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

Used it to process 80 birds. Easy to set up, clean and move. Worked great and didn’t have an issue with it ripping or destroying the birds. Saved a ton of time. Had each bird plucked in less than 30 sec.

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.

This is a great machine. Sturdy, a bit of work to assemble but worth it. We used it to pluck 11 turkeys and with the help of the previous review everything worked just as planned. Cannot wait to try it on my chickens next year!

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.

Box came damaged with a couple small dents on the barrel. The apparatus itself is great and works as described. Easily plucks 2 chickens at a time, quickly and efficiently. No performance issues. Reccomend for small farmer's who butcher up to 100 per day.