Yardbird 21833 Chicken Plucker, Stainless Steel, 1.5 HP Motor, 20-inch Drum, 110 Natural Soft Fingers, Integrated Irrigation Ring, Transport Wheels, Simple Debris Collection

The Yardbird landed on my porch unlike other pluckers that are only delivered curbside with a truck or lift gate. The box looked like it had been through a war but the product was in good condition. There was a small ding in the fan cover on the motor so I contacted Yardird and they sent a replacement within two days. The unit functioned fine without the new part but when you spend your hard earned dough on an item you want it to look great as well. The Yardbird customer service is excellent. They answer the phone and speak English without an accent. The unit has some assembly required however for hundreds of dollars less than any other unit I was wiling to use a couple of wrenches to put it together. The instructions are well done and obviously written by someone that knows the English language. The manual contains assembly instructions, warnings, and even a parts page that shows all of the replacement parts that one could order if there was an issue. I was pleasantly surprised that there is a one year warranty published in the manual and there is a serial number on the manual cover that matches the serial number on the machine. I found this useful while calling customer service. Like many others I considered building a plucker. I looked at the detailed lists of parts that others have published to build their own. Just the materials ranged from $450 - $750. Also, you needed to be a machinist, a carpenter, and dabble at being an electrician to get it all together. To put this in perspective I researched purchasing a 1.5 H.P. washdown grade motor and the motor cost as much as this entire machine. This unit is a performer. With 1.5 H.P. and no belt slippage this thing can easily handled two seven pound birds. It's advertised rating is two eight pound birds and I believe that it can handle it. It is advertised as completely plucking two birds in 15 seconds. This is also accurate. If you are familiar with plucking by hand or with one of those external drum pluckers that throws the feathers everywhere this product will speed up the operation substantially. The secret is in the scald just as all other plucker users and reviewers have mentioned. When you are processing and forget to turn the scalder burner off you will get a couple of chickens with ripped skin. I also had a couple of birds with broken knee joints however the next step is to cut the foot off at the knee so this is not a deal breaker. The drive train is completely sealed and maintenance free (says the manual). We will see if it stands the test of time but it appears to be very solid especially in the drive train (motor, gearbox, and output shaft). After butchering the machine can be cleaned by releasing the latches on the tub. There is a nifty safety switch that does not allow the machine to operate without the stainless tub in place. My only complaint is that the on/off switch is a bit hidden from sight. Once a few birds are processed finding the switch is second nature but it takes some practice. All in all this product works and does exactly what is advertised. I would recommend this to a friend.

Came on time and in great shape. It was pretty easy to assemble the directions could be a little better tho. I didn't have any problem getting the one finger installed that everyone complained about and I'm literally a 5ft 4 In small women. After making sure the two arrows on the side were lined up and the power cord was safe from getting wet I went to work. The box says done in 15 seconds! Let me tell you for me about 7 seconds is the max it took to clean a bird. I say clean bc they were clean. Maybe one or two feathers were left and the skin and bones were not damaged if left in for 7 seconds I found the 15 seconds will break a bone or rip the skin. I processed 10 chickens from start to finish alone in about two hours and most of that time was walking from the coop to the plucker witch is around 200 yards apart for each bird. I would imagine two people could easily process 50 in that time maybe more if you got down to business after you have everything set up ready to go. Cleaning it was pretty simple soap and water and a hose worked just fine and took maybe 5 mins. Over all I 100% feel like this was money well spent if it holds up. This has saved so much time and if it holds up is a game changer for me my family and my friends who refuse to buy chicken from factory farm situations. It makes the job so much more satisfying and I don't have that dreaded feeling about the work it takes to process chickens now. That alone makes me want to help more people learn to raise their own meat share the meat I raised and cut back on the store bought mystery chicken so many people are left as the only option. I work 6 days a week 10 hrs a day and finding time to feed water etc is hard but finding time to process was a chore but now I can cut that time down so much that it's something I don't even worry about. Like I said total game changer if it holds up.

Works good with cornish cross chickens it works ok with red rangers but leaves a few more feathers. Had to replace fingers near end of second year due to cracking and breaking off. GFCI module got wet during second year of use and quit working. Motor sometimes just hums when starting and doesn't spin. I have to spin by hand when it happens but it will still run. I have been reasonably happy with this machine but seems to need a lot of maintenance to keep working for no more than we use it. I'll tear into the motor start circuit when were done this year no time now got process chickens. Beats hand plucking for sure and easy enough for anyone to use. Easy clean up with the removable drum. My expectations were reasonable since I did buy the least expensive one I could find. We pluck about 150 birds per year. Works ok with turkeys up to around 25 lbs live weight larger than that is more difficult to manage. Works with ducks but more hand plucking is necessary. Overall I'm ok with this unit it gets the job done.

