Looking to improve my birds and get to the next level especially with respect to the scaps and tertials. I have spent the last hour scanning the Archives without a clear understaning of how or where to properly pin the scapes and position the tertials on both flying and standing birds? I have heard of "pinning" the scaps but do not really know where to start? My question of tertials is how do I achieve the full and continuous flow of feathers? I wire the wings and have had pretty good sucess with taping as compared to carding but I am still getting a "gap" between the tertials and the body and am having trouble with fuzz and down showing through under the scaps. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
Briarwood
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T pin in the wing /arm pit to the bodie .....
A couple of things that could be causing you problems are
1. The skin may not be pulled back over the joint between the humerus and radius and Ulna.
2.The humerus could be positioned wrong. It should leave the body at an angle toward the tail. If that bone comes straight out from the body, the tertials can't lay correctly. Thus causing a gap.
As for the scaps. They attach at the front of the shoulder. Grab the scaps with a pin and pull them slightly forward and toward the midline or center of the body. Than pin them there. You may also pin in the arm pit like Wally said.
If you put a little caulk in the wing and move it around from the outside, you will see how the secondaries and tertials start to line up for you. Tape to get position and card over the tape. after the first day take the tape and carding off readjust and recard and tape.
Hope this helps
Tony
To groom the scaps, take a long pin, wire, or needle. Lift the most forward feather in the scap group. Hold it up and lift every feather,one at a time till you have lifted them all. Along the way you may notice feathers trapped uder other feathers. This is what makes getting the feather position difficult to achieve. after this, if down is showing, grab a feather next to the downy spot and give it a tiny little tug. this may make the down drop out of sight. If not, grab a different feather and tug on it. This should help a lot
Tony
Thanks for the suggestions. I mounted a Gadwall hen last night and while everything else went wrong from nearly tearing off the head while inverting the neck to pushing a blob of caulk out of a "missed" hole in the head, I think pining the wing arm pit did help me get things in place a little better.
I did not get Tony's response until this morning and have a follow-up question. Where exactly are you pinning the scap, and is this a long pin that you intend on removing or do you set it all the way in? Hope to use your suggestion tomorrow morning on a Woody.
Thanks for sharing your guys knowledge and experience.
Briarwood
i dropped the ball on my answer Tony has the handle on this...As for the miseed holes if ya see it leaking out quick was it off with water and let set for about a hour this will give ya a seal on the hole.. I Pin on the end of the feather group to the bodie or if its a extreeme positon use 18 ga as a long pin to the bodie..I know it suck working around the pin but its pretty easy to remove then.......
I typed out a big long responce and the web site was acting up so it was lost when I submitted it. If you would like to call me I can tell you better than I can type 909-886-8640
Tony