Preserving chicken hide for fly tying

[@jeffjackson5331]

Sweet! Should make some sweet flies. You folks have a wonderful evening and a wonderful weekend my friend.🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@McFlyAngler]

Thanks 👍

[@jeffjackson5331]

@@McFlyAngler you're welcome🙏🏻🙏🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@jasonlamb2358]

Definitely would like to see the whole process!

[@McFlyAngler]

I’ll try to do one at one point

[@tomt5176]

Very complete use of the bird. I’m looking forward to seeing what you make from these feathers.

[@McFlyAngler]

Thanks! Yes I will be making some tying videos with this

[@garrydurfey9700]

Yes on the tutorial. I have friends that are prolific bird hunters and have been wanting some skins.

[@McFlyAngler]

Sounds good, next time I do one I’ll try to film it

[@walterhammock3603]

Yes absolutely..someone has been needing to do a tutorial on this for us. I want to harvest a squirrel or rabbit but wasn’t sure how to do this correctly

[@McFlyAngler]

Sounds good, I’ll work on making a video for you all next time I cull a bird. I think I’ve got a rooster out of my new chick hatching, so give me a few months and I’ll hopefully be able to.

[@edherrmann182]

I’ve been doing my own birds for a while. Hens turn out pretty good. It takes an exceptional mature rooster to make top quality hackle. I skin and tan my own birds and small animals. I have done deer hides but I realized it was better for me to buy patches. With deer hides, you need to keep an eye on them because little small insects tunnel into the hide during drying. I had one hide that ultimately became a chamois since all hear was falling out. I did other hides with little or no problems. Just need to keep an eye on them. Borax and salt mix is a must. After hides dry out, I wash 1:00 the hide in a large kettle bucket warm water with laundry soap, re- dry and scrape any residue like fat or dried tissue. Then stretch a little at a time to soften so you don’t have hard skin. One hide is too much deer hair for one fly tyer. Sorry for the rant. I just enjoy processing my own birds and animals. I get wild birds from hunting or road kill. Fresh road kill is an entirely different activity.

[@McFlyAngler]

I might want to chat with you about the deer hide thing. I’ll be going hunting for deer soon, can you find me on instagram and we can chat about it? I wanna pick your brain on the deer hide tanning.

[@edherrmann182]

@ I’m not on instagram but I am on what’s ap and telegram

[@McFlyAngler]

I don’t have either of those. Facebook??

[@mve9924]

Little Red Rooster

[@McFlyAngler]

It really was a pretty bird. But, now it will make pretty flies.

[@50Squirrel]

I’d love to see the process, skinning, cleaning & the preservation of the skins….

[@McFlyAngler]

Ok next time I will do that. Might have to be a restricted video though as I think KZbin might have an issue with skinning a bird. So this will be a special video that you might have to enter your birth date or something to watch. Not sure the process on the over 18 videos here on KZbin.

[@cernhutch]

Yeah, I have a lot of issues with KZbin politics too. They probably WiLL have ‘issues’ with you skinning something on camera, all while eating a chicken sandwich.

[@McFlyAngler]

I know right?? It’s hard to know what they accept and don’t accept when doing something like this. I’ll see how much I can do and hopefully I can get a decent video out.

[@CBL138]

Would love to see how you did it all.

[@McFlyAngler]

I’ll try to make a video at one point on it

[@theinvasivespecies1119]

I've wanted to do this too. Did you salt the skins before the borax? If so how long. How long was your borax treatment? Ever dye feathers? Don you dye them before or after the borax?

[@McFlyAngler]

I did not die any feathers, and I haven't ever done that. I cannot imagine it's too difficult, I have seen Davey mcphail show his process. I did not salt the skin, although I probably could have. I think borax and salt are similar in their uses, the borax also draws out moisture like salt does. My borax treatment was way too long. HAHA. I put it in the borax, closed the lid to the box, and forgot about it for like a month. I heard after this that 3-4 days is sufficient. However it didn't seem to damage the skin so, seems like longer is just fine.

[@pacowboy1968]

You said you washed it. How did you do that.

[@McFlyAngler]

I placed it in a 5 gallon bucket, added a few drops of dawn, then filled the bucket with water. Sloshed it around a bit, then rinsed it twice to remove the soap. Then I used a hair dryer to dry it fully before covering with the borax.

[@martinramirez6702]

Hi. Are you still selling flies?

[@McFlyAngler]

No sorry

[@johnbelusko6347]

No sense in lettin something like that to go to waste when u can very well use em

[@McFlyAngler]

exactly