Mark and I have used
everything from our bare hands (very laborious but free) to a Whiz-Bang
chicken plucker (very fast but very expensive) to process
poultry.  Lately, Mark’s been trying to figure out an option in
between the two, exploring pet
gloves
and a homemade
plucker board, both
of which speed up processing somewhat without breaking the bank. 
So when Eli Bruton offered to send us a Power Plucker to review, I couldn’t resist.



The Power Plucker is a
drill attachment (corded drills are supposed to work better than
cordless, so that’s what we used), a bit like the DIY
version you can make for $20.  Since the Power
Plucker is only $30 with free shipping (and is built to last), it seems
like a very good deal.



We’ve only processed ten
birds with the Power Plucker so far, so I suspect we’ll continue
working the kinks out of the system, but my first reaction is that the
device is a great time-saver and does a much better job than the DIY
options we’d come up with so far.  No, you won’t get a perfectly
clean bird like you will in a Whiz-Bang plucker (assuming you’re a
Whiz-Bang pro — beginners often have to do a bit of hand-plucking
afterwards there too), but I was impressed by how well the Power
Plucker took even the pin feathers off our well-scalded chickens
without tearing the skin at all.  I did go ahead and pull the big
wing and tail feathers by hand (which takes seconds), and am slowly
learning how to rotate the bird against the plucker to get the best
results.



We haven’t mounted the
plucker yet, which would turn plucking into a one-person job, so Mark
simply held the drill on the edge of the porch while I moved the birds
around.  Unlike with the Whiz-Bang plucker, there didn’t seem to
be any need to spray the birds with water while plucking (although they
did come wet from their dunking in hot water), but Mark was much
happier once he donned safety glasses since his position seemed to get
a lot more feather-splatter than mine did.



I suspect our plucked
carcasses will get even cleaner as we learn the best way to use the
Power Plucker.  That’s the one thing I think Eli should add to his
website — a longer video showing the plucker in operation so that our
learning curve would go a bit faster.  But I’m thrilled to have
been turned onto the product and would recommend it to anyone
processing one to a hundred birds a year.  Thanks for sharing, Eli!

Robert McGowen won first
prize in the Ingenious Chicken Waterer category of our photo
contest for his no-perch
chicken waterer. 
Second place went to Renee Corrigan for her modification of our pre-made
chicken waterer,
which I’ll let her describe in her own words:

“I did not want to go in the coop all the
time to add water so I came up with this idea . It is very simple but
very useful.  I bought some lengths of clear tubing to fit in the
pitcher lid.  It goes from the top of the lid out the side of the
cage wire into the bottom of a funnel. 



“At first, that was the design
but they immediately started getting debris in the pitchers so we added
a small piece of screen.  It fits into the tubing and the funnel
holds it in place.  The funnel is attached to the cage wire with a
small S hook.  All supplies are readily available at a home improvement store for a few
dollars. 



“Hope you like my idea!  We love
your waterers!”

The runners-up in this
category need a bit more space, so they’ll get posts of their own next
week.  So keep reading…and don’t forget to keep your camera
handy in preparation for next year’s contest!