We are harvesting 44 white rocks today. I mount three cones on my tractor bucket. I have cut them down to widen the mouths. I put the tractor between the chicken house and processing area.

On the left, a homemade scalder. It’s an electric water tank cut in half with the thermostat replaced with a commercial thermostat (the temperature can be set higher than a residential one) and a replacement element (110V versus 220V.)

In the center is our homemade plucker. It has a spray bar around the top and a solenoid valve that turns the water on when the plucker is turned on.

We process the birds through to ready for the freezer 9 at a time.

I can post detail pictures of the plucker or a video of anyone is interested.

    • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      The hose with the nozzle is an absolute must. This one is permanently attached to the plucker.

      • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        What are the plucker knobs from? I’d imagine they would have some give to them or you’d chowder up the chicken pretty good. How much post-processing do you need to do to get the pinfeathers off?

        • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caOPMEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          They’re made of vulcanized rubber. They’re called plucker fingers and I bought a box of them on Ebay.

  • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    41·
    9 months ago

    Not gonna lie, was confused on why you were harvesting rocks, then confused on why rocks needed to be scalded.

    Took me till the plucker to realize what you meant.

    • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caOPMEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Sorry…I forget that not everyone speaks chicken farmer.

      We raised Cornish x White Rock meat chickens.

      27 down, 15 to go.

      • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        9 months ago

        What the pluck?!? That is plucking efficient. I will have to show this to the missus. Last weekend she spent 2 hours on three birds from picking them from the roosts to cleaned, gutted and bagged. And she is faster than me.

        How well does it do against small stubs of feathers or do you have to time it carefully with the feathering cycle?

        How do you do the killing? I mean, I get that the bird goes head first down the cone, but do you knock the bird unconscious first? Do you behead it or just slit its throat?

    • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Way easier. A well scalded chicken is rendered naked in about 10 seconds.

      I have a video somewhere.