Turkey Processing

[rla442]

I generally raise half a dozen turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for myself and my work. This year I might have went too far in with raising 25 turkeys. 19 are broad breasted bronze and 6 are Gray Slate heritage turkeys. I usually scald and pluck myself but with this many, I started looking for a poultry processor. Well there isn't one within 100 miles and the one closest one wants $10 a bird for processing. This doesn't include freezing or bagging--that is extra. Basically its a pluck and toss in your cooler. My question, does anyone have any experience with the drum type poultry plucker machines out there? There's a ton of plans on the internet but who knows what works the best without wasting my time.

 

[M.Magis]

I built one this year for a batch of chickens. There's no reason it wouldn't work for turkeys. I built mine on the fly, so there were a few things that could have been better. But if you follow the plans online you'll be happy.

 

[Jogeephus]

I have a friend who built one for chickens and like Magis said it should work for turkeys too and his works great.

 

[CottageFarm]

It is how we did all of our poultry. They work well on turkeys, at least still way better than hand plucking, but we still had to rotate it by hand several times. Ours was a stainless steel drum, but still had trouble getting the bird flipped around to pluck all sides. We only grew the broad breasted bronze and white, so they were always upwards of 20 lb birds, and some toms over 30 lbs. Smaller birds might work better especially if you can fit two in the drum.

 

[Rafter S]

I never had to clean a turkey, but I picked my share of chickens when I was a boy. I always hated it. I wouldn't pick a turkey for $10.00. (I know you didn't ask, but there it is anyway.)

 

[slick4591]

A number of them available commercially. Just depends how much you want to spend.

 

[rla442]

For those that built you own, how many rubber fingers in the drum did you use?

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I'd pay the $10 a bird and be done with it.

 

[dieselbeef]

well u could skin em...but why eat em w/o the skin right?

or do like we do the wild ones..just eat the breastages

 

[M.Magis]

For those that built you own, how many rubber fingers in the drum did you use?

I'll have to count when I'm at home, but it wasn't all that many. Maybe around 40 around the perimeter, and another 25 on bottom? Just a guess. I didn't buy fingers, I just used ¼" rubber fuel line slipped over the threads of a bolt.

 

[lavacarancher]

Man, this is a great place. I've never even heard of a plucker let alone a homemade one. I don't like plucking chickens or turkeys so I would probably pay $10 to have it done. Dad used to raise turkeys for the holidays and he hand picked every one of them. He (we) finally stopped doing it because the city folks complained the skin was yellow and they didn't want to eat it. Turns out the "yellow skin" was the fat layer. No one had ever seen a fat turkey at the super market.

 

[Dave]

We have two Featherman pluckers at work which we rent out. We replaced the fingers in one last winter. If I remember correctly it has about 105 fingers total. I have never run a turkey through one but I have plucked 4 big chickens at the same time. On these the floor spins and the sides stay still. The is gap between the floor the sides that the feathers get washed out. They work pretty slick. Four big chickens are naked in about 15 seconds.

 

[lavacarancher]

Does the bird get bruised during the process? Sounds like it's pretty violent if you can pluck 4 chickens in 15 seconds. Just asking because, as I stated, I've never seen one of these machines.

 

[Dave]

Does the bird get bruised during the process? Sounds like it's pretty violent if you can pluck 4 chickens in 15 seconds. Just asking because, as I stated, I've never seen one of these machines.

Nope, no bruising. It is spinning but not violently fast. The floor spins around, they brush against the sides which have soft fingers that pull off the feathers, and there is water shooting down on them to wash the feathers away. It actually works better with 3 or 4 chickens in the tub at once as they hold each other out against the sides. There are fingers on the bottom but most of the feathers are removed by the side fingers.

 

[SJB]

do you come out money-wise renting them out? i noticed the list of rentals on the featherman site. how much time do you have to spend showing the renters how to use the thing?

 

[Dave]

do you come out money-wise renting them out? i noticed the list of rentals on the featherman site. how much time do you have to spend showing the renters how to use the thing?

It is a break even at best deal for us. We don't have to spend much time showing them how to use it. It is pretty simple and there are videos on how it all works. The time spent is loading and unloading the equipment. It seems like it is always a smallish lady who picks it up or returns it.

 

[greybeard]

We had a chicken plucker when I was in ag class in highschool. It was just a rotating drum inside an open top metal box, with the rubber fingers on the OUTSIDE of the drum. Ya held the chcken by it's legs, and lowered it down to the drum till the rubber fingers started whipping the feathers off, but you had to keep the carcass moving around or the fingers would tear the skin too.
The rubber fingers looked to me like short (2-4") strips of rubber tires about 1/2" square. That, was 1967 or 11966 so I'm sure they have changed. You could only do one bird at a time--I don't remember anyone bringing turkeys in to process.

 

[SJB]

do you come out money-wise renting them out? i noticed the list of rentals on the featherman site. how much time do you have to spend showing the renters how to use the thing?

It is a break even at best deal for us. We don't have to spend much time showing them how to use it. It is pretty simple and there are videos on how it all works. The time spent is loading and unloading the equipment. It seems like it is always a smallish lady who picks it up or returns it.

That's what I was hoping. I think I'll try to get three of 4 people that raise meat chickens to co-op one. Or maybe I'll pitch it to our feed n seed and get them to get one to rent to their feed customers.

 

[rla442]

Man, this is a great place. I've never even heard of a plucker let alone a homemade one. I don't like plucking chickens or turkeys so I would probably pay $10 to have it done. Dad used to raise turkeys for the holidays and he hand picked every one of them. He (we) finally stopped doing it because the city folks complained the skin was yellow and they didn't want to eat it. Turns out the "yellow skin" was the fat layer. No one had ever seen a fat turkey at the super market.

I get the layer of fat on my turkeys too. It usually makes most of the skin inedible but boy does it add the flavor and moisture to the turkey. I just tell anyone getting turkeys off of me before they get them about the fat. You also have to tell them how to cook them cause they tend to be just a little bit tougher than the ones in the grocery stores. I've never had anyone complaints.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

We are renting the feather man from our co op the week. $40 , $32 if a member.

I'll let you know how it goes.