My 15-year-old son, Robert, told me he wants to make money selling something on the internet. I suggested that he could start by selling rubber plucker fingers to people who want to build their own Whizbang mechanical chicken plucker.
He was receptive to the idea. So we opened a checking account, a PayPal account, bought a pad of invoices, and ordered several thousand brand-spanking-new, Kent C-25 medium-durometer-hardness rubber plucker fingers.
Robert invested a few hundred dollars of his own hard-earned money and I gave him a loan for the balance. I will also be guiding him through the process, making sure he gets his orders properly processed and mailed out quickly. This will be an educational experience as much as a business enterprise.
The above photo shows Robert in my shop with some of his plucker finger inventory. The fingers come from the factory in boxes like shown on the left side of the picture. Robert has a “counting thing” he made. It is a board with 25 holes in it. When the holes are filled, he transfers the fingers to a plastic bag (also seen in the photo). Such a system insures that 25 fingers go in every bag, every time.
You can also see several Priority Mail boxes in the photo. Those boxes are already packed with 125 fingers and ready to ship. 125 fingers are needed to make a Whizbang Plucker.
The above photo is a close-up of the Kent C-25 fingers.
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UPDATE: July 2010
In the last three and a half years since I wrote this post, Robert has sold well over a hundred thousand fingers. The little enterprise really took off and he has done well at it. Robert's plucker finger business has now merged with Planet Whizbang, our family business. Please go to THIS LINK to purchase plucker fingers.
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P.S. If you have not yet read the following poultry-related essays, I invite you to do so:
My Whizbang Plucker Story
My Chicken Plucker Parts Business
The Next Best Thing To A Whizbang Chicken Plucker
Frequently Asked Questions About The Whizbang Plucker
Introducing My Deluxe Homemade Chicken Scalder
Backyard Poultry Processing With My 11-year-Old Son
How To Butcher A Chicken
Talkin’ Bout My Chicken Tractors
Talkin' Bout My Chicken Tractor (Part 2)
Getting Started With Turkeys
Turkeys in Tractors & Comfrey For Feed
FREE Chicken Feed
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7 comments:
Go Robert! I hope your business is a great success. Your father certainly has you on the right track!
Best wishes.
Most excellent! Good luck with your new business and keep on plucking!
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in Vermont
I ordered some fingers from Robert on a Friday and received them here in Northern Michigan the next Monday! That's the way to keep your customers happy, young Mr. Kimball.
Thanks again and you definitely get two thumbs up from me.
Hi Robert, I came across your blog while looking for info on chicken pluckers.
We are a rubber manufacturer, and we are currently supplying chicken plucker to some commercial chicken dressing companies.
Maybe you will be interested on us supplying your requirements.
Regards,
Richard Fernandez
eighton2004@yahoo.com
What is the hole size these fit into? I need those that fit a 7/8" hole. And what are the length of these, the ones I need to replace are 5 1/2" total length.
Thanks
I am a new chicken farmer in Zibabwe doing about one hundred chickens weekly in my backyard.
Pluckers are not available in my country and importing one will be costly for my small operation.
I have an agricultural engineering background and a small workshop-therefore building my own will be the best way forward.
Could I have help in importing the spares and fingers from you.
I am on hmudzamba@gmail.com
Herbert
Herbert,
Go to PluckerFingers.com
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