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Post by puckhead on Aug 9, 2011 8:15:32 GMT -5
I have a backyard flock and my rooster needs to go. I would love to use some of his feathers for a variety of flies. Can anyone direct me to a good website, or tell me the best way to pluck the best feathers? He has some beautiful feathers. I am not going to sell them to a beauty shop! Although, I did think about it. Thanks, Tim
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Post by DaveSiejka on Aug 9, 2011 8:37:10 GMT -5
you may want to skin it, clean the meat off the skin and use borox to dry the skin out. Loose feathers are a pain, and keeping them on the skin (like a saddle hackle, or cape would come packaged) might be the best way to do it. Then when you need a feather for a fly, you can pick it out.
Thats how I would do it ....... jus' sayin
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Post by NickConwall on Aug 9, 2011 10:13:06 GMT -5
I second Dave's idea.... I've tried plucking and you end up with a bag or box filled with mixed up feathers that over time will end up smelling funky as well as all tangled and roughed up. I would skin it and try to do it not very long after you 'cleanly' (the below website tells how) harvest the bird so the skin will come off alot easier & cleaner. I found one website globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/chickens/ which gives some advice on how to section off for cutting and then how to prepare/preserve the skin. It's not the best & gets into ethics and all that but I just found the section on how to cut for the neck and saddle feathers useful. As for preserving the skin there are alot of sites & ways out there on how to do that; My only advice would be to before you preserve it make sure you get as much of the "bird" off the skin by gently scraping it away before you continue on. Good Luck & Take your time.
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Post by johnjarosz(jj) on Aug 9, 2011 16:34:18 GMT -5
...and when you store them, keep them in an airtight box with either a urinal cake or moth flakes; not the moth balls but the moth flakes.
there was a thread here a couple of years ago about keeping the bugs, mites, and any other really small critters from eating up your feathers. moth balls will kill almost all the little mites except for two or three different types. The cakes & flakes have a compound that the balls don't have & will kill those last remaining types.
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