A Chicken Plucker At Last!

Big Papi's days are numbered.

This morning, I finished building a chicken plucker.

This is not the barrel-style chicken plucker I started months ago. After discovering that the barrel we had was too brittle, I've kept my eye out for a newer barrel to buy, but life with kids makes things complicated, so I haven't had the chance to get one. It became obvious, though, that these chickens need to go. Soon. Not only is Big Papi mean, he has taken to waking at 4 a.m. and crowing like a desperate Paul Revere. To boot, the other young roosters destined for the knife have also started crowing. At least they are kept far enough away that I can't really hear them in the mornings. And on top of all this is the fact that I have to feed them. So. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sunday, I gathered together the motor, pulleys, and belt off an old concrete mixer, a section of 3" PVC pipe, and some lumber and began building a table-top plucker:

 After my first test run, I realized the fingers were spinning the wrong way, so I had to swap the configuration around. Then after applying some paint to make cleaning a little easier, I slapped it all together, and walla!

Admittedly, the design could be refined quite a bit, but this is the best I could do with what we had. And I'm guessing it will be a heck of a lot better than plucking by hand and having to singe off hairs.