Paul Trybul Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 My daughter raises chickens. When she hatches them they typically end up being 50/50 roosters to hens. You only need one rooster for every 10 hens or so which makes the extra roosters expendable. Since I'm not a fly fisherman, I just throw the feathers away after I butcher and pluck. My daughter was telling me that sometimes there are requests from fisherman for chicken feathers on her chicken forum. Yes, just like our forum chicken breeders have a forum too. Should I be savings these feathers? If I brought some to outings or meetings would any of you guys want any? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyvac Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Yes, please bring them. Just don't let any aging rock stars know about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Yes. Thanks for asking. They can be used. The hackles from the neck and saddle are best for flies. So ideally it would be best if you kept them separate from the rest of the feathers. But I wouldn't be choosy about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 There's more. In case you really want to get into the topic, How to Prepare Neck and Saddle Hackles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul F Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 What breed of chickens does she raise? I have 7 plymouth rock chickens, but they are only white... Which means unless I intend to start dying feathers I am limited on colors. Also, most feathers that the birds drop are pretty difficult to work with. I wouldn't deem them unusable though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Trybul Posted July 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 She actually has a variety of breeds. She has mostly polish and bantam breeds like silkes. Some are mixed and those are the ones I end up butchering because they are not show quality. The colors range but mostly blacks, browns and reds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack T Posted July 15, 2011 Report Share Posted July 15, 2011 When my two daughters were members of the local 4 H Club in Lake County, Illinois, I raised Aracucana chickens which originated from Chile in South America, the neck feathers especially from the rooster were prized by a local resident for tying his flies, also the outer shell of the egg that this chicken laid consisted of various colors, besides the regular white and brown shell some eggs had off green,pink and blue shaded hue colored shells together with spots on the outer shell, a study done in Germany many years ago on Araucana chicken revealed that the egg they laid contained more Iron and Vitamin A than the regular chicken egg but it was never determined how this came about even though all the variety chickens under the study were fed the same food, eventually a lady woman doctor living closeby who incidentlly was originally from Germany came out and requested she be able to buy a dozen Araucanas each week, eggs were about 60 cent a dozen at the time, she gladly paid $1/dozen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 When my two daughters were members of the local 4 H Club in Lake County, Illinois, I raised Aracucana chickens which originated from Chile in South America, the neck feathers especially from the rooster were prized by a local resident for tying his flies, also the outer shell of the egg that this chicken laid consisted of various colors, besides the regular white and brown shell some eggs had off green,pink and blue shaded hue colored shells together with spots on the outer shell, a study done in Germany many years ago on Aracucana chicken revealed that the egg they laid contained more Iron and Vitamin A than the regular chicken egg but it was never determined how this came about even though all the variety chickens under the study were fed the same food, eventually a lady woman doctor living closeby who incidentlly was originally from Germany came out and requested she be able to buy a dozen Araucanas each week, eggs were about 60 cent a dozen at the time, she gladly paid $1/dozen. The story behind the Aracucana breed is a classic example of Darwinian survival of the fittest. A group of American adventurers settled in the Aracucana district of Chile around 1850. Since they missed the hunting opportunities they had at home, they introduced many north American game species including notorious egg steeling species like racoons. Over time the Aracucana chickens developed an egg with more iron as an evolutionary response. All that iron made it harder for the racoons to break the eggs. Ta, Dump, Dump! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted July 19, 2011 Report Share Posted July 19, 2011 I say, I say, son that is some mighty interestin' chicken history, ya know my daddy was an Aracucana chicken and he always said...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted July 19, 2011 Report Share Posted July 19, 2011 I say, I say, son that is some mighty interestin' chicken history, ya know my daddy was an Aracucana chicken and he always said...... His hackles are priceless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rich mc Posted July 25, 2011 Report Share Posted July 25, 2011 i was listening to radio host talk about the hair feathers ,a listener called in and said they get glued to the hair and last about a month . rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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