My dad taught me how to do that back when we were raising [prairie] chickens for food.
If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to read what follows. Consider yourself warned.
(http://lydiahartsell.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/thanksgiving-tz-019.jpg)
First you run a loop of twine around their scrawny necks, then you tie them down to a wood block or stump between a couple of nails. Bash the skull of the [prairie] chicken with a hammer, then suspend them from the chicken wire fence to "drain". Drawing the carcasses through boiling water makes the skin release the feathers: plucking takes less than a minute using this method. Then it's lop the head, the feet, and gut the carcass, and voila, your whole fryer is ready for bagging and freezing, until Sunday supper.