# How hard is it to hand pluck (for a tiny backyard flock)?



## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

I don't have chickens, I'm still just considering it. If I were to butcher a single chicken on occasion for dinner, how long is that going to take me if I don't have a plucker? Or, for that matter, if I do a weekend butchering of 6 chickens at a time every now and then. I was amazed seeing a plucker in action - 15 seconds later we had a bald chicken. But I've never seen it done by hand, and it seems like it would be a painstaking chore, especially for the little feathers.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I normally skin them. Doesn't take but a few minutes.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

If you scald, it is amazingly quick. You can watch youtube videos of it and get an idea.

I dry pluck because I can smell a lot of things, but wet feathers ain't one of them. Turkeys don't smell bad wet, but chickens... uuurrrrp.
I can dry pluck a chicken in a matter of minutes. I just remove the whole wing. I am not going to that trouble for a wing.


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## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

I would scald, yeah. Well, that's encouraging. I have low vision but I assume it's still a task I can do anyway, since it's probably more about feel than sight. Also my DH would probably help me as long as I did the fatal deed, lol. Probably take me an hour the first time :heh: but if people can usually do it within a few minutes with practice, that sounds very reasonable.

Sure, I'll find a video on youtube to see it.


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## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

Oh, I see, you don't have to yank out each individual feather one at a time, most of them you can just sort of yank and pull in bunches, or even firmly brush off. I didn't find any videos where they did just hand plucking but one guy brushed feathers off the legs (and cut off the feet) before putting the bird in the plucker, and it wasn't like I was picturing it. I'm thinking I'll still have to spend some effort on pinfeathers but that's different from the effort I was picturing.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

I used to scald, but now I skin. SO much easier, quicker and no smell. 

Don't forget that it is best not to eat the bird the same day you kill/skin it. It's best to let the meat sit in the fridge for a day first. 

Don't be discouraged at how long it takes the first time, just think about what you are doing in providing your own food! Over time you will get quicker at it and the actual butchering process will become easier.

This comes from someone who used to be a vegetarian, and was also very very squeamish! 

Good luck!


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

Not the best example, but here is a link.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJYzfPSj-dU&feature=related[/ame]


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## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

Thanks for the encouragement! I was also a vegetarian for 12 years, but my issue was never meat per se but factory conditions. It's nice to have the option to raise animals the way I see fit (or buy them locally from people who respect their animals). 

I did not know that it was best to let it sit for a day before eating, that's good to know. 

When I do really do it, I'll try both skinning and not. I do like the skin and try not to waste, but if I'm in a rush sometimes, I'm not above being flexible 

I just did my first batch of canning the other day and it took me HOURS what with reading directions and cross-referencing points I didn't fully understand and looking at the diagram and so on and on. But I know the first time with something new takes a while, and with practice it will be second nature!


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

a good one
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lls5CLVnKo&feature=related[/ame]


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## AprilW (Nov 25, 2007)

I'm glad I read this thread. I'm wanting chickens - skinning definitely sounds like the way to go for me.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2011)

I skin them now.

My mother would scald the chickens and ducks, and then plucking wasn't so bad. (well, even when scalded, ducks are a pain).

But for turkeys and geese, my step father or a male relative would chop their heads off in the back yard and leave them laying there (on a table or stump) for us kids to pluck. It was a slow, painful job.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Canning does get easier, like anything. I pressure can almost all our meat. I did two pigs last yr. Both were around 500#. Plus I did a slew of poultry.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Yeah with canning, I started making jams, jellies and syrups and am working my way up to pressure canning things. It's a lot easier and faster when you know what to do. Same thing with plucking. We have ducks, they are a pain to pluck compared to chickens (or so I hear, never did a chicken to compare!). It used to take me forever, but now I can pluck one (scalded) in about 20 mins or so. I find skinning not to be a lot easier for me, I haven't had enough practice to be good at it, so it seems quite tedious.


