I know that this question has probably been asked before, so if someone could give me a quick yes or no I would appreciate it. Should I give a super bloody bird a quick wash before skinning or will this hurt the process.
thanks JT
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I do it and have no problem just remember to use cold water NOT hot !
That's why I use rubber gloves. I like to keep birds as far away from water as possible until the last moment before mounting. Now, if the bird is soaked in blood, that saturation could exacerbate spoilage, so you would have to wash it, but birds like that often get refused by me anyway. I'm just not good enough to make a poor speciment look like a show bird and I'm picky about what I take in.
So much of taxidermy rests with "it depends". As a general rule I never wash birds before skinning them. Washing once is enough for me and generally addresses all the bloody issues. On the other hand I have had occasions where I do wet some of the feathers before skinning. Dried caked blood on waterfowl is a pain to work through when it is matted to the "down" - so I "wash" that area to the extent that I can lossen the matted area without loosing feathers and proceed. If the head is matted and soaked in dried blood I will wash the head as I generally use artificial heads and want some stretch in the skin and feathers that dried blood precludes - Now, having said that, I still try and avoid washing before skinning - personal preference. Good Luck
all my birds in soapy dawn water before skinning, upland and waterfowl. It removes the dried blood and makes skinning easier, also I think when I wheel the fat off then it tends to not get on the plumage as bad. Just a method that works for me.
It seamed to keep the feathers out of the way nicely when wheeling the bird. The dry feathers seam to catch more in the wheel.
such as you mentioned.. AND>>>>> I have no fears or the specimen slipping then I have no qualms with soaking a bird before skinning.
jon
I always soak the bird briefly to get 90% of the blood out. As wingmaster points out, keeping the edges of the bird during wire wheeling is a great aid to preventing fat from getting absorbed into the dry feathers. If I don't wash a bird, I soak the edges continually by swabbing water containing a little ivory liquid while wire wheeling. All this pertains to ducks, geese, sea gulls, sandpipers, alcids, all procellariformes, - i.e. all water related birds.
Many birds I don't wash unless absolutely necessary - how many here have sucessfully washed and fluffed a nighthawk or whip-poor-will?