Anyone do stuff with their geese flight feathers?

[skeeeter]

I always first dry pick my ducks and geese, to get the soft feathers and down to put in my "feather sack" before dunking and swishing them around in their "hot bath" to get off the hard feathers. That works best for me. I read in an old book that scalded feathers are poorer quality. Ahh and @SourRoses , you can use feathers from Dominiques, Orpingtons, and Rocks for stuffing, too.

 

[SourRoses]

I always first dry pick my ducks and geese, to get the soft feathers and down to put in my "feather sack" before dunking and swishing them around in their "hot bath" to get off the hard feathers. That works best for me. I read in an old book that scalded feathers are poorer quality. Ahh and @SourRoses , you can use feathers from Dominiques, Orpingtons, and Rocks for stuffing, too.

Oh really? Interesting! I have Orpington blood in my breeding project and have certainly eyed their downy feathers greedily, but I thought the quills still looked quite pokey. Any of them we've lost has been so heartbreaking they got burials.
How do you extract the downy feathers with the big ones still on top?

 

[skeeeter]

Well, most all waterfowl breast, back and neck feathers are soft enough for stuffing, except Muscovies have a row of harder feathers down each side of the breast. After first plucking the soft ones, I reach up under those harder ones and pluck out the down.
With hens, it would probably best to scald and pick, then wash and dry the feathers to see if that would softed the quill tips. Snipping those tips off does seem like an activity for a boring rainy day.