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## marytx (Dec 4, 2002)

I learned how plucking, but now I skin. The smell of hot wet chicken feathers is a little bit nauseating to me. Plus, skinning is so much faster and easier. It usually takes me about 30 minutes first bird, then 20 minutes each for the rest.

The problem with eating it the day you butcher is it will be very tough. Cooling it for a day is tenderizing.


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

the skin is the tastiest part of the homegrown bird and healthy for you, too! I think you are all crazy for skinning.

I scald and then hand pluck, never more than 4/day or I get crabby. 3/day is a nice easy number for me to do solo. From set up to final final clean up it takes me maybe 1.5 hours to do 3 chickens, not rushing not dillydallying either.

Dry plucking is a royal pain and my hands think I should consider skinning if I cannot scald first.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2011)

cathleenc said:


> the skin is the tastiest part of the homegrown bird and healthy for you, too! I think you are all crazy for skinning.


When you've got rheumatoid arthritis, you do what you have to do.


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## stgagnon (Aug 8, 2007)

We dry-pluck our chickens and turkeys. So much less trouble than heating the water, and the smell. I bought all the parts a couple of years ago for the whizbang plucker but never have got around to putting it together. With dry-plucking, there is no prep needed. Just go out an do it! No need to procrastinate. Also, in the cold months, your hands will not get cold as quickly. 
To dry pluck, I use those gardening gloves that are coated with rubber.. can't remember the name. I can grab bunches of feathers easily. I don't worry too much about the little hairs. The flight feathers are difficult, especially on turkeys. I take those out with pliers, if I'm feeling perfect or if the bird is for someone else. Otherwise, we often just cut of the wing tips and the tough feathers with them. 
Don't hesitate,, go ahead and get your chickens! 
Skinning sounds like a great idea but we haven't tried that yet. I figure I will do that with old hens headed for stew.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

ladycat said:


> When you've got rheumatoid arthritis, you do what you have to do.


Yes you do, and you should be proud of that! :clap:


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## Quercus21 (Nov 25, 2009)

I have skinned, hand plucked and plucked with a bench plucker. If I have just a few birds to do, I'll hand pluck. We like the skin left on the birds. I figure by the time you set up the plucker and break it down( clean it etc) I could hand pluck 4 or so birds. If I am really in a rush (don't even want to wait for the water to get hot), I'll skin the birds. By myself, I can set up and break down the work area, dispatch, pluck, eviscerate, quarter up to 50 birds in 7 hrs. I'll do this once a year. The better half cleans and shrink warps the chicken.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I like to roast our chickens so I want the skin on. Normally, we take them to a butcher. But the one time we did butcher our own- scalded, I could pluck in less than a minute AND I didn't find the smell that bad. I was afraid it would stay on my hands for days - but nope. I'd scald again to get the job done that quickly.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

We scald and pluck, but DH made a plucker out of a drill and some bungee cords, so it cuts the plucking time down to almost nothing. Like others, I hate the smell of the wet feathers, but with the plucker it's not so bad.


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## Uncle JD (Dec 1, 2010)

Shalom ,

All of this is very helpful to me too, thanks everyone. What is a good slaughtering age for chickens that would be sold for meat? I will be raising Australorps and Sexlinks.


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## Renne (Feb 10, 2005)

The night before processing day, we set our home gas water heater to high (150*). We have a homemade Whizbang when we do alot of birds, but for just a few,we scald and hand pluck. Quite easy and fast for us. As is said "Practice makes perfect" And yes we leave ourselves a large note to remind us to turn the heater down before the Grandkids can get into the water.


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## harrisjnet (Jul 13, 2006)

I pluck the ones I butcher and I do 6 to 10 at a time. I can scald and have a chicken completely plucked in a matter of 5minutes or less. It takes my helpers a much longer time, but their time is improving with practice. It's like tying your shoe. Takes more time when you are just learning, but gets to be a very fast process when you have done it a bunch.


