Has anyone had any luck with the cheap eBay pluckers? Would like to find a machine good enough for occasional plucking of ducks and game birds. Don't want to spring for an expensive commercial plucker.

How about the annoying kid down the street? Know this isn't much help on the ebay thing but hey probably a cheaper solution. Of course you could always go with the many pig castrators listed on this forum.

Never used one, but have heard only good comments about the Whizbang plucker.

Check out Wiz Bang Chicken Plucker. You can make one yourself and not have a lot in it.

Found a nice commercial plucker on eBay or Craigslist years ago $500 delivered. Deals are out there. Not sure of your experience, a correct scald makes all the difference no matter the plucker.

can tell you not to get the ones that go on a drill.
will beat the crap out of you and the fingers don't last long at all.

You might be able to get a kid in Mississippi to do that, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a kid in just about any other part of the country to do that.

Go see the Amish.

Tomahawker can you further explain your scalding process?

I pluck 100-150 ducks/year, all wild ducks that we shoot waterfowling. I dry pick them, then singe with a hand torch, dress and soak overnight in a salt water mix. Then I freeze them. Have you ever scalded waterfowl?

John

Been a long time since we raised chickens but you just scald them til the feathers are completely wet. Any longer and the skin will peel. Any shorter and you are just handling a wet chicken. The water temp is important but I forget what its supposed to be.
just

If I remember we kept our water temp at 150 and dunk them for about 40 seconds. We plucked by hand, one of those pluckers sure would've been nice!

I bought one thru Amazon from poultry supply house, made in China, $400. Works good. Water temp 150-160 works best. Some people build them, but don't know how much money you would save after buying motor etc...

How hard is the cleanup afterwards on the Whizbang and other pluckers?

Keith

Just spray water to wash feathers out, pretty easy, I took the small knobs on bottom out, they were catching feathers, now feathers flow out easy.

No, never scalded waterfowl. It very well may be different. Heat water till you can barely stand your hands/fingers in it for a couple seconds. Dunk the birds a few times to ensure water penetrates any air pockets in feathers. Hold by legs, as your dunking, run a thumb up the leg. When feathers easily slip, straight to plucker. As above, to much scald allows the skin to rip. I hold by legs and rotate all around on plucker. With A lil practice you get a feel for how long to scald. The water cools as you dunk birds. At some point you have to let it heat back up as it takes longer and longer for feathers to slip. Our record was 250 chickens in a morning. I’ve been the catcher, the killer, scalder/plucker, butcher all the way down to bag man.Turkeys are much the same but...man are they big. Would love to hear how ducks and such do.

Lots and lots John. It's the way everybody did it years ago.

Let me add, as your dunking, it’s not whole bird in, whole bird out. That’s how you slosh water and put your flame out! It’s up and down always in the water. Only the tips of fingers holding on legs should get in water much. But it’s in out, in out, run a thumb up, in out, in out, run a thumb up, feathers slip-to the plucker. Again as water heats and cools time in scald fluctuates.

We made a wizbang and about the only thing we actually had to buy were the rubber fingers. The rest was stuff we had around the shop and other shed. We did have a friend cut the bottom plate to make it perfectly round.
Cost almost nothing to make if you have junk laying around, including an electric motor. After a 140 degree scald you can do 3 chickens in about 10-15 seconds. There are only a couple feathers on the tip of the tail and wing tips. I'm sure we have plucked a thousand chickens with it. Just rinse and remove the feathers, and rinse again and it's ready for next year.