Homemade Chicken Plucker II

   After last year’s failure at making a chicken plucker, I decided to try again this year. I went with the tub design, sometimes called a whiz-bang plucker. I’ve been working on it for awhile; slowly gather parts and looking up ideas on the internet

   First thing I started with is a squirrel cage that came from an old furnace blower. Someone gave it to me a long time ago and I’ve used it in different projects along the way. I used it to hold the plate up and give me something to mount the motor to. On one side of the squirrel cage I attached a 16” pulley that I had to order. On the other side, I took the original pulley off and used it as a template. I routed out a circle in a piece of plywood that was the same diameter as the pulley. Then I attached the pulley to the piece of wood with some screws. Using the pulleys edge, I used the router to cut the piece of plywood in a perfect circle. This will make sure the plywood is balance and won’t vibrate when spinning. I reattached the pulley and plywood back on the squirrel cage.

   Next I mounted a motor that I had kicking around the shop on to the squirrel cage . It happened to have the right pulley on it already. You want the plate to spin around 190 RPM, and most motors spin at 1750 RPM. I had to buy the belt that goes in between the two pulleys. Once the belt was attached, I used a piece of wood cut in the shape of a wedge and slid between motor and squirrel cage to adjust the tension of the belt. I then bought a plastic 55 gallon drum, that happen to hold Mnt. Dew before I got it. I cut the bottom off and cut then cut the top third off. To install the rubber fingers, which I ordered off EBay, I drilled 13/16” holes in the bottom of the drum and on the side of the drum. I then pulled the fingers through the holes and they stay there because they have a grove in the end that the edge of the barrel slides into. 
The fingers are ribbed to pull the feathers off as the chicken spins around barrel. Once all the fingers were installed I screwed the bottom to the plate which also helps hold the fingers in as well. I then used laminated plywood I had in the shop to build a box around the motor and squirrel cage, and then wired the motor up to a switch and then a plug. I turned the motor on and used a power planer on the plastic edge of the barrel to make sure it was perfectly round and centered. Next I attached the barrel on and used 2 x 4’s and plywood to support it. Put some old wheels on I had from an old barbecue and some legs and handles, and I was done.

   I had 47 chickens to process this weekend and hadn’t tried it out yet. We are going on vacation soon and had to process them before we left. I was very nervous after last year’s failure and didn’t have a plan B if this didn’t work. After dipping two dead chickens in some hot water to loosen the feathers, I put them in the plucker. Turn the switch on, and after thirty seconds of spinning around the birds came out with no feathers except for a few pin feathers on their tails, which is normal. I was very excited that it actually worked the way I planned it. I was able to process 24 birds in about four hours on Saturday, and finished the rest on Sunday in the same amount of time. I might make a few adjustments later on, but it worked out great and can’t wait to see if it will handle the turkeys this fall.

  

   

Homemade Ice Cream

   Now that we have all this milk, we’ve been playing around with making different things. Miss J made some soap, but wants to continue in the fall when things aren’t so busy. We’ve also made a couple types of cheeses, one was good but the other was a little too strong for us. We use the milk in such things as pudding, pancakes, and other baked goods, but everybody’s favorite is the ice cream.

  I found the recipe on Antiquity Oaks website, and quickly realized how easy it is to have ice cream in the freezer all the time. The recipe is simple:

4 cups goat milk  

1 cup sugar

4 egg yolks whisked

1 tsp vanilla

   You put all the ingredients in a pan and heat them up, stirring frequently. You want to bring it right up to boiling point. As soon as it starts to let out some steam I take it off the cook top. Pour the mixture into a jar and refrigerate tell it has cooled down completely, I let it sit overnight. Then pour into an ice cream maker, if you have one. We just bought one and are very happy with it. Let the machine run for twenty minutes or so. Right when the mixture stars to look like ice cream add any type of topping or extra ingredients like chocolate chips. Once done scoop out and store in the freezer.

 
  The nigerian dwarfs have higher butterfat content than any other goat or cow, so the milk makes a creamier ice cream. I can’t have a regular ice cream due to the fact it upsets my stomach, but I’m able to eat this type of ice cream. The ice cream comes out just as good if not better then store bought ice cream, the only problem is trying to keep some in the freezer due to three hungry kids.         

Goat Roll Call

   The goat herd has made some changes in the last six months. We have sold, bought, and even helped make some of our own goats. With all the changes I thought a roll call was in order.

Montana

    Montana is the queen of the herd. She is the first to get milked, the first to eat, and pretty much the first to do anything. When she goes somewhere all the other goats follow, that’s why she wears the bell. If we want the herd to go anywhere we just grab her and the rest follow. This spring she delivered four kids, which is pretty good for a first freshener, and she is giving us a little over a quart of milk a day with only milking her once a day. She turned out to be a great mother always looking after her kids, and was sad when they had to leave. It’s no secret that she is my favorite goat.

Sugar Cane

    We picked up Sugar about two months ago, from a very good breeder. We were told that she was bred but as it turn out it didn’t take. I always want a buckskin goat, not because of the black like cape on their back from which they get their name from, but because of the stripes down the face. When I found out that she had blue eyes, I had to get her. She has very good confirmation with her long body and tall legs. She should produce a lot of milk. We can’t wait tell next kidding season in spring to see how she turns out.

 Sally

    When we sold Meadow back to her breeder we had to find another goat in milk to keep up with the demand of three thirsty (human) kids. I ended up finding a local breeder through craigslist that had a couple of goats in milk that they were selling. They told us about Sally and sent us a picture. She looked just like our first goat, Goldie. When we meet her for the first time she was very outgoing and not nervous at all, and then they showed us a quart of milk that they milked from her that morning and we were sold. Although she is on the smaller size, she still gives us almost a quart of milk every day. She is easily our most friendly goat we have and is the kid’s favorite.

Katy

   We have had Katy for about seven months, but for some reason she still is the low goat on the totem pole. Just like Sally she is on the smaller size, for good reason, both their grandparents come from the same farm. She has a great temperament and until recently we have never heard her cry at all. We just had her breed and she is due towards the end of September. We can’t wait to see how much milk she gives us; we have been told she has the walk of a great milkier.

Tom Sawyer “181”

   Sawyer was born on our farm this spring. His dam was Meadow, and one of the reasons we sold her was because we were planning on keeping Sawyer, and didn't want to have him breed with her by accident. He is a very friendly buck who always comes up to the pen to greet you. He has good confirmation and will add some good genes into our herd through the years. His nickname is 181 because he has it written in white on one of his sides.

Huck Finn

   We needed to get a friend for Sawyer to keep him company in his separate pen, so when we picked up Sugar we asked the breeder if she had any good bucklings that have good lines to add to our herd. She showed us Huck who was only six weeks old but looked like he was three months old. We said we’ll take him. Huck comes from some very impressive lines and is not related to Sugar at all. He is a very good looking buck and has a lot of different colors. Even at a young age he loves “hanging out with the ladies” and has showed us that we have to keep the bucks separate so that no funny business happens.

The Buck House