Homemade down pillows/blankets?

[Bettacreek]

I'm assuming that somebody has had to of made their own down pillow or blanket on here. So, want to share your experiences? I'm getting quail in, and going to be dressing some of them and I want to use as much of them as possible, plus, we could always use another down pillow or two. I'm wondering, do you only use the breast feathers, or can you use all of the fluffy feathers, like ones on the back? How do you sterilize them? Any input would be appreciated.

My current plan is to boil the birds to de-feather them, then pull the feathers, boil the feathers that I plan to use (to sterilize them), then put them into a strainer to drain them completely, fluffing them around if need be. After they're completely dry, voila, just make a pillow and stuff, or make a blanket and stuff. Sound reasonable?

 

[MissPrissy]

Birds that small boiling them will cook the skin and cause it to tear away and you won't only get feathers. You can easily dry pluck them.

The only down I have considered harvesting is from my geese.

 

[Bettacreek]

Hmm. Guess I should look for a guide for butchering quail instead of chickens then huh? Lol. Thanks, you probably saved me one heck of a mess.

 

[smom1976]

Quote:
a lot of comforters advertise goose down.. if you "have" to get quail I would get the colorfull ones then use the feathers for decorating.. some quail have very bright colorfull feathers..

 

[Bettacreek]

I guess the larger the feathers, the better the down, goose down being the best (besides eiderduck), then duck, then chicken, etc. The grade goes down as the size of the bird goes down. But, the older the specimen, the better the down. Apparantly, a juvie goose's down would be a lesser quality than a fully mature duck's. Weird, useless knowledge, lol.
But, for being maybe $1 for fabric, I can handle a lesser quality feather pillow.

I definately plan on making crafts with the other feathers. I've made a few peace pipes when I was younger, and I'd love to make them again, plus other Native American crafts (I'm not Native American, but hubby and the kiddo are partially, and I've always been into that kind of thing). Crafting sure beats just throwing them all away. Though, in the spring, I guess you can actually toss them out onto the lawn and let other birds use them to pack their nests.