EDITED FOR ALL OF THOSE SEARCHING FOR A DUCK PLUCKER:
Check out the photos here for an inexpensive home-made plucker: http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j227/Ardwyn_Farm/poultry/
Please email me at dougjonz@yahoo.com if you have any questions.
I like this picture, it looks like the turkeys are planning a raid on the ducks. Who on earth could have predicted, even just a few years ago, that we would have a scene like this in our yard? The unpredictable twists in the path are what makes life exciting I guess.
There are fewer ducks on the farm now than there are in that picture. I think we will have roast duck for dinner tomorrow night! I'll let you know how it is.
I got to use my "$6 Duck Plucker" yesterday and it worked like a charm. It is a simple contraption, just 3" rubber "fingers" cut from a bungee cord mounted around a 4" PVC end cap with a long carriage bolt as the driveshaft . I just chuck it into the drill, wire down the trigger and away she goes. Once I figured out how close to hold the bird to the spinning drum it was quick, maybe 3 minutes to completely defeather a duck. I'll post a picture of it if I remember.
In other news, it looks like the pigs may be completely sold, still waiting to hear back from someone on the last 1/4 of a pig. That is a relief, even if the last 1/4 doesn't sell we can just add it on to the 1/2 we were keeping for ourselves. More bacon for me!
Speaking of bacon, we'll be harvesting the first tomatoes this week and I can't wait for that first BLT! I told Nikki that I'm going to eat nothing but BLTs and sweet corn for a month. The rest of the garden is doing pretty good too. Some of the sunflowers are pushing 10' and they are just starting to get their heads.
If anyone is interested in a duck, shoot us an email or give us a call, we could probably spare a few.
6 comments:
how much for a duck, all dressed?
You know, that is a good question. In trying to do research to competitively price free-range duck, I find that almost every supplier is in the United Kingdom. I guess duck is just not as popular here in the U.S.
I guess that going by what I have into them and a fair price for my labor, around $12? In the UK a free range duck sells for about $25, but they have a bigger market for them.
Please post a picture of your duck plucker, as I have chickens to brutalize.
Yeah DJ, give us a shot of your duckplucker!
Plucker photos have been posted in the Poultry album at the Farm Pictures link.
Photo 01 is of the whole assembly
Photo 02 is close up of the fingers through the 3/8 holes drilled in the PVC endcap
Photo 03 is just a different angle
Photo 04 shows a finger removed from the assembly so that you can see how they are trimmed from the bungee cord stock.
Photo 05 shows the end result
Thanks for posting the poultry plucker pictures (say that 3 times fast). The feathers still stuck to the carriage bolt make for a nice touch. I had envisioned the braided elastic style of bungee cord for some reason, your pictures cleared that up. Another option would have been to, rather than trimming the cord, loop it inside the hub so one length produced two fingers, but given the cross section of the cord that may have made for too large holes in the hub.
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