I have been reading a lot about freezing skins after i skin them and i'm kinda confused. I have only just put them in the fridge for next day mounting.
Should i flesh and wash the skin,degrease,tumble, rinse it good then freeze wet or is it ok if i just skin it and freeze it green.
My second question is, this is a woodduck, i've heard about eyerings are these necessary or can I just paint it in.
thanks a bunch in advance.
your guys information is awesome!!
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If you're going to skin, then it would be preferred that you go ahead, flesh, degrease, wash, and rinse.. before freezing. Freezing right after skinning is okay too, but.. what you want to avoid is freezing after fleshing but before washing.. why.. becuase as the fat freezes and dries out.. it will become a headache, if not impossible to remove if any of the feathers are stuck in it.. or if it has gotten on the plumage.. it turns into this sticky like year old bubble gum kinda stuff that is just nasty..I like to freeze my skins in a bag of water.. that seems to elimate alot of that.. but I always go ahead and flesh and wash before freezing...
as far as eyerings.. on a wood duck.. they definatley need to be replaced for the most natural appearance. They can either be rebuilt out of apoxi scult, or sculpt all, super glue and string.... there are several different nerve racking methods out that and I'm sure they are all covered in the archives...OR you can purchase premade eyerings that slip on to the head.. Most of the premades, aren't competition grade.. but for everyday use, they are fine and alot easier than trying to roll out epoxie and sculpt it and then stick it to the eye, or worse yet.. playing with superglue on the eyes... ick ick ick.. the thought still scares me. even though it is a widley used method of reproducing the eyerings..
and yes, you can also just the paint the eye rings that are there, however they will shrink up to almost nothing, and will appear as though there really is nothing there to paint..
Good Luck,
Jon
McKenzie has a 123 eye and eye rings that work on our woodies.
I agree with Jon. Go ahead and flesh them too. Duck fat does some wild stuff once the bird has been skinned out. I'm pretty new to taxidermy myself and when I first started I would skin the birds and freeze them because I dreaded using the wire wheel. It seems to be easier to go ahead and flesh them. Either way, get those things washed before you freeze them. It's also not a bad idea to do like he said and freeze them in water. You can keep them in the freezer a lot longer without freezer burn. I freeze mine in some shoe box size plastic containers from the dollar store. You can reuse them and they stack good in the freezer.
This clears up all the questions i have so far. Thanks alot for the information and i'll search the archives for eyerings.
Kendall