How to use the whole animal (waste not want not)

[triplepurpose]

Yeah even the commercial feathers must be scolded off the animals... This definitely warrants a little bit of research...

There scalded...
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4359e/y4359e0c.htm

That is a great link! Thanks @hennible !

Very good to know they are scalded for commercial production. So now I can just continue doing things as I have been doing.

Oh, interesting!

I was just repeating what I'd read about needing to dry pluck in order to use the down. I always assumed it had something to do with the heat/water destroying the delicate structure of the down--but perhaps not.

But I also always imagined that using scalded feathers would result in somewhat stinky down products (ie, immersed in water with traces of blood, fecal matter, dirt, etc). I know my own scalding pot sure never looks or smells like something I'd want my pillow soaked in--unless it was washed well after! Yet that article doesn't seem to mention any kind of cleaning process, only the drying. So I'm a little confused about that...

 

[hennible]

I like to wash my feathers inside a pillowcase tied up tight in my washing machine works like a hot darn... Then I toss them in the dryer, Nice and fresh and I'm done.

 

[vehve]

I throw our down blanket in the washer and drier all the time, it still works fine. So I don't see why the scalding would do anything to the warming properties.

 

[MuskokaMaiden]

I was processing my own birds for the 1st time this year so welcomed the help of a friend. He, as a self-proclaimed Vietnamise Redneck, is an avid hunter with the experience I was lacking. Between some cultural delicacies, my boring tastes & his bear bait bucket no tidbit went to waste. Some of the feathers now adorn the hats at my father's shop while others are being made into earrings & dream catchers by a crafty pal, fishing lures by a co-worker & stuffing for blankets being made by a church group to be sent abroad. I didn't even end up with anything for the garden. :/

 

[bamadude]

When the wind was blowing just right...we chunked a week old deer carcass into a fire...my neighbor has a crazy looking buck toothed wife....she was scaring all the kids getting off the school bus. We never saw her or her buck teeth again

 

[hennible]

bama that's... I don't know.

I was processing my own birds for the 1st time this year so welcomed the help of a friend. He, as a self-proclaimed Vietnamise Redneck, is an avid hunter with the experience I was lacking. Between some cultural delicacies, my boring tastes & his bear bait bucket no tidbit went to waste. Some of the feathers now adorn the hats at my father's shop while others are being made into earrings & dream catchers by a crafty pal, fishing lures by a co-worker & stuffing for blankets being made by a church group to be sent abroad. I didn't even end up with anything for the garden. :/

Nothing for the garden is nice once and while. Glad so many help make such good use of the birds.

 

[bamadude]

Love thy neighbor

 

[hennible]

I suppose you did him a favor

 

[perchie.girl]

I was processing my own birds for the 1st time this year so welcomed the help of a friend. He, as a self-proclaimed Vietnamise Redneck, is an avid hunter with the experience I was lacking. Between some cultural delicacies, my boring tastes & his bear bait bucket no tidbit went to waste. Some of the feathers now adorn the hats at my father's shop while others are being made into earrings & dream catchers by a crafty pal, fishing lures by a co-worker & stuffing for blankets being made by a church group to be sent abroad. I didn't even end up with anything for the garden.

Wow I LOVE your avatar....

Welcome aboard

from the San Diego High desert.

deb

 

[hennible]

Just saw another use for guts and feathers in another thread. Feed it all to your solider fly larva (if you have them). Talk about the circle of life.