I was curious whether my
Light Sussex had been getting enough to eat on their strict
diet.  I
figured that if the combination of storebought feed and scavenged feed
were below the optimal levels, we’d have a wide variation in chicken
sizes — some big ones that were able to forage best (or hog the feed)
and some small ones who just couldn’t find their own food.



One pullet seemed to
support that hypothesis.  Even though we straightened out her foot
as best we could, the chick born with curled toe stayed the runt, clocking in
at a final dressed weight of only 0.87 pounds.  But she’s not
really a fair data point since I can envision how having only one foot
to scratch with would slow a chicken down even under the best of
conditions.  How did the other chickens do?



The chart below compares
our poorly fed Light Sussex to our third batch of chicks, which were
overfed in my opinion.  In both cases, I split the birds up into
pullets and cockerels since the latter are naturally larger than the
former.  I also deleted the curled toe
pullet since she unfairly skewed the results.



I was interested to see
that there was actually less
variation in size among the Sussex than the Australorp cockerels. 
The pullets showed more variation, perhaps because they are smaller
than cockerels and thus got less of the storebought feed?  Or
maybe the pullet variation was because of three hybrid pullets who
clearly weren’t purebred Light Sussex (they had gray instead of black
neck markings) and who grew much faster than their sisters.



I was careful to select
only the largest pullets and cockerel to keep as the foundation of our
new flock, so hopefully that means I will have chosen the best
foragers.  Maybe the next generation will have a feed
conversion rate
better than 5.3:1 at 12 weeks.  Yes, that means my darling Light
Sussex didn’t quite beat my spring
Australorps, but
they came close.

Once we started raising a lot of our own meat chickens, it quickly became clear that plucking was the most time-consuming part of the operation.  Luckily, there are several ways to make your own mechanical plucker and expedite processing day.

The Whiz-Bang Chicken Plucker is the best know, for a good reason — it works like a charm. You simply toss one large or two small birds in the moving drum and the feathers come off as the birds bounce around inside.  The good news is that plans are available for under
$20.  The bad news is that you’re either going to spend a long time scrounging for used parts or spend about $600 buying the parts new.  As a result, I think the Whiz-Bang Chicken Plucker is only appropriate for folks starting a pastured broiler business, plucking hundreds or thousands of chickens every year.

The next most expensive option is the Markham Plucker, the plans for which are found in Mini-Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre ($11.53 on Amazon.)  A motor turns a belt that rotates a piece of PVC pipe covered with chicken plucker fingers.  You hold the chicken against the fingers, rotating the bird as necessary to remove all of the feathers.  I haven’t used or made a Markham Plucker, but my guesstimate is that the plucker could be built using new parts for less than $200.  I’d be curious to hear a first hand account from someone who’s made and used a Markham Plucker — does it get the wing and tail feathers?  How well does the machine pluck?

The cheapest DIY option I’ve seen is the drill-head plucker.  Simply cut up some old bungee cords, install them in a short section of PVC pipe, and hook
that onto a drill.  The price tag (assuming you already have a drill) is around $20.  The plucker operates pretty much like the Markham Plucker and reports on its efficiency vary.

Mark is currently experimenting with a washboard-style chicken plucker.  The idea is simple — he installed chicken plucker fingers in the sides and bottom of a U of plywood (cost — $20 to $30).  You hand-pluck the difficult wing and tail feathers, then pull the bird through the plucker a few times, rotating it after each pass.  I was astonished at the efficacy of version 1.0 (even though Mark thought it needed more work.)  Sure, I had to pluck the feathers around the neck and between the legs after the plucker was done, but I estimate the washboard plucker saved me about 10 minutes per bird — and it doesn’t require electricity!  I’ll keep you posted once Mark comes up with version 2.0.

Do you have an even better way to pluck your chickens?