A cry for feather-help!

For those of you who have birds...particularly large poultry...would you mind collecting the feahers they drop for me? I'm making a pair of costume wings, and need large amounts of feathers. The predominant part of the costume is a pair of moving wings which can spread wide, fold closed along my back, flex up and down, and flap forward and back--basically, they can move any way I can move my arms. The wingspan will be about 9 feet from tip to tip. Therefore, I need something in the realm of a thousand feathers. I'll be dying them black, since what I'm collecting right now are vulture feathers that I find under their nighttime roost (I clean them thoroughly of course, to prevent any illness or spread of parasites) and the character I'm dressing up as has black wings.

So! I just need...feathers. Any feathers will do, really. Except possibly for ostrich feathers or peacock feathers, lol.

So...anyone willing to collect them for me? Thanks.

P.s.: Here's a picture of the character I'm dressing as.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/2...e4fc5a.jpg?v=0

Thanks!

You do know what happened to Icarus, right?

Luckily for me, my wings won't be melt-able :cool:

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Originally Posted by Seneschal

Luckily for me, my wings won't be melt-able :cool:

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The turkeys just finished moulting~ there were a ton of feathers before but most have blown away now. If your not in any hurry I'll be sending a big African Goose Gander to Freezer Camp in January~ his flight feathers might be long enough. If chicken flight feathers would be long enough~ I'll be sending about 20 chickens to freezer camp probably in March.

Only if we get to see a pic of you in the costume :P

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Originally Posted by Cheryl Marchek aka JM

The turkeys just finished moulting~ there were a ton of feathers before but most have blown away now. If your not in any hurry I'll be sending a big African Goose Gander to Freezer Camp in January~ his flight feathers might be long enough. If chicken flight feathers would be long enough~ I'll be sending about 20 chickens to freezer camp probably in March.

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That'd be so great! Thank you! It's not just big feathers I need; I need small ones, too, to form the tops of the wings where the feathers are small. I can definitely wait; the wings will take a ridiculous amoint of time to make, and they're going to be expensive to make too (since I have to destroy a hiking backpack with aluminum frame to make them, lol). Thank you so much! How many birds do you have? It sounds like you have a lot of them! (and a big freezer!)

EDIT: Also, what's a gander?

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Originally Posted by RichardA

Only if we get to see a pic of you in the costume :P

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XD Well of course you will! I can't not show pictures all around. :)

a gander is a female goose :D sounds like an interesting costume in the works. looking forward to seeing pics,, whether in progress or completed.

Not sure if I'd be of any help, but I just got a cockatiel and he sheds a few feathers a day (small little ones. About the size of a big toe nail) You could use those for the top since they are fluffy and small. Not sure how long it will take for him to molt his bigger feathers, but I can talk to the pet store down the street that sells birds and see if I can have their birds' shed feathers.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Not sure if I'd be of any help, but I just got a cockatiel and he sheds a few feathers a day (small little ones. About the size of a big toe nail) You could use those for the top since they are fluffy and small. Not sure how long it will take for him to molt his bigger feathers, but I can talk to the pet store down the street that sells birds and see if I can have their birds' shed feathers.

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Aww, that's sweet of you! But they sound like they'd be a little bit too small. Thanks though! I'll definitely let you know if I need some like that. :) *hugs!*

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Originally Posted by Ladydragon

a gander is a female goose :D sounds like an interesting costume in the works. looking forward to seeing pics,, whether in progress or completed.

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Actually~ a Goose is a female Goose and a Gander is a male Goose. In the plural "Geese" can either be both sexes or just the females while "Ganders" refers to all male geese. I've got 6 big African Geese~ one of the larger breeds of Goose~ I got them to keep the emu company before he passed away. But~ I'm pretty sure what I have are three Goose (Females) and three Ganders (Males). The Ganders are already starting to fight~ so I'm working myself up to picking one the most aggressive Gander and sending him to freezer camp in January. I may have to send two Ganders to Camp though. I'm gonna hate to do it because I've let the geese be kind of pet like~ but if I keep too many Ganders they will kill each other.

http://www.thereddragonsden.com/imag...y/poultry2.jpg

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Originally Posted by Cheryl Marchek aka JM

Actually~ a Goose is a female Goose and a Gander is a male Goose. In the plural "Geese" can either be both sexes or just the females while "Ganders" refers to all male geese. I've got 6 big African Geese~ one of the larger breeds of Goose~ I got them to keep the emu company before he passed away. But~ I'm pretty sure what I have are three Goose (Females) and three Ganders (Males). The Ganders are already starting to fight~ so I'm working myself up to picking one the most aggressive Gander and sending him to freezer camp in January. I may have to send two Ganders to Camp though. I'm gonna hate to do it because I've let the geese be kind of pet like~ but if I keep too many Ganders they will kill each other.

http://www.thereddragonsden.com/imag...y/poultry2.jpg

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Wow! That's really interesting. How are they as pets? The only geese I've ever really been around have attacked me. I used to get attacked by these really large white geese as a kid, and left big fist-sized bruises where they pecked me and beat me with their wings, lol. (That stopped when I knocked one on it's butt with my backpack). More recently, I've met the really old gander a friend has, and he's mean as heck. He attacks my friend's mom, little brother and sister, but loves him and his dad. He let me scratch him on the neck and head, and seemed pretty sweet to me.

Do they come when you call them? Are they really as territorial towards other (non-goose) animals as I've heard?

You still want those feathers?
The neighbor let the ganders move onto his pond~ he likes the look of them on his pond and three bachelor ganders seem to be getting along fine without any girls to fight over~

But I'm sending 5 roosters to freezer camp today. I can save the flight feathers and tail feathers for you (Only one of the roosters is mature enough to have nice tail feathers......He was one of my breeders whose name became "Stew" when he jumped me last Saturday~ the others are younger roosters I'm doing in before they become fully mature and tough)~ but you need to be aware the feathers will probably be wet and gummy from having been scalded. You'd have to wash them and set them out to dry.

Let me know~ try to let me know this morning if you see this please~ I don't want to go to the extra work to save those feathers if you don't want them.

Didn't hear back from you this morning~ but for some reason I was feeling nice~ so I dry plucked some of the wing and tail feathers for you before I went ahead and skinned the birds (skinning is faster and easier than plucking~ and it was too cold to deal with all the water scalding needs). Got about 1/2 of a 5 gallon buckets worth~ but they are dry and fluffy so that will probably compress down nice into a couple zip top bags for shipping. PM me an address and I'll pack them off to you. I'll expect you to post me pack with whatever postage costs me though~ and I'll expect PICTURES of this costume!

It wasn't that much extra work to dry pluck the wing and tail feathers~ so if you need more after this I'll have more birds ready in few more months. Though~ I'm not doing anymore adult roosters if I can help it! He was mean alive~ and mean dead! Hardest bird I've ever tried to skin out~ I bet I'll have to pressure cook him to make him edible!

I came across the feathers I saved for you while cleaning the garage today~ It's been over a month~ I'm gonna throw the feathers out. Hopefully you've found some other source for feathers.