Your first step appears to be the freezer? Every feather no matter where I got it from gets six weeks in the Freezer. I once had an infestation of Carpet Beetles many years ago and I came up with a feather treatment protocol. Thanks for sharing your method!
I harvested feathers today for the first time and immediately put them in some water with borax. So they’re in a bucket. Can I dry them best as possible today and freeze them if they’re still damp later?
Small fur animals like rabbits, squirrels could be treated the same way. Once you have soaked the fur the dry thoroughly and preserve using borax. Bigger fur animals like fox need more to use different methods and chemicals to preserve. Small patches of fur could be salted using a mix of salt and alum
Hey Robbie great video on treating feathers. I have a question and think you may be able to help me. I have a large selection of fly tying materials. Unfortunately, carpet beetles got into our house. I was going to clean all my fly tying materials and was thinking of using your method. Would your treatment kill carpet beetles eggs? Would it affect the colour of materials and wash out some of the dye? Richie
Hi Richie, I’m afraid this is not something I have ever experienced, sorry to hear all your materials have been infested. the treatment would leech out the colour of dyed feathers and fur if left soaking for too long, the key is to continuously check any dyed materials, I think you may need a more harder treatment, for carpet Beatles as this insect isn’t something that is commonly found on live wild animals or birds, they are always and introduced infestation. I would suggest a concentrated mix of borax and hot water ideally over 40, 45 degrees Celsius,and soak any feathers or fur, get a good can of insecticide like I have in the video, there are some good sprays for carpet Beatles. Periodically I spray all my materials and seal them away again. How do you store your materials, i store all my materials in zip lock bags. I ensure that when I am finished they get sealed away immediately. I never leave my materials out or exposed. And for good practice I never mix harvested feathers & fur with material I buy even though I do thoroughly treat every thing, I store them separately
Thank you so much for sharing your vast knowledge.
Great video
Great tutorial
Your first step appears to be the freezer? Every feather no matter where I got it from gets six weeks in the Freezer. I once had an infestation of Carpet Beetles many years ago and I came up with a feather treatment protocol. Thanks for sharing your method!
Yea I always freeze my feathers for minimum 4 weeks or sometimes as long as a year depending on when I get a chance to process and treat them
I harvested feathers today for the first time and immediately put them in some water with borax. So they’re in a bucket. Can I dry them best as possible today and freeze them if they’re still damp later?
A super informative and educational video, I’ll definitely try this method. Do you have any videos on harvested fur animals? Thanks for sharing!!
I will soon, it’s on the agenda to make one on rabbit fur
Small fur animals like rabbits, squirrels could be treated the same way. Once you have soaked the fur the dry thoroughly and preserve using borax. Bigger fur animals like fox need more to use different methods and chemicals to preserve. Small patches of fur could be salted using a mix of salt and alum
@@robbieb20 thank you that helps a lot. Fur animals are abundant where I live.
@@jamesphillips2216 not so abundant where I am living, waiting to get my hands on some
@@robbieb20 my brother-in-law has a taxidermist business maybe I can get some things from him.
Hey Robbie great video on treating feathers. I have a question and think you may be able to help me. I have a large selection of fly tying materials. Unfortunately, carpet beetles got into our house. I was going to clean all my fly tying materials and was thinking of using your method. Would your treatment kill carpet beetles eggs? Would it affect the colour of materials and wash out some of the dye? Richie
Hi Richie, I’m afraid this is