I suppose it is unavoidable. When tumbling ducks a lot of feathers fall off in the process, especially at the seams of the cut. Do ducks have to be tumbled in a tumbler? Or can they be tumbled more gently another way?
When putting the neck material in a duck, I have a tough time figuring out how much to use. How much is necessary if the neck is tucked away? Thanks!
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christian, this is for the neck length part of your question. You should use exactly the same length of neck material as the length of the birds neck. thats what they do. there is alot of info on this in the archives, but real quickly, a ducks neck is always bent in some sort of an "S" shape. even when they are flying with thier neck straight out, it is still slightly bent in an "S". when the duck is sitting, the "S" shape becomes more pronounced, and if the bird is in a very relaxed sitting position, the neck comes out of the body at a downward angle, then turning up sharply and resting on itself, and turning back to where it meets the skull. To do this, you will need to remove some material from your foam body below where the neck attaches. dont be afraid to carve it. This is difficult to descr5ibe, but helped me A LOT! when I looked at some anatomy drawings to see how the neck bends and "dissappears" into the chest cavity.
I had the same thing happen on a duck and found out later it was the fact that it was full of pin feathers. These feathers from what I have learned are hard to keep in as it is. This could be your troubles. Jack F
Christian there is absolutely NO need to tumble a duck, or any bird for that matter. Simply flesh, wash well, rinse even better, soak in acetone (60 seconds only), mineral spirits, coleman fuel or anything else you like and then blow dry. I reverse the air on a shop vac. Although some people prefer to skip the solvent soak I consider it an essential part of producing a well-fluffed bird. I've tried omitting it but the results are definitely NOT the same.
Your choice though.
Good luck!
moisten the bird's breast and locate the APTERA, the area between feather tracts---this way you don't cut through the feathers.
Home Depot has gone and changed their mineral spirits. Wal Mart used to carry the mineral spirits with conditioner that doesn't work well with birds. Now Home Depot is handleing the same kind. The stuff with conditioner leaves the bird oily and difficult to dry. Post here if you have had the same problem. It's made by Kleen Strip.
I would recommend that you use neck material the same length as the original, and the next time you skin a bird, after the skin is removed, take the body with neck attatched, and place it in various positions to see how the neck lies in comparison to the body. I found that this helped me when learning anatomy. I dry my ducks by placing them in a double garbage bag with saw dust, and tumble them in an old electric dryer placed on air fluff for 20-30 minutes and they really dry nice. I hope my words of wisdom help!
I have a gallon I will give ya bought at Wally World LOL. I was using that stuff and went to coleman fuel. Much better on the feathers but bad for me. Jack F
can you use the coleman fuel with a white bird/duck? I am worried about the feathers goign yellow. thanks
I use the Wally World type of minereal spirits and are now using the Kleen-Strip with my ducks and pheasents and are having great success with both. I wash, soak in spirits for 15mins., then tumble for 20mins in corn cob grit, birds are pretty well fluffed and slightly damp on the skin. Maybe, that I'm in N.M. where it is really dry
Gary