13 Homemade Chicken Pluckers on a Budget

The only downside to raising chickens for food is having to pluck the feathers off those chickens prior to eating them. A homemade chicken plucker will enable you to become an expert feather plucker so you can make quick work of being a chicken plucker or duck plucker. There are many different chicken plucker plans, 13 of which are listed below, that will help you to make your own DIY chicken plucker.

While having your own chicken plucking machine may sound a little odd or a little too extreme to some people, it is a beneficial tool for those living a sustenance life style or for someone living off the grid and relying heavily on backyard chickens for daily protein. As more and more people opt to raise their own free-range fowls, for whatever reason, the desire for a homemade chicken plucker will increase. Knowing how to build a chicken plucker may even turn into a lucrative business as the demand increases and you have chicken plucker plans in-hand.

Look over these 13 DIY chicken plucker plans we found for you from different internet sites and learn how to build homemade chicken pluckers on a budget.

1: The Jack McGee Homemade Chicken Plucker

With a few pieces of scrap wood and some leftover PVC pipe, Jack McGee created his own budget-friendly homemade chicken plucker by grit. We recommend this to those who have a small flock of fowls, it works fast, cleans easily and is small enough to store easily. If you are recycling materials you have on hand to build this DIY chicken plucker, it could end up costing you nothing for out-out-pocket expenses.

2: Homemade Whizbang

At number second we are showing you the DIY chicken plucker by backyardpoultrymag that uses a 55 gallon, food grade plastic barrel, a few 2×4‘s, rubber ‘fingers’ and a 3/4 horsepower motor to do all the feather plucking for you. Patterned after the original Whizbang plucker, these plans allow you to build your own homemade whizbang from scavenged and recycled parts. You may also like to check out homemade egg incubators for hatching of chicken eggs.

3: Barrel Chicken Plucker

If you raise meat chickens or other meat birds, you need a feather plucker. All those feathers must come off the birds before they can be processed and your hands will get very tired if you have to pluck them one by one.

Learn how to use a 55 gallon barrel to make an efficient homemade chicken plucker on youtube. We suggest this homemade chicken plucker to the homestead where you may be processing several chickens at once for preservation in the freezer.

It’s easy to build, easy to use, and it’s not expensive to build. The barrel plucker is easy to move around with a set of hand trucks so you can put the plucker away when it’s not in use.

Use this barrel plucker to remove the feathers from all your harvested homestead birds like turkeys, guinea fowl, quail, and ducks.

4: Drum Homemade Chicken Plucker

The drum plucker by friendlypastures is an economic model that will make quick work of chicken or duck plucking. Remove all the feathers from a bird in just a few seconds using this homemade chicken plucker. Steps-by-step instructions will give you the knowledge to turn an old plastic drum (along with a few other components) into a workable and efficient feather plucking machine.

5: The $6 Homemade Chicken Plucker

Use this plan to turn a drill, PVC pipe end caps and some bungee cords into a $6 homemade chicken plucker like this one by livingthefrugallife the most economical chicken plucker imaginable. Portable, cheap and efficient, what’s not to love about this homemade feather plucker? A little trial and error and another pair of hands will enable you to get the hang of using this economical plucker in the most efficient way possible. You may also like to check out poultry processing equipment.

6: Achorn Farm Homemade Chicken Plucker

A 55-gallon, food grade plastic barrel, an old snow blower gear box , some scrap wood and the most expensive component – rubber fingers – created this economical diy chicken plucker for usage on Achorn Farms by achornfarm While the rubber finger costs $120 (including shipping and handling) for this DIY chicken plucker, you can purchase them or make them yourself much cheaper.

7: Cowgirl Homemade Chicken Plucker

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a kit to build a chicken plucker, do what Cowgirl did – use what you have on hand to build an efficient and cheap feather plucker. Cowgirl built her cowgirl chicken plucker by cowgirlscountry for under 50 dollars. You can too with her easy-to-follow chicken plucker plans that includes using a pizza pan and belt.

8: Whizbang Homemade Chicken Plucker

This one claims to be the DIY chicken plucker that started it all back in 1999 and inventor, Herrick Kimball, willingly shares all his building plans and knowledge with all who are interested. Buy his book of step-by-step plans for building the Whizbang Chicken Plucker by whizbangplucker and visit his website to purchase any needed parts for the DIY chicken plucker.

