Good Day!
Trying to touch base (posting to a few Alberta forums) with persons wanting to help me understand what fly tyers want to see in the feathers they use or want to use for that matter!
Run a Conservation farm here in Central Alberta and so far the response to our feathers appears promising...tyers are saying WOW! and that has to be a good thing!
Anyway, what I guess I need now is some advice! Need to find some people that want to see what we have to offer and advise us what applies and what does not. Areas they would like to see addressed, improved...that sort of thing. So I am asking you, the end users, what works for you and how may we help you better by understanding your needs! Realize there are textures, hardness/softness, pliability, patterns/colours, dry/wet aps, quality issues; lots and lots for me to get figuring out. These are my first steps...
Got a pretty good handle on colour genetics in poultry, got Crele (labeled CREE, not sure why?) in eleven bantam Wyandotte male chickens, Red Cuckoo (Brockbar or Barred Ginger), Black Cuckoo (Grizzly)...tons of other poultry species and thinking our heritage turkeys are gonna be a real unique key to some of the applications you use feathers in. We have birds others simply don't and find it inspiring looking at some of the flies, ahem, works of art you create using different feathers. I am thinking maybe we need to focus on Salmon flies, more than freshwater flies, but heck, what would I know...I've only been a bobber pond/salmon troller/bottom jigger kinda person that took a fly tying course decades ago...sigh!
Here is a list of what we have...
WATERFOWL:
DUCKS: Calls (24 varieties), East Indies (Black), Mandarins (Aix galericulata - in White and Wild pattern), Crested Ducks (Grey), Australian Spotted (Blue, Green, & Silver head), Hookbills (White, Dusky and Grey), & Appleyards (Silver).
GEESE: American (Buff & Buff Pied).
SWANS: Australian Black.
- Waterfowl in colour varieties like Blue Fawn, Grey Mallard, Pastel, Snowy, Butterscotch, plus Blue, Green and Silver Head with patterns in Bibbed, Pied, Magpie, Ancona, in colours such as Buff, Black, White, Splash Silver, Blue, Chocolate (rarest colours in ducks of Mallard descent).
LANDFOWL:
BANTAM Chickens; Brahmas, Wyandottes, Booteds, & Chanteclers.
STANDARD Chickens; Chanteclers (Partridge, Buff, Red Orange Clay, & White).
- Self colours like Blue, Chocolate, Blacks (flat blacks, beetle green blacks), Brown, Orange, Gold, Red, Yellow, White.
- Colour patterns like Pencilled (gold a.k.a. Partridge, silver a.k.a. Dark), Laced (Black, Blue, Golden, Silver), Mille de Fleur (mahogany reds with black spangle and tipped in a white pearl), Columbian (gold a.k.a. Buff and silver a.k.a. Light), Cuckoo/Barred (Black, Red, Blue), combinations like Cuckoo Columbian (Delware) or Crele (labeled CREE for some reason in fly fishing jargon), Pyle in red, etc.
- Feather metallics in copper, turkey rainbows, pheasant green, black, blue, red, orange, yellow.
HERITAGE TURKEYS: Jersey Buff, Wishard Bronze, Narragansett, Rusty Black, Dilute Rusty Black, Red Bronze, Red Blue Bronze, Blue Slate, Lilac (Lilac, Red Slate, Fawn & washed out Bronze), & Sweetgrass (tri colour, black & white, and red & white).
PHEASANTS: Red Golden & Silver.
Registered: Australian Cattle Dogs, Jacob Sheep (natural wool in soft, good handle, crimpy in white, black, lilac chocolate, and lilac), Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats (cashmere), & Llamas (white, pink, & brown with black).
This is a listing above of some of what we have as of today...harvested a Bronze heritage turk for Christmas (dry pluck) and got me a great big ol' bag of feathers...we use to throw these away or compost them (ugh!). So, like do I have a purpose for them now...I sure am hoping so. LOL
This is a project I expect to take years of work to get up to speed at but I am SO up for that. It is a long standing dream of mine to share my hobby with your hobby. This infatuation with silly feathers is a shared interest. Please make it happen by assisting me to understand what feather needs you have and what I have already that works and where we might go forward from.
Thank you kindly & Hackle UP!
Tara
Fly Tying Feathers
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