Semi-automatic Duck Slaughtering Line

Applications:

Poultry Processing Plants in emerging and mid-scale markets

Meat Processing Workshops with limited labor or infrastructure

Investors and entrepreneurs launching new duck meat production lines

Typical Capacity:

Processing Capacity: 500–6000 birds per hour (customizable)

Suitable for:

Broiler ducks (Peking duck, Muscovy duck, Cherry Valley duck)

Native ducks and specialty waterfowl (depending on configuration)

Product types enabled:

Whole carcass (fresh/chilled/frozen)

Duck parts (breast, leg, wings, back)

By-products: heart, liver, gizzard, feet, intestines, head

Processed meat (when combined with further processing equipment)

Main System and Equipment Components:

1) Live Birds Receiving & Transportation Section

● Bird Crate Unloading Platform

A robust stainless steel platform and sliding way designed to safely receive poultry crates from transport vehicles. The platform height aligns with truck beds for smooth crate transfer and minimal manual handling.

● Live Bird Conveyor System

Live birds crates are gently conveyed from the unloading area to the hanging station using a belt-type or roller-type conveyor. This helps maintain bird orientation and reduces panic, bruising, or injury during handling.

● Hanging Station

Skilled operators manually hang birds by their legs onto the shackles of the overhead conveyor. The ergonomic workstation is designed for operator comfort and efficiency, minimizing stress on both workers and poultry.

● Crate Washing Machine

It is a specialized cleaning machine designed to sanitize poultry transport crates efficiently and thoroughly. After each cycle of live bird delivery, crates often become heavily soiled with feathers, feces, and other contaminants. This machine ensures hygienic reuse of crates, reducing the risk of cross-contamination and helping poultry processors comply with biosecurity and food safety standards.

2) Slaughtering and Defeathering section

● Overhead Conveyor System

The overhead conveyor is the backbone of the poultry processing line, responsible for transporting live birds and carcasses through each processing stage, ensures smooth, continuous movement, stainless steel structure with adjustable speed drive.

● Electric Stunning Machine

This machine humanely stuns birds before slaughter, ensuring compliance with animal welfare standards. Adjustable Voltage & Frequency for different poultry sizes and species. Equipped with water bath and current controller for precise stunning. Reduces bird stress and ensures effective bleeding.

● Bleeding Trough & Blood Transportation Pump

A hygienic solution for collecting and transporting blood after slaughter. SUS304 stainless steel Bleeding Trough with slope design for fast drainage, compatible with hand-cut processes. Blood transportation pump delivers collected blood to designated storage or treatment tanks, maintains sanitary working conditions and facilitates waste management.

● Scalding Machine

It is an essential component for effective feather removal, using hot water and air agitation to loosen feathers uniformly. Equipped with automatic temperature control system with digital display and thermostat. High efficient air agitation system enhances scalding efficiency by circulating water around carcasses.

● Plucking Machine

Vertical A-frame design rotary pluckers with multiple rotating discs for fast and effective feather removal. Durable and replaceable rubber plucking fingers, designed to minimize carcass damage. High plucking rate and performance with minimal residual feathers. Suitable for broilers, layers, native chickens defeathering depending on different configuration.

3) Waxing, Cooling and De-waxing Section

This process is essential for high-quality duck carcass finishing, especially for Peking ducks and meat ducks with fine, stubborn feathers.

The extra process called wax dipping and de-waxing is often used for duck and goose defeathering since their feathers are more difficult to remove. After feather plucking, the carcasses are dipped in melted wax, which is allowed to harden and then can be peeled away together with the feathers at the same time by machine. The wax is reheated and the feathers are filtered out so that the wax can be reused. This process is usually performed several times for the best defeathering result according to different processing capacity.

● Wax Dipping Tank

Ducks are dipped into melted paraffin wax after plucking, a thin layer of wax coats the skin and traps remaining pinfeathers. Enhances defeathering quality by removing down and fine hair. Stainless steel tank with steam heating, equipped with wax melting system and temperature controller, optional head-reverser to prevent wax from entering the duck's nostrils.

● Wax Cooling Tank

Carcasses are submerged in cool water tank for 2-3 minutes to harden wax and wax adheres firmly to feathers and fine hair. Ensures consistent and complete wax solidification, prepares for efficient and clean wax removal in the next stage.

● De-waxing Machine (Wax Peeling Machine)

Carcasses pass through the rotating rollers with rubber fingers, hardened wax along with attached fine feathers is peeled off completely. Equipped with automatic wax separation system, high-efficiency wax removal without damaging the skin. Wax can be filtered, recycled, and reused to reduce cost.

4) Further Defeathering Section

● Pulling duck tongues

After the waxing process is completed, the duck tongues need to be pulled out with disinfected needle-nosed pliers. The pulled duck tongue should be placed in a special container for storage.

● Pulling small feathers

After feathering and 3-4 waxing processes, the feathers on the duck's body seems to have completely fallen off, but some small feathers deep in the body surface are still not removed. At this time, manual defeathering in a sink by mainly tweezers is required. Because only in water can the small feathers on the duck's body stand up and be seen more clearly.