The Yardbird 21833 Chicken Plucker has completely transformed how we process chickens on our farm. The 1.5 HP motor is powerful and consistent, and the 20-inch stainless steel drum handles multiple birds with ease. The 110 natural soft fingers do an excellent job — fast, efficient, and gentle enough to avoid damaging the skin. One of my favorite features is the integrated irrigation ring, which keeps everything clean during operation and makes cleanup afterward much easier. The debris collection system is simple but effective, and the transport wheels are a huge plus for moving it around the yard or barn. If you're processing poultry regularly, this machine is a must-have. It saves time, reduces manual labor, and delivers professional results. Highly recommended! We processed 8 roosters in 2 hours with the help of this plucker.

Materiales de buena calidad, motor grande, dedos grandes y el cilindro es grande igual, yo la uso para desplumar pollos de 3 a 5 kilos, por precaución solo 1 por ciclo, solo de 20 a 30 segundos y quedan muy limpios

I bought the plucker a few months ago but was only able to use it this past weekend. It performed beautifully. I had read a lot of the 1-3 star reviews and wanted to watch for the negative aspects of this plucker. I have used other brands (that you cant buy here) and they are twice the price. I had no problem plucking two birds at once but I usually only pluck one at a time. The plucker is never the bottleneck as far as 'processing day' goes so needing to pluck birds faster isn't an issue. I put a 5 gallon bucket under the machine where the feathers and water come out. (I drilled holes around the bottom edge of the bucket, this worked great). All I had to do was empty the bucket as opposed to clean up feathers everywhere. No more needing to stand and hose the spinning birds either. I read people were concerned the connector wouldn't fare well with the weight of the attached hose and that there was no shut off. I recently purchased an expandable garden hose with a shut off on it. This was the ticket. The plucker is way lighter than other pluckers (I've not seen another plucker with wheels) so moving it around was a far better experience than dragging the competition around. Other pluckers don't disassemble so you have to reach inside to try to clean them out. Taking the drum off made clean up a snap. If you've used other pluckers you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't count yourself lucky and buy this one. As a side note, I had a few questions about the plucker so I emailed the company. I got a fast reply with the information I wanted. They seem like a good company to deal with.

Great plucker. So fast. Does a fantastic job

I used the plucker to pluck 60 Freedom Ranger chickens. I used a 65 L (quart) pot heated with a large propane burner. When the temperature was just right and the stars aligned, the plucker plucked the chickens completely clean. Most of the time though there were feathers left over particularly on the back and wing edges. Fortunately these come off by hand fairly easily and quickly and the really tedious type of feathers are all removed by the plucker. You have to make sure the temperature is just right. I found 150 degrees F to be about right. 140 didn't seem to remove as many feathers and 160 and above will have the plucker ripping the skin off. With a big pot and burner it is fairly easy to maintain the scalding temperature. I also removed the legs and head before putting in the scalder and plucker. I found it best to do one chicken at a time. If it hasn't removed the feathers in 15 to 30 seconds, they aren't coming off and those feathers need to be removed by hand. The plucker itself is very well made. I have been told Freedom Rangers are harder to pluck than the basic white industrial chicken so maybe that has some effect on my results. My chickens were 4 to 5 lbs. cleaned.

I purchased the Yardbird Plucker this summer to process meat kings and turkeys. My chickens were between 8 - 12lbs. At first I was just scalding them and dropping them in the plucker. To get them to bounce around, I had to flip them . Then I removed their head and feet before dropping them in. This did the trick. It worked perfectly after that. It says it can take up to a 20lb turkey and I can vouch for that. I processed 4 turkeys today. Three birds were 19 lbs and it handled them ok. The last one was 27 lbs. I tried it anyway to see how it would do. The bird just fit in the yardbird so I had to tumble it by hand a few times and then finished plucking by hand. It did manage to remove a lot of the feathers though. One other thing I figured out with the turkeys, was to manually remove the large tail and wing feathers before putting them in the yardbird. These feathers are just too big and don't purge from the machine. All in all I am 100% satisfied with the yardbird. It really made the processing so much easier. Now to see how durable it is.