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August 1941. "Electric plucker removes every pin feather without a tear in the skin. 500 to 1,000 birds could be plucked in a day by this method. Enterprise co-op cannery. Coffee County, Enterprise, Alabama." Photo by John Collier, Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Born in Germany in 1895, she came to USA around 1900. Around 1910 or so she had a job plucking chickens. She was paid 5 cents per bird.
If Stephen King ever saw this, he'd write "The Haunted Chicken Plucker." Looks deadly. I wouldn't go near it for all the money in the world.
That guy with the hat is, I suppose, some kind of supervisor. He's the essence of scowling authority and intimidation. I suppose his job at this chicken-plucking outfit was the height of his career. (And what is that in his shirt pocket? A deck of cards?) I hope the poor kid went on to become governor or something.
I would have taken him to school for show-and-tell day. And because boys are gross, I would have later told everyone the chickens were still alive.
Pennsylvannia Proud, you'd have my best friend in complete agreement with you. Upon getting out of the army during the late sixties, he found a job preparing fowl for market in the San Francisco Bay Area. When his job application for work at a GM plant came through a couple of months later he jumped ship without any notice. And, to his dying day he'd never eat a piece of chicken again. Couldn't even stand in the same room with a raw one. I miss him.
Chicken wouldn't be on the menu at my house ever again.
Whose skin? I bet they were hustling along to finish plucking before the OSHA inspectors showed up.
If this job is anything beyond than your very first minimum wage job, you're outlook is not good at all. "All signs point to No."
I wonder if the galvanized can (lower right) is used for storing the occasional plucked arm from a distracted worker?
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