How Many Have A Yardbird Plucker?

[Mosey2003]

I'm getting to the point where I really want a drum plucker for myself. My bestie is building one right now, but the thing is heavy and isn't going to be moved between our houses, and I really don't want to haul birds up to her place every time I want to process.

So, how many people actually have and use the Yardbird plucker? The one that ranges around $400 from Tractor Supply Company?

Do you like it? Do you feel like it does a good job? Was it worth the money to you? Is it as hard to clean as it looks?

Building one myself is simply NOT going to happen. And I want to be sure I'm going to love the thing if I spend $400, as that's a fairly decent expenditure for something that's going to do one job for me.

Of course, if anyone knows of any other, cheaper options that truly work well, I'd love to hear about those too! I search my local FB groups and Craigslist often, even have made "in search of" posts, but never see a plucker come up for a half decent price.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We bought a Yardbird last fall and have used it once for 14 cornish cross we butchered. It did a really good job, only one broken wing bone and that might have been the bird that got out of the cone and flapped around...

I took a cat litter bucket (because it was square) and placed it under the hole where the feathers and water comes out. I cut a hole in the side of the bucket to direct the water and feathers away from the work area and into a piece of fencing to catch the feathers for easier clean up. I took a piece of chicken wire and made a cylinder out of it, then flattened the end of the cylinder. It worked well, just a little bit of the small feathers made it to the ground.

Clean-up wasn't too bad, there are still some feathers stuck inside under the plate, but it was late, dark and cold when we finished up. I will clean it out once spring gets here with warm weather.

We had zero problems with it. DH has already invited our best friend to raise some chickens at our place and put it to use, lol.

 

[Mosey2003]

That's a great idea, @wyoDreamer ! I have a bit of hardware cloth left over that would be just right to do something like that, thanks!

 

[wyoDreamer]

We did have to scoop out feathers every couple of birds, too.

 

[iwltfum]

The way we thought about our plucker purchase was in terms of how many birds it would take to pay off the purchase - in terms of the amount of time savings as compared to hand plucking. Call it 7 minutes per bird - to pluck one by hand, and that's taking your time. If you value your time at $10 an hour, then it would take about 350 birds to equate the savings to the cost. I've heard before, and tend to agree with the idea that if you raise most or all of the chicken that you and your family eat in a year, that's when a plucker starts to become a worthy investment. We butcher several hundred birds per year - including turkeys. When you're faced with the proposition of hand plucking that many birds per year, it becomes, not only a time savings issue, but a quality of life issue as well. Just some food for thought.

 

[rachki]

We have one. I absolutely love it, never going back to hand-picking unless I have to. 2 birds are plucked within 10 seconds.

Just make sure you scald exactly at the right temp, if you go a little over it will sometimes tear the meat.

I also have the occasional torn drumstick if the leg gets caught around a plucker finger.

Overall it's a great machine though

 

[Farmer Doc]

We love our Yardbird! We got it on sale with a 10% off coupon. Man, worth every penny. We attributed the cost to the first year of birds and figured subsequent years were paid for. We do two birds at a time. Scald is critical to a good pluck. We also take the feet off before scalding - it has made a huge difference! Clean it out frequently but it doesn't take long to run your hand around the inside.

 

[Mosey2003]

I was just gonna ask if it was a good idea to take the feet off first or not, thanks!

I think I'm gonna do it this summer then. I should probably be processing in August I think, I ought to be able to save a little here and there. Wish I could find some little side jobs but the pickins are slim here. I'm not poor by any means, but I'm really trying to tighten the belt a bit, especially in regard to the chickens. I've been sloppy with the spending.

 

[igorsMistress]

Thanks for the info here everyone! I'm looking at getting a plucker and was wondering about this model.

 

[Mosey2003]

Yeah, I always like real people opinions on something that's sold mass at places like TSC, sometimes it's watered down junk.