Insights & Education
A Brief History of the Featherman Plucker
It all started in 1994 with a reluctant “yes.”
My beef and lamb customers had been asking for chickens for years. I knew the pastured poultry model, but no one in our area wanted to raise them. Finally, I ordered 100 chicks, built a small pen, and scrounged for used equipment. At the close-out sale of the last poultry processor in the area, I picked up crates, a big drum-roller tabletop plucker, and two large aluminum scald pots. Using a fiberglass scalder with electric elements, I began my education in poultry processing. Selling the birds? That part was easy.
Scaling Up — and Hitting Roadblocks
The next year, I found a hatchery offering a great discount on 1,000 birds. I called half a dozen friends from my Green Hills Farm Project grazer’s group and a few neighbors. Just like that, we had a co-op.
We built pens, drove five hours to buy a large stainless steel plucker for $750, made our own dunking setup, got a grant for a mobile processing unit, and spent hours putting the pieces together.
I raised beautiful birds and shared processing duties, but the “mobile” unit wasn’t so mobile—it needed a 220V hookup and traveled poorly. My big plucker struggled with small batches. The homemade scalder couldn’t keep up, with temperatures swinging wildly. Lifting eight birds at a time was a workout, and the dunking motor needed help to finish the job. The romance wore off quickly, and most families dropped out despite strong sales and happy customers.
Our farm stuck with it—processing 160 birds a day with two people, from sunrise until early afternoon. By the end, we were exhausted, and I knew there had to be a better way.
The Amish Innovation
That better way came through my Amish butcher, Ernie Kauffman. After looking at expensive commercial equipment together, Ernie built the first homemade tub-style plucker to replace his drum-roller model. It worked so well that I drafted and mailed out plans—many still in use today. An inventive friend, Kenny King, saw the design and went on to create the Jako line of tub pluckers and scalders. Another build from Ernie’s plans inspired the 2003 book Anyone Can Build a Mechanical Tub-Style Chicken Plucker.
From Hong Kong Inspiration to the Featherman Plucker
In 1999, I visited Hong Kong’s massive farmer’s market, where thousands of chickens were processed daily and sold from tiny stalls—each with its own two-bird plucker, a miniature version of mine.
Through some hair-raising negotiations, I imported a container of these small pluckers, branded as the Featherman Jr., and sold out within a year. But importing was a headache. So, with an Amish neighbor, I redesigned and manufactured a better machine: the Featherman Plucker.
Every feature reflects decades of lessons learned—built for efficiency, durability, and long-term value.
I hope your journey with poultry is as rewarding as mine has been.
David Schafer
Founder & Owner of Featherman Equipment
Want to Try a Featherman Plucker?
The Featherman Plucker is our most-rented piece of poultry processing equipment—often as part of a complete processing setup. Renting is a great way to see the difference it makes before investing in your own.
Benefits of Renting a Featherman Plucker:
- Affordable start – Process like a pro without buying right away.
- Proven results – Get clean, consistent plucking in a fraction of the time.
- Local connections – Many rentals come from nearby farmers in our network.
👉 Join our rental network to find a Featherman Plucker near you—or share yours with others and earn extra income.