EVALUATION OF A MODIFIED CHICKEN DE-FEATHERING MACHINE
Poultry is a domestic fowl reared for the production of eggs, meats and feathers. Consumption of poultry birds as a source of protein is on the increase due to the increase in world population. De-feathering of birds is one process which is time consuming and hectic. It is a process of removing the feather from birds and this is commonly done manually which results in waste of time and low output. Development of a poultry de-feathering machine is a process of producing a mechanical device for removing feathers from scalded birds. This study focuses on evaluation of a modified poultry de-feathering machine in order to improve the performance and efficiency of the machine. The machine consists of rubber tyre which do the actual plucking of the feathers. The de-feathering efficiency of the modified machine was found to be 95.65%. It was recommended that plastic should be used for the drum and wood for the sitting frame in order to reduce cost of production and subsequent de-feathering machine should be designed such that it can be powered by solar energy since electricity is unreliable and the cost of fuel is substantially high.
Authors : M. S. Abubakar, A. S. Muhammad and A. O. Salihu
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 4(1) Date Uploaded : 9th October 2018