My son would like to find out about how to prepare chicken feathers for fly fishermen that tie their own flies.

He would like to be able to sell the feathers and make some money.

Does anyone have knowledge about anything to do with this?

-- LBD, Maryland (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002

Answers

Have him check out the existing fly tying supplies available, the feathers are pretty specalized and there is some heavy compitishion out there allready. He might make more by selling premade flies.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), February 28, 2002.

if you have a decent fly fishing shop nearby,, ask if they would by the feathers,, clean and dry ,,, seperate differant lengths, and colors,, its hard to make a market for them,, better to find one

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 28, 2002.

Might look at these links:

Florida Fly Fishing, http://www.marco-island-florida.com/don/tying7.htm site about different types of flys.

Fly Tying Article, http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/dentry/0114dentr.shtml on person doing business in this business

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

here are some answers to a similar question I asked a short time back:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0084Yz

my rooster kept his head that day and is still among the living so I can't offer personal experience. I agree with the others that it might be tough to compete commercially but hey, you never know. mitch is right about the specialized nature of the capes. birds are bred to get the ideal stiffness in the hackle. McMurray Hatchery offers a "fly-tier's special". Catalogue #FTSC. my guess is that these birds are chosen more for color and pattern than hackle quality but who knows? with the price of rooster capes being what they are it sure doesn't hurt to try. goodluck and report back!

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/detail.asp? SID=593969&SHD=5&ProductID=611

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

Thank you all for your help. I will check into each of the suggestions. I didn't think about checking for a local fly fishing supplier. There are trout streams in Maryland. We could go hang out at Morgan Run and accost a fly fisherman about his tackle.

We will check back for anymore responses.

-- LBD, Maryland` (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

My ex was/is a fly-fisherman. He made all of his own stuff. The chicken feathers come from very specific breeds of chicken/cocks. L.L. Bean has a fly-fishing cataloge and that should give you some ideas of what you need, name wise. The chickens/cocks are raised to maturity and slautered. The cape is mostly what is used. The ones I have seen have the skin attached and are very expensive. The birds are pampered and well care for. Also Whitetail deer tails are used for very specific flys.

Susan

-- Susan in Minnesota (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), February 28, 2002.

YIKES! If I tell my son about the white tail deer tails, he would be begging me to stop at every dead deer we passed on the side of the road! I'll have to think about that one. LOL!

That's a good idea about the LLBean catalog.

ttfn,

-- LBD, Maryland (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

I was told by a lady who lives in Maine. You don't wash them and jungle fowl which McMurray carries is the type of chicken to go with. Fly fisherman are quite picky I guess! email me privately and I will forward her exact response.

-- Katie S (cashcrop90@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

Check the archives, I responded to someones question on how to preserve a chicken cape for fly tying. Gave information on how to do it.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), February 28, 2002.

I found a really good referance book on hackles "The Metz Book of Hackle" by Eric Lieser. The pub date is 1987 on my copy, so there may be a newer edition out there. The book tells a lot about colors, grading and so on. Going to a good fly tying shop is a good idea, because there are many types of fur and feather used by fly tiers, not to mention yarns and threads. Jacki

-- Jackie Goss (jgossspecialtees@msn.com.), March 01, 2002.