9: Washing Machine Whizbang Homemade Chicken Plucker

This unique idea recycles an old washing machine by blogs while creating an entirely new tool that will remove the feathers from chickens, ducks, turkeys or geese in a matter of seconds. Instead of hauling that old washing machine to the landfill (where it will take decades to

10: Washing Machine Plucker

Here is a great way to recycle an old washing machine – transform it into a homemade chicken plucker.

The drum from a washing machine and some of the electrical components are used in the DIY project. Lots of rubber plucking fingers are installed all around the inside of the washer drum to pluck the feathers as the harvested chicken is spun around inside.

The chicken is plucked quickly in this DIY feather plucking machine on YouTube video so that you can move on to the next step of processing the meat. Harvesting and processing meat birds won’t take all day and leave you with sore fingers if you build a washing machine plucker like this one.

This YouTube video will show you step by step how to make a chicken plucker from an old washing machine for less than $100. Ideal for a homestead that processes multiple chickens at once.

11: $20 Chicken Plucker

This $20 chicken plucker by mycrafts cleans all the feathers off a harvested chicken in less than one minute. It will enable you to make quick work of getting rid of all the feathers.

This chicken plucker machine is made with a 55-gallon plastic barrel, a few 2 x4s and an electric motor. It’s easy and cheap to build and very efficient at removing feathers. If you like to keep the skin on your harvested chickens, a chicken plucker will do that. The flavor and fat of the chicken are in the skin and most homesteaders like to leave it on the birds for that reason. Plus, you must have the skin on the meat to fry crispy fried chicken.

A store bought chicken plucker can cost $500 but there is no reason to pay that much when you can build one for $20. Follow the instructions on this video so you can build a chicken plucker machine for your homestead and quit plucking the chickens by hand.

12: Drill Poultry Plucker

It’s so quick and easy to use that you will wonder why you didn’t build one of these homemade chicken pluckers sooner.

Get all the instructions that you will need to build this diy plucker on youtube for yourself. Rubber chicken plucking fingers are attached to a cylindrical piece of wood and then that is attached to a drill. As the drill turns the cylinder covered with chicken plucking fingers the harvested and scalded bird is held against them. In just a minute or two all the feathers are gone and the chicken is ready for the next step of the cleaning process.

If you are tired of sore fingers and hours of feather plucking at chicken harvesting time, build yourself a drill poultry plucker. It’s fast, easy, and cheap to build and it will make quick, painless work of feather plucking.

13: Table Top Mounted Plucker

This homemade chicken plucker by barefootones can be built almost free if you have a few building material scraps on hand and a drill.

This one works like most other drill operated chicken pluckers we discussed above. It turns a round cylinder covered with rubber chicken finger and you hold the dispatched and scalded chicken against it to remove the feathers. The main difference with this one is that it’s mounted on a table top so no one has to hold the drill.

That frees up another person to be doing another step in the processing of the chickens. It’s quick and easy to build and to use. Best of all, this detailed video will show you how to build this table top drill plucker out of scrap materials so you can save a lot of money.

Great for use on the homestead. This table top model can be used for ducks and turkeys too. Prevent your hands from being sore for days after pulling the feathers off of harvested meat birds by building one of the chicken pluckers. A table top feather plucker can also do the job much faster than trying to do it by hand.

Conclusion

Birds’ skin is very tasty as it contains all the rich elements that make it delicious to eat. But the problem is how to remove the feathers of chickens as it needs a lot of hard work. Homemade chicken pluckers can help you to speed up the processing of feather removal.

You can make any of these chicken pluckers we have shared with you that you find easy and best suits your needs. Hope you like our article! Please don’t forget to share your diy plucker once you have made up!

References:

Academia.edu, by Briggs Martins Ogunedo, “Design of an Efficient Low Cost Poultry Feather Plucker Machine”, https://www.academia.edu/35545767/Design_of_an_Efficient_Low_Cost_Poultry_Feather_Plucker_Machine

Researchgate, May 2018, “Development of a Defeathering Machine from Locally Sourced Materials”, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344430484_Development_of_a_Defeathering_Machine_from_Locally_Sourced_Materials

Copyblogger, “The “Chicken Plucking” Secret of Success”, https://copyblogger.com/chicken-plucking-success/, https://copyblogger.com/chicken-plucking-success/