I am having some trouble with the feathers on the side of the bird (under the wing) not laying down correctly. I have tried taxiing the skin around without much success, they just seem to want to splay outward. Does anyone know what will cause this?
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I am by no means an expert on birds but have done a few succesfully. But when mounting a bird the skin should be loose. It seems to me if it were too tight you could have the problem mentioned.
Todd B
If you can still taxi the skin it is not too tight....I mean really have extra skin to taxi...have you gone forward with the skin? Outlandishly so and then start arranging?
You might have loose skin but it doesn't do much good if the body shape is off. You said you had problems with the feathers on the side of the bird under the wings. Are you talking about the wing pockets? If so check your measurements. Did you buy a form or wrap one? Did you check your measurements off the carcass with a tape measure and calipers? It sound like the breast is to wide and shaped wrong, it will change the feather pattern of the wing pockets and they will stick out and the wings won't fit in there right. To small of a body can also cause a problem. After the fat is removed and degreased you will have extra skin to move ito the right place. Check that and you will be okay. Like the others said. groom from the rear and work forward. You need to stack the feathers.
If you got the wing attached in the wrong place, this could also be the problem. Also, the neck could be to long and is streaching the skin forward and causeing misalignment. To many ways that could cause problems. YOu could have streached the skin to far forward, or to far back. Send me a photo of the bird at different angles and I could possibly tell you exactly what is wrong. Email it to
gossard@gtelco.net
I will snap a few pics with my digital when I get a chance and send them to you.
Thanks