Suspended feather picker with rotatable sections

Apparatus for removing feathers from poultry carcasses moved in succession along a predetermined path of travel comprising:

• two banks of pickers for positioning on opposite sides of the path of travel of the poultry carcasses, each bank of pickers including a plurality of rotatable picking disks with flexible fingers extending therefrom toward the path of travel of the poultry carcasses for engaging the carcases and removing feathers from the carcasses,
• a support frame including parallel support beams for extending across an overhead conveyor system and a pair of movable frame members vertically suspended from each support beam for extending downwardly on opposite sides of the path of travel of the poultry carcasses and movable along the lengths of the support beams toward and away from the path of travel of the poultry carcasses, mounting means movably supported on the lower end portion of each movable frame member for supporting at a level below the support beams an end portion of a bank of pickers, means for moving said movable frame members laterally along the lengths of the support beams, means for raising and lowering each said mounting means along its movable frame member, said mounting means on the movable frame members each including means for rotatably supporting the end portion of a bank of pickers about a horizontal axis whereby the banks of pickers are movable with respect to each other between positions where they are in close facing relationship for removing feathers from poultry carcasses and positions where they are spaced apart a distance sufficient to permit each bank of pickers to be rotated approximately 180.degree. about their horizontal axis to face in the direction opposite the path of travel of the poultry carcasses so that the disks and fingers are easy to clean and repair.