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I had a friend who gave me some feathers and bout half the feathers have some of the ducks skins on still.....he said to just put them in a gallon ziplock and pour salt and Borax and leave the ziplocks open and let them just sit for like three or four weeks.
What are ya'lls thoughts?
Thanks,
AC
Is about the best way to dry the skin and kill osr parasites. I did it with my tail feathers and wings from a big rooster and they turned out just fine. I only use borax but the salt will speed the drying process.
If you have full capes or large full skin sections and don't want a them curled up then stretch them on a board, tack it down stretching it out and then salt and borax it. Same rooster I got had a really big cape also and this worked perfectly also.
I would just pluck duck feathers. For jig tying purposes, you really shouldn't need matching feathers or anything. Pluck them, clean them up, throw them in a Ziplock and into the freezer for a week to kill the "creepy crawlies" that may be on them.
AC
If there's any blood on the feathers your gonna have to wash them. Like Q Kid said pluck them the use some warm water with Dawn dish water detergent and getting all the dirt and grime and blood off then rinse well. you can put them in a paper bag with a hole cut in the side close the top and use a hair dry to get alot of the moisture out then put them in borax for a while, it will knock bugs out fairly well.
I always keep fresh feathers separate in a kind of quarantine until I'm sure they won't comtaminate my other stuff.