It was like an industrial laundry extractor, with a door on the drum. It had
holes punched all over the sides of the drum, that had raised edges on the
inside. It would spin at high speed, scrubbing the feathers off. After a set
period of time, the drum would stop suddenly. As it did this, a door on the
side popped open, ejecting the chickens. The top of the drum was open, and
had a suction hose to remove the feathers.

Steve R.


"Ignoramus29705" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 14 May 2006 23:05:50 -0700, Steve R. wrote:
So here is how they did it at a local packing house:

There was an endless cable with W shaped holders that ran from the
loading
area to the de-feathering machine. Several men removed the live chickens
from cages on a truck, and hung them by their feet in the Ws. When about
20
chickens were loaded, the cable started moving. Their heads were dragged
over a shocking device that stunned the birds, and then passed over a
concrete pad, where a man sitting on a chair, cut their throats. After
that
a hole saw in a hand drill was used to cut a circle around each birds
anus,
and the guts were suctioned out. On to a wheel knife the cut the feet off
over the de-feathering machine, which then spat them out into a vat of
cold
water. two people then fed them into a machine that band sawed them into
7
pieces, and ejected them into plastic bags for freezing.

Steve, do you know how that de-feathering machine worked?

i