20 Best Chicken Plucker Machine (2022 Updated)

I am now a believer. This was my first-time processing chickens by myself. I did it once before with friends and we plucked. I was hesitant to grow more chickens especially on my own as it seemed like such a large task come processing day (20 chickens).

The reason for 4 stars was the price, It will take a bit to have the plucker earn its keep. and I can not speak to longevity as I only used it once. However, it did not disappoint. My expectations were high, and they were exceeded.

The quality seems good enough. It is quite heavy. It is certainly not commercial grade but it appears more that adequate for homestead use or to share with a few friends. On 20 birds we had only 2 that i had to pull out a few feathers.

a very few. Clean up was fairly easy with the exception of some feathers getting stuck under the bottom of the fingers. I sprayed the hose directly at them and pulled the finger to the side and they came right out.

It has its deficiencies, but certainly gets the job done. I will be making modifications before next use: – cord is too short and GFCI is unnecessary, will put a much longer wire on without the GFCI nonsense – wheels are very nice, but way too small for outside use.

Want to put larger wheels and tires on. Going to be tricky, might involve welding – it needs a handle really bad, both for dragging around and for the next point: – the power switch is ridiculously located, need it relocated higher.

No place currently exists, so the handle from previous point needs to be added first – the output chute is located too close to motor. There is a cooling fan on the bottom of the motor. I used a 5 gallon bucket with holes to keep water and feathers away this time.

But I’d like a more permanent and sane solution.

Seems to be good quality. Motor housing had dent in it, but not touching fan, so all is good. Easy to assemble, just make sure the wheel axle isn’t under the discharge hole, this is stated in directions in an awkward way, easy miss.

and easy to resolve. I haven’t used it yet, but with testing, the water flow and action of the fingers seems to be very good and have no doubts this will work very well. Youtube shows videos and I have no reason this will not perform as good as what they show, it should be a huge time saver for this process.

The one awkward thing is the on/off switch is below the chamber, I feel a bit off having to reach under in the wet area to turn off an electrical motor. It is gfci protected and should be just fine, maybe a future model will have a on/off switch on the gfci plug.

Also, they should include the water inlet on/off flow control valve they recommend.

So the door opens with the sun and closes with dusk, which is great so I don’t have to let out and close up my chickens. Works reliably and does a great job at this which is why I’m still giving it a pretty good star rating.

There is also a timer option, but it only let me pick one single time, to either open or close but not both. Also there’s supposed to be an option to use the daylight sensor and the timer sensor together, but did not appear in my option list.

Install was pretty simple. One thing to be aware of is depending on the design of your poop opening, there could potentially be a slight gap between the door and the wall that you may have to figure out how to fill ( which was the case in our coop).

Again this depends on your design however, I could see if we had built it differently how this would not have been an issue, and we were able to fill the gap with how we built it. Of course there is no sensor to stop the opening and closing if your chicken is in the way.

But it is pretty slow.

I installed my first Chicken Guard Extreem the beguining of May 2021 and purchased my second one a few months later. It has been very reliable as I work 12 hour shifts, 84hr every 2 weeks + occasional mandates.

I use a wyze cam to keep an eye on it. The door got stuck once as I mounted the tracks a bit to close together. That was an easy fix. Just make sure to give it extra space so the door can slid up and down freely.

Also if there is debris below the door it won’t be able to lock. The battery life has lasted up until this point but I would like to know how long it actually lasts so my flock doesn’t get stuck in the coop if I’m gone on vacation.

Over all a very good product. I also got 40% off chewy when I purchased the second one!.

My husband got it installed and programmed in under an hour! I love the metal rails and lightweight door, making it weather proof. The door locks tight so the chicken will be safe. I cannot recommend highly enough! We are going into our third week, worry free and sleeping in! Update: Several months in, and we still LOVE this door.

Chickens can get out of coop when the sun rises and into their run to eat and drink until we get out to do chores. Then at night, chicken come in from the hunt, march into the coop and the door closes securely so even if we aren’t home til later to shut and lock their run, they are safe from raccoons and other predators.

Get this door, you won’t regret it!.

I purchased this about a year ago. I installed it and started using it about 9 months ago. It worked fine for 7 months but then suddenly stopped working. I’ve replaced the batteries and inspected the unit for any potential damage.

