Development and Performance Evaluation of a Poultry Bird De-Feathering Machine

Abstract

Poultry birds de-feathering has a daunting challenge. This study aimed at developing a low cost poultry de-feathering machine (DM) that will promote food hygiene; and the safety of operators. The machine consist of a hard plastic drum on which rubber pluckers were fixed and was powered with a 1.5kW electric motor. The DM was developed according to engineering design and principles. The test was achieved by considering the weight of the poultry birds (PB) before and after the de-feathering process. The de-feathered PB weight; and the time taken to de-feather PB were recorded. The feather was discharged through the DM outlet by gravity and weighed to determine the actual weight of the removed feather. The test was repeated five times and the outcome of the recorded results was presented in graphs and tables. Brown old layers (hens) were used for the machine performance evaluation at 7 different scalding temperatures (50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, and 80) °C. The DM was designed to de-feather 5 hens per batch. From the result obtained, 5 hens with a total average weight of 9.5 kg de-feather in 28 seconds at 92% efficiency average. The force required to de-feather hens decreased with an increase in the scalding temperature. At a scalding temperature >800 C, the bird skin will pill and give it a rough appearance.