I just finished my first full strutter, WHAT A HEADACHE !
Anyways I have many concerns with a few methods I used. ONE being I skinned my wings out all the way to the last wing joint and removed flesh and tendons. After degreasing and washing 4x in warm water and dawn dishwashing I put the skin in the Liqua-Cure for about 6hrs. The bird has been drying for about 3weeks now and I have an odor coming from one of the wings that smells kinda like Dog Crap.....
My SECOND concern is also about the wings, Like I said I skinned them all the way to the last wing joint. I found this made it very difficult to get the skin and feathers to taxi back in place,as I had an excess amount of skin dropping in the upper wings. I think a better method here would have been to make an incision on the back side of the wings to remove the meat and tendons, the use a filler and sew the incision shut.
I will have pics available here in a few weeks for anyone to look at and criticise. It doesnt look bad for my first strutter, but I learned alot of do's and dont's on this one.
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You need to cut the end of the humerus bone off and get the marrow out or it will stink, same with the leg bones.
I've done both methods on the wings and I prefer the incision to turning them all the way. If you do turn them you need to put some caulking in and work it into the feather butts then card them in place, this will eliminate your drooping problem.
Hey Rick,
I had the same problem of stinking one time on a goose that I mounted. It had that same funky smell you described. I finally figured out that it was because even though I took the meat out of the wings, on big birds, the joints need something in them, specifically the one way out at the end of the wing. I shoot my joints with formaldehyde through a hypodermic needle, but I would say to save that just for emergencies if you need to save something in a hurry, and use a substitute for formaldehyde because it is dangerous stuff to work with. But the joints definately need to be injected with a preservative. Good Luck, hope this helps.
BlackDuck
The smell is coming from the very tip of the wing as you said BD, I injected the wing with Bird Feet Injection and the smell is slowly going away.
I was under the impression that soaking in the Liqua Cure would eliminate any chance of odors from any flesh etc.. that was left behind. I only soaked it for 8 hrs, maybe I should soak longer. I checked the other wing and it seems to be ok.