Basically I am trying to find out what it woudl take to make it worthwhile for a few people to save feathers for me.
In short I do not need a lot of anything but more of a little bit of everything for now. I am not broke but am also not rich, I am also only willing to risk so much on this idea. Basically I have a lot of friends that make writing pens using feathers. take a look at my page for a better idea of what I am talking about and examples of feathers used. So what I am trying to do is make it worthwhile to the bird owners to collect and send all types of usable quality feathers to me. Payment, bartering, begging, borrowing, I am not much into stealing though but I do beg really well to make up for it. I am not under any illusions of how much trouble that would be I package and mail things every day. I have no idea how many feathers you all might find laying around and even be able to collect. I have also thought about those that skin their chickens rather than pluck them. even if you pluck them is it feasible to drop the feathers from a bird into a bag or box or does it simply get to messy. feathers can be washed but if they are not reasonable clean they will rot in a matter of days if not hours and be useless.
So far my ideas have ranged from offering payment for loose feathers that you gather up all the way to making an offer for preserved skins to ???? you all tell me what woudl make it worth your while to save feathers from your birds. I need feathers. I do not expect this to ever be a huge market. but for an individual that has a large variety of birds and is willing to go to all the trouble of harvesting feathers from a variety of those birds it could amount to several hundred dollars right off the bat.
I am thinking along the line of 58 varieties of pheasant out there and I could use one skin from each variety. I have no idea how many varieties of chicken are around, but for now I just need a sampling of the feathers from all of them or a skin from each at most.
I am not, repeat not looking for 100 skins from the same type of bird. Right now the pen makers are pretty much limited to fly tying feathers, and I know there are a lot more feathers out there than those that are used for flies.
Any suggestions on how to go about making all this work is appreciated. and don't worry this is not the first time I had most of the group setting in the wings thinking I am crazy. my last crazy idea ran over $15,000, meant doing business with suppliers in India, and took 8 months to complete. And I do this as a hobby, sheesh.
In short I do not need a lot of anything but more of a little bit of everything for now. I am not broke but am also not rich, I am also only willing to risk so much on this idea. Basically I have a lot of friends that make writing pens using feathers. take a look at my page for a better idea of what I am talking about and examples of feathers used. So what I am trying to do is make it worthwhile to the bird owners to collect and send all types of usable quality feathers to me. Payment, bartering, begging, borrowing, I am not much into stealing though but I do beg really well to make up for it. I am not under any illusions of how much trouble that would be I package and mail things every day. I have no idea how many feathers you all might find laying around and even be able to collect. I have also thought about those that skin their chickens rather than pluck them. even if you pluck them is it feasible to drop the feathers from a bird into a bag or box or does it simply get to messy. feathers can be washed but if they are not reasonable clean they will rot in a matter of days if not hours and be useless.
So far my ideas have ranged from offering payment for loose feathers that you gather up all the way to making an offer for preserved skins to ???? you all tell me what woudl make it worth your while to save feathers from your birds. I need feathers. I do not expect this to ever be a huge market. but for an individual that has a large variety of birds and is willing to go to all the trouble of harvesting feathers from a variety of those birds it could amount to several hundred dollars right off the bat.
I am thinking along the line of 58 varieties of pheasant out there and I could use one skin from each variety. I have no idea how many varieties of chicken are around, but for now I just need a sampling of the feathers from all of them or a skin from each at most.
I am not, repeat not looking for 100 skins from the same type of bird. Right now the pen makers are pretty much limited to fly tying feathers, and I know there are a lot more feathers out there than those that are used for flies.
Any suggestions on how to go about making all this work is appreciated. and don't worry this is not the first time I had most of the group setting in the wings thinking I am crazy. my last crazy idea ran over $15,000, meant doing business with suppliers in India, and took 8 months to complete. And I do this as a hobby, sheesh.