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## harrisjnet (Jul 13, 2006)

Uncle JD said:


> Shalom ,
> 
> All of this is very helpful to me too, thanks everyone. What is a good slaughtering age for chickens that would be sold for meat? I will be raising Australorps and Sexlinks.



It all depends on whether you want tender fryers or big baking hens. The individual genetics and feed have are determining factors also.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

I have arthritis in my hands, but I'd still never skin, that's worse than plucking IMO. I do scald first, though. Dry plucking just takes too much time.

Jennifer


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## harrisjnet (Jul 13, 2006)

Jennifer L. said:


> I have arthritis in my hands, but I'd still never skin, that's worse than plucking IMO. I do scald first, though. Dry plucking just takes too much time.
> 
> Jennifer



I'm with you. I hate skinning. It takes me three times as long and I just don't like them skinned. Try rubbing some of the chicken fat on your hands as you work.It seems to be almost as good for pain as emu oil.:shrug:


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## Guest (Jan 13, 2011)

Jennifer L. said:


> I have arthritis in my hands, but I'd still never skin, that's worse than plucking IMO. I do scald first, though. Dry plucking just takes too much time.
> 
> Jennifer





harrisjnet said:


> I'm with you. I hate skinning. It takes me three times as long and I just don't like them skinned. Try rubbing some of the chicken fat on your hands as you work.It seems to be almost as good for pain as emu oil.:shrug:


Not sure how to explain, but I've devised a method of skinning which cuts the chicken up at the same time, and is extremely fast and easy.


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## harrisjnet (Jul 13, 2006)

ladycat said:


> Not sure how to explain, but I've devised a method of skinning which cuts the chicken up at the same time, and is extremely fast and easy.


Hmm, I may have to try cutting them up as I go and see what I think of skinning that way.May be a big bonus since I generally pressure cook and throw the skin away as I debone.


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## LFRJ (Dec 1, 2006)

We pluck after a hot water dip. It takes me about 20 mins to go from chicken coop to finished chicken, but that includes the bleed time. All in all though, it takes MORE time to set up, sterilize buckets, sharpen knives and heat up water than it does to process the chickens - which is why I do about 6 or so at a time. (If I were only doing one or so for dinner, I'd likely learn to skin). 

The smell of wet/hot chicken feathers is only slightly less gross than ducks, which IMO are worse! I keep a small tin of tiger balm handy, and dot it under my nose. This helps a lot. Learned this trick from a med/tech who had to work around necrotic tissue)


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

We only have a few hens for eggs and a rooster to make more chickens when the time is right. When the roosters kung-fu gets too strong he gets ground up and turned into rooster loaf.

There was a time however when we raised birds for meat, the first one I dry plucked. I didn't much care for that, feathers floating everywhere getting in my mouth and up my nose. So after that I scalded, just to keep the feathers down. I didn't think they smelled any worse than wet dogs or wet sheep, I mean they didn't smell like vanilla either, but it was bearable. What I found to be unbearable was the smell of their guts blech. 

So when the roosters time comes I just pull the skin back from the breast and sort of turn his skin inside out and cut the breasts off the ribcage. Then I dislocate the thighs and cut the whole legs off. No guts no feathers.


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2011)

catahoula said:


> So when the roosters time comes I just pull the skin back from the breast and sort of turn his skin inside out and cut the breasts off the ribcage. Then I dislocate the thighs and cut the whole legs off. No guts no feathers.


That's a pretty good description of how I do it. Incredibly fast and easy.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

Ladycat, it would be fantastic if you could ever show a video of your method. Sounds good!


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## ajaxlucy (Jul 18, 2004)

I guess I should admit that I know an Amish farmer who will process my chickens and turkeys for $2/$5 each, so I visit him for larger batches. I'm happy to get out of plucking turkeys!

For a just a few chickens, though, I scald and then pluck, which doesn't really take long at all. I've tried skinning, and it's fast, but I like cooking the bird with skin and all, so I usually pluck. The feathers get composted.


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