Not sure this thing is worth the money.

I bought my unit in February 2021. It is now July 2021 and it is completely dead. I replaced the batteries and still nothing. Screen is completely blank, no lights coming on and cannot manually move the door at all.

Waiting to see what Chicken Guard will do. I won’t buy another for my new coop. Sad to see Best Best Box passes the customers off to the company in the UK and doesn’t offer direct warranty coverage.

Searched long and hard for a secure automatic door for my chickens. This one is perfect works like a charm and at great price.

This machine is more than worth the money!! IF you are thinking about buying it do it! Saved me hours of grinding and stuffing. I should have just spent the $$ 10 years ago on something like this. What took me 3 hours to grind now takes me maybe 30 minutes!!.

Ordered it on Sunday and it arrived Wednesday. Ran about 100 lbs of pork through it and it was flawless. The big wheel is great for changing blades. It spits it out faster than you can replace the bags it’s going in.

Great product. Thank you.

Carving home made kebab and joints of meat have never been easier. Your thickness of meat can be adjusted to suit any time. Fantastic

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Does what it says, quite well made.

Expensive hunk of junk. Machine came with a bent top ring. Its a flimsy ring that shakes and sprays water all over when you are using it. Can only handle 1 and only if you remove the legs and head first or it bogs down the machine.

The power switch is directly under the machine and requires constant bending and leaning to use. Not in a very safe location.

Bigger models were either sold out or outside my price range. This one seemed to have most characteristics that I was looking for. Water was too hot for the first bird and it fell apart in the tumbler, that was my ugly mistake.

The second chicken just tumbled until I remembered to spray it with cold water and then the feathers were just gone. We butchered 50+ chickens, some were 6-8 pounds, 1-2 at a time. The machine worked great, held up great, came apart easily for cleanup, and wheeled smoothly to storage.

I am happy with my purchase.

It’s OK if you are just doing a couple of chickens. Really takes the feathers off. I give it three stars because it does not come with any directions and for it to be really effective you must modify it.

Must have two people to use properly. Have one person hold the drill still while the other person moves the chicken around. Wear protective gloves just in case it hits your fingers. Makes a huge mess so cover everything for easier cleanup.

Best if you wack the shaft with a sledge hammer and make it flatter so it will not slip in the drill chuck.

This really helped with processing chickens. Of course you will benefit from building a stationary unit to do this one handed, because holding a drill and controlling the speed wood be a nightmare otherwise.

I used an old drill, dimmer switch, old light socket, wiring and plywood scrap to enclose it all. Just remember to fasten this to a table or flat surface, and position tarp to catch and dispose of the feathers.

I bought this to pluck the ducks I kill because I got tired of just breasting them out, and wasting the rest of the animal. This device takes two people: one to hold the drill with the plucker in it, and one to move the duck around over the plucker.

You have to find just the right speed, but once you do, it does an awesome job without even tearing the skin! Too fast though, and it will eat into the skin and meat. It even works on the hardest feathers to pluck, the leading wing feathers.

Very happy with it, saves my hands from the cramps of hand plucking my birds. Thanks.

Product worked as described. A little hick up with assembly…. Manufacture provided insight and additional parts for free. It works great for birds under 20 lbs. easy to clean and store

This plucker is hard to assemble, but it’s really nice. It cleans the birds really well, like grocery store style.

The plucker worked well. Will be buying more soon

Large size is for full size chickens. So far I’ve used this for 3 Buff Orpington roosters that were 4 months old and a New Hampshire Red rooster that was also 4 months old. The cone was a little big for them, and it made me wonder if I should have gotten a Medium, but I didn’t want to buy two sizes.

I think the Large will be a good size for fully grown large breed chickens. The Large wasn’t a problem for the 4-month-old roosters I processed, but they slid down to the point that their “shoulders” could be seen just starting to come out of the bottom of the cone.

Other pros: Doesn’t have sharp edges like other brands. Has 2 holes (one about an inch above the other) from which to hang it, giving it more stability. Con: I can see a little rust starting at the seem where the rivets or whatever they are hold it together, but I do live in a humid area.

