Building the Chicken Plucker, Part 1

I know. I should have started this as soon as the plucker fingers came in the mail, but I'm not feeling like there is a rush to finish this. The birds I confined to the cage I built don't seem to be growing any faster with the free choice grain than the ranging chickens. I was trying to avoid feeding them the grower crumble they sell at the store in an attempt to keep them as 'natural' as possible, but I don't know...

Anyway, even if these chickens are old and tough by the time they are big enough to warrant the hassle of butchering, we can slow cook or can them in order to make them edible. Or so I hear.

Today was a bit drizzly, so I figured this was a good day to get started. I pulled our old rain barrel from behind the shop, and stared at it for a while, wondering if I could pry the lid off, or if I just needed to cut it off.

 I finally realized there was no way I could get the top off, so I went about figuring out how to cut it up. First problem was to draw a straight line around the barrell. A speed square gave me something I could slide along the underside of the lid, and a notch to hold my Sharpie.

 I also traced a circle on the bottom to cut out the plastic circle I will need to build the feather plate, and another line around the outside to cut off the rest of the bottom. I decided a sawzall would be too crazy to try to cut with, so I used a jigsaw. And I wore safety glasses. Last time I cut a hole in this barrell, a little piece of plastic flew into my eye.

I used a jump rope to figure out the circumference of the barrell, and later, when the kids are in bed, I will plot out where I need to drill all the holes for the plucker fingers.