin on any of mine - I cook them with it on sometimes to keep the meat moist, then boil it to make stock, so getting every last pin feather out is not super important to me, although I do my best. I tried with a couple of birds to be super thorough, and it took maybe 20 minutes? So I changed my scalding a bit, and my plucking technique to make it faster.

Have you tried using a pinning knife? I think a dull table knife works just as well. Also, when I scald mine (145-150F), I do it until the pin feathers come out easily when I pull them. There's usually a couple in the tail that give me trouble but if I test on the wing, then all those come out fine. Also, check the angle you're pulling them out at - this can influence how/if pinfeathers are left. There may also be some areas of the bird you want to just cut them out (for instance I cut off the tail, so I don't bother to pluck the stubborn ones there). Also consider getting more grippy gloves and using them just for plucking (not parting the bird). They'd need to be washed in the washing machine when done, but those garden gloves that are fabric but sprayed or dipped in rubber to make them grippy but are still thin and easy to work with would probably make super fast work of plucking even the most stubborn feathers cause you could get a better grip. Kinda like the plucking fingers but on your hand.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Ah, now I understand your issue. I don't actually eat the skin on any of mine - I cook them with it on sometimes to keep the meat moist, then boil it to make stock, so getting every last pin feather out is not super important to me, although I do my best. I tried with a couple of birds to be super thorough, and it took maybe 20 minutes? So I changed my scalding a bit, and my plucking technique to make it faster.

Have you tried using a pinning knife? I think a dull table knife works just as well. Also, when I scald mine (145-150F), I do it until the pin feathers come out easily when I pull them. There's usually a couple in the tail that give me trouble but if I test on the wing, then all those come out fine. Also, check the angle you're pulling them out at - this can influence how/if pinfeathers are left. There may also be some areas of the bird you want to just cut them out (for instance I cut off the tail, so I don't bother to pluck the stubborn ones there). Also consider getting more grippy gloves and using them just for plucking (not parting the bird). They'd need to be washed in the washing machine when done, but those garden gloves that are fabric but sprayed or dipped in rubber to make them grippy but are still thin and easy to work with would probably make super fast work of plucking even the most stubborn feathers cause you could get a better grip. Kinda like the plucking fingers but on your hand.

Thanks! I like the gloves idea. We have a bunch of those lying around anyway so it wouldn't hurt to try.

As for the pinning knife, we don't have a specified pinning knife but we did use dull kitchen knives. They worked well. I don't think the problem was really that they weren't coming out, but that there were just SO. MANY. PINS. We would get the majority of the feathers out and then there would be dozens and dozens of pins to get. Were my chickens just extraordinary in that respect? World record for pin feathers or something? Lol. I wonder if I should just try mostly everything the same and see if it's just better this time with a different batch of chickens. Although I am still gonna get the drill plucker attachment because if it works, it can save time. If it doesn't, not much money lost.

You mentioned the angle you pull feathers out at. What angle is correct? I pulled them out with the grain of the feathers. So I was pulling them the way they grew. For example, the back feathers I was pulling toward the tail. Is this correct?

 

[FunClucks]

Thanks! I like the gloves idea. We have a bunch of those lying around anyway so it wouldn't hurt to try.

As for the pinning knife, we don't have a specified pinning knife but we did use dull kitchen knives. They worked well. I don't think the problem was really that they weren't coming out, but that there were just SO. MANY. PINS. We would get the majority of the feathers out and then there would be dozens and dozens of pins to get. Were my chickens just extraordinary in that respect? World record for pin feathers or something? Lol. I wonder if I should just try mostly everything the same and see if it's just better this time with a different batch of chickens. Although I am still gonna get the drill plucker attachment because if it works, it can save time. If it doesn't, not much money lost.

You mentioned the angle you pull feathers out at. What angle is correct? I pulled them out with the grain of the feathers. So I was pulling them the way they grew. For example, the back feathers I was pulling toward the tail. Is this correct?

What type of birds were you butchering? The breed def has something to do with how many feathers they have.

I did Cornish Rock Cross (CX) and they just don't have really dense feather coverage, so they're pretty easy to pluck. Many areas of bare skin. Only a few areas of dense feathers, so I'd hold down the skin in and around those areas to keep it in place, and then pull the feathers in the direction they grew. I'm not super experienced with this, but it sounds like you're doing it right, just play with it and see if anything helps a little. A lot of small changes can lead to a decrease in plucking time when doing it by hand. I think you'll like those gloves - for the pinfeathers, it was hard for me because it was hard to get a good grip. So I think those gloves will help it go faster.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

What type of birds were you butchering? The breed def has something to do with how many feathers they have.

I did Cornish Rock Cross (CX) and they just don't have really dense feather coverage, so they're pretty easy to pluck. Many areas of bare skin. Only a few areas of dense feathers, so I'd hold down the skin in and around those areas to keep it in place, and then pull the feathers in the direction they grew. I'm not super experienced with this, but it sounds like you're doing it right, just play with it and see if anything helps a little. A lot of small changes can lead to a decrease in plucking time when doing it by hand. I think you'll like those gloves - for the pinfeathers, it was hard for me because it was hard to get a good grip. So I think those gloves will help it go faster.

Thanks! And mine were also Cornish X. Yeah I'm hoping maybe with having my first time out of the way it will get better.

 

[cmobley]

Thanks! And mine were also Cornish X. Yeah I'm hoping maybe with having my first time out of the way it will get better.

Did you ever find an attachment or anything or are you hand plucking. How many birds are you doing?