This is made out of strong material, best I’ve ever seen. Perfect size for 8 1/2 pound cornish rock chickens. Size L. I highly recommend this poultry cone !!!!! We tried another brand and it was too long and narrow.

YARDBIRD is the best !!.

A bit pricey but they are very good quality. The sizes run large. We bought a large and our heritage chickens are a bit small. Large would work better for 8lb chickens, turkey etc. if you are just doing average size chickens I would get the medium.

This machine is tremendous. First use was packaging 1,300 brats. There was no blow-back and the can was basically empty when the plunger was all the way to the bottom. The variable speed made it very easy to get the correct size brat and the automatic back-off when you released the pedal was a nice feature.

Just used it again this weekend to package 50 pounds worth of summer sausage and again, it worked great. Clean-up and use is simple. After reading other reviews, I am concerned about the durability but at this point, I would recommend 100%.

This machine works great when it’s not breaking itself. And what I mean by that is the limit switches don’t always stop the gears from going up or down so they overextend themselves and when they do there’s a loud bang and it snaps the gears off.

The first sausage stuff I had I had for two or three days it overextended itself and broke the new one I’ve had for 2 years cuz I now know to hit the off button when it starts doing it but this time it was reversing back to the open position and the limit switch didn’t shut it off and bang snapped another gear.

For a machine that’s $899 you think there would be some quality control but obviously there is not when the machine literally destroys itself.

The machines is not worth the money. Seller don’t want to refund the money and want to solve the the problem over email. See below. The proble does not seem easy to resolve because the feed screw/augers is to long and is pushing the cutting blade to far forward, to where it is pushing up against the plates.

Since that is happening there are metal shavings once you turn it on and use it. Note we have not used it to grind meat yet, we just turned it on to test it.

It is hard to clean because you can not take the end off but does the job well. Grinned a whole deer faster than anything I have ever used before. Very convenient and efficient. Gave to husband as a Xmas gift and he is happily pleased.

I got my Maxvac 500 this past fall when the garden was still producing a lot. I started out running the LEM bags, freezing garden produce like frozen green beans and squash, but then moved on to another brand of bags off the internet.

For the note, I am comparing this to a foodsaver that I’ve used for the past 8 years. GENERAL: This is not a huge deal, but it’s got a 60Hz buzz going on. Sometimes I just tap it with my hand, other times I put something under one of the four legs and it goes away.

It can get really annoying. I’m guessing its a loose wire or something, but I’m not sure. SEALING: With both brands of bags so far, I’ve consistently needed to seal them twice. as when I started out with the LEM bags, the first one didn’t always seal it well enough.

This is true whether I am making the first seal to close off the roll for the bottom of the bag as well as the vacuum and seal operation. It is especially true when I have a lot of liquid in the bags.

VACUUM: During the vacuum and seal operation, the vacuum works really fast. I suppose that’s good. but its kind of not, at least when I’m trying to squeeze all of the air out of the bags that is trapped in pockets between pieces of meat or something like that.

We can blame the bags if we want, since their not LEM. but I’m not sure if that’s 100% fair. I’ve done 4 deer this year and on numerous occasions I noticed more air in the bag than I was used to with the food saver.

which causes me to be at least a little more worried about freezer burn. Now for the category of “Things that would have been nice to include in the design that I didn’t realize weren’t there till after I started using it.

” On more delicate items, like bread or dehydrated burger (for taking backpacking for example), if you let it run the full cycle, you’ll end up with a hole in your bag and it will defeat the whole point.

It would have been really nice if this expensive machine had a normal and slow operating speed. I figured out I can push seal sooner while it’s pulling a vacuum, so while I’m sure I can play around with it and get it to work (i hope), it’s a little frustrating.

When you’re sealing the bag for the first time, it’s easy to lock the handle down, push the button and then forget about it. It would have been really nice if there was some type of sound it made when it was finished.

My old food saver would automatically clamp down on it, seal and then release it. I could hear when it was done. with this one, don’t get distracted! All said and done, I really wanted to like this a lot more than I do.

I’m really hoping it lasts me many years. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to say I regret this purchase. For the price, it’s too expensive to not last me the next 10-15 years. I guess I was just hoping that I’d be twice as happy with this vs.

the food sealer I had. It’s just not the case.

This is a great product and does exactly what it says, and enabled us to go on holiday for the first time in 3 years. Our only frustration was a repeated ‘door error’ with our Green Frog/Nestera hutch, installed exactly as instructed.

However, after a call to ChickenGaurd it transpires that the auto calibration is only designed for straight up and down doors not the guillotine type on our hutch. Once we manually calibrated the door it worked perfectly.

I’ve only had this a few days but found it very easy to fit. One suggestion though – I armed myself with the paper instructions and the You Tube video having had other door openers in the past but actually found the easiest way was just to press the buttons when it offered me Auto Set Up Wizard on the digital display.

I’m no tech expert 67 and pretty useless my sons say! but actually I managed it quite easily without all the various instructions just by trial and error. I found the You tube video useful at first maybe try the set up wizard first for the programming.

I bought this to control the coop door whilst I was away for a few days, and neighbours were looking after my chickens. It fitted to the coop fairly easily, and the instructions were straightforward.

However it didn’t have enough power to raise the plywood door. I tried replacing the door with a lighter piece of wood, but still no luck. It raised it a few inches, and then the string unwound and it closed up again.

I ended up having to disassemble the ChickenGuard unit and discoverEd that the grub screw that fastens the spindle to the motor was incorrectly fitted. Fixing this resulted in the unit working correctly.

5/5 for what the unit does, 1/5 for the manufacturers quality control, so a 3 on average.

Worked like a champ. Cant believe all these years I was hand cranking. Would recommend to anyone who processes their own meat and mkes their own sausage

The large cone the birds would slide their legs down to their breast and their necks were not long enough to get to the bottom, I would have to reach up inside , pull down the neck to make the cut. Maybe tiring the feet and hooking them to a screw would work better but with the Cornish cross they just arent long enough.

I also purchased the medium cone and it was more like a small, to small for my Cornish cross, they jumped themselves out of it. I did like the edges being finished so we did not cut ourselves on them.

I recently started raising my own chickens for meat and eggs. So far only roosters are making it to the stew pot. New to culling and was looking for a better way that would be quick and less traumatic for my birds and myself.

This cone has definitely helped quite a bit. Chickens don’t fight so much,its much cleaner as they are not bleeding out on the ground. I still have a way to go with getting used to raising my own meat animals especially when it comes to the slaughter part.

But, this cone has definitely made it much easier. Just make sure that you have a really sharp knife when you start cutting. To make the whole process as quick as possible. Thank You!.

Our Cornish X birds average dressed weight is between 5 and 7 pounds depending on if they are male or female. The birds fit nicely in this cone. I am able to grab the head and pull it down with little effort giving ample room for knife work.

I recommend this for birds of that type. Sorry, I do not know their live weight.

I have 2 and now ordering a 3rd for my 3rd coop. Had 2 over a year now. Only issue I have is operator error at daylight savings, as I have mine programmed manually by time set. not by daylight sensor as run is covered and girls coops are placed one in trees and one open yard with more light.

They work great. The 1 star review on here I believe got a defective unit. It happens. Sorry. I Love my auto doors. If I sleep in on the weekend or someone is watching them on vacation, the girls can still get locked in at night or let out in the am to run around and wait for me.

Love my Brisnea auto doors!.

First, Chewy has been great about replacing the product. I’m still waiting to see what Brinsea does. The first door and opener kit I received would not work. From the start , which meant the door was in closed position, it said it was blocked and would not open.

I reprogrammed it according to directions and restarted it several times and nothing changed. Chewy immediately sent a replacement. That door opener worked immediately except it opens correctly in the morning and then closes at some point within the next few hours.

It closes properly at night after I’ve manually reopened it in the afternoon. It faces east and it’s in direct sun when it closes during the day so should not be triggered by a sudden light change. I’ve contacted Brinsea about it.

They responded and said a technician would get back with me. This is a great idea and I love that it closes them in safely at night but I’m not a fan of having to manually reopen the door at midday with my birds locked out.

This automatic door is very nice! The measuring to install to the coop was a little tricky in making sure everything was square. We did eventually get it! It is a good piece of mind to know that my chickens are safe.

The features for open/close time are very handy. It is also quiet and does not scare my girls at all!.