5) Evisceration Section

After the duck is in place of evisceration section, the staffs cut open the duck's chest and then take out the duck intestines, gizzards, esophagus, duck heart and liver, lard, lungs, trachea and other internal organs in turn. After evisceration, duck carcasses must be cleaned inside and out with spraying water until there is no visible dirt on the surface of the carcasses.

● Evisceration Trough (Manual)

Operator platform for gutting and viscera removal with manual tools or semi-automatic evisceration tools, comes with water spray cleaning systems, waste collection or vacuum transportation for further separated processing.

● Automatic Feet Cutter

This machine automatically cuts off duck feet at the ankle joint, ensuring clean separation and uniform results.

● By-product Processing: Heart, Liver, Gizzard & Feet  

Efficient by-product processing adds significant value to poultry slaughtering operations by enabling the collection, cleaning, and preparation of edible parts such as hearts, livers, gizzards, feet, intestines etc..

● Gizzard Grease Removing and Peeling Machine

Removes internal contents and peels the inner yellow skin for a clean, finished product.

● Heart & Liver Washing Machine

Uses water agitation or rotary drums to remove blood and impurities, preparing the products for packaging or chilling.

● Feet Processing Line

Duck feet (paws) are highly valued in export markets, especially in China, where strict standards for cleanliness and appearance are required. It consists of Feet Scalding & Peeling Machine, Feet Washing Machine or Feet Screw Pre-chilling Machine, Feet Sorting & Grading Machine, Feet Packaging Machine etc.

● Duck Intestines Cleaning Machine

The duck intestine cleaning machine cleans the intestines by rotating and beating the drum. There are turning plates and stirring columns inside the drum, which can continuously turn the intestines, imitating manual rubbing and cleaning. The drum is equipped with a high-pressure spray device, and the drum wall is equipped with drainage holes and anti-slip devices. The cleaning water in the drum generates vortexes through the rotating drum, which cleans the duck intestines in the drum, and the sewage is discharged from the drum and flows into the sewage collection tank. The alternating use of normal temperature water + hot alkaline water has a better cleaning effect.

These by-product processing systems can be integrated into your semi-automatic or fully automatic slaughtering line to create a complete and profitable poultry processing solution.

6) Pre-chilling Section

● Spiral Water Chiller

The spiral water chiller is designed for rapid and uniform cooling of whole duck carcasses after evisceration. It uses a spiral screw and chilled water to ensure proper carcasses core temperature reduction before further processing.

Efficient Cooling: Reduces carcass temperature to below 4°C within 60 minutes.

Spiral Conveyor Design: Ensures even movement and full immersion.

Adjustable Chilling Time: Matches different processing speeds.

Benefits: Improves meat quality, reduces bacterial growth, and prepares products for grading or packaging.

7) Whole Carcass Sorting & Packaging Section

● Whole Duck Weighing and Sorting Machine

The whole Duck weighing and sorting machine is a high-efficiency automated system designed to weigh and sort whole duck carcasses into specific weight categories, optimizing packaging and ensuring consistency in product presentation.

Automatic Weighing: Uses high-precision electronic scales to weigh each carcass accurately as it moves through the conveying system.

Pneumatic Sorting: Once weighed, duck carcasses are sorted into predefined weight classes via automated sorting mechanisms.

Adjustable Weight Grades: Customizable sorting criteria to meet varying customer specifications and market requirements.

Speed and Capacity: Capable of handling up to 6000 birds per hour, ensuring high throughput for large-scale operations.

Real-Time Monitoring: Equipped with a digital display for real-time weight data and performance monitoring.

● Whole Duck Packaging Machine

Various Packaging Options: Supports various packaging formats, including vacuum packaging, shrink-wrapping, or tray packing.

High-Speed Operation: Ensures fast, efficient packaging for up to 6000 birds per hour.

Enhanced Efficiency: Fully automated system reduces labor costs and processing time.

Customizable Packaging: Flexibility to meet different packaging requirements and market standards.

This system can be tailored to fit the capacity and specific requirements of your poultry processing operation, optimizing product handling, sorting, and packaging efficiency.

8) Cutting Section

The cutting of duck carcasses mainly involves segmenting and deboning the meat duck carcasses according to the processing order. They are usually divided into duck heads, duck necks, duck wings, duck feet, etc. The process flow is as follows: hanging ducks carcasses → cutting duck tails → cutting both sides → cutting backs → cutting breast and wings → scraping small meat → cutting soft muscle bones → cutting legs → cutting long skin → cutting necks → removing necks. After the carcass is portioned, it must be weighed and packaged. The packaged products must be promptly put into -35℃ warehouses for quick freezing, and the chilled products must be stored in -18℃ warehouses.

Optional Equipment:

● Overhead Conveying Line

● Belt Conveyors for smooth product transfer

● Cutting Tables and Cutters

● Pneumatic Scissors or Portioning Devices for increased efficiency

● Integrated Weighing and Sorting Machines for portioned parts

This cutting process can be scaled and configured according to production capacity and product types, forming a key part of an integrated poultry processing solution. Contact us freely if you need a complete offer and solution with diagrams, equipment lists, or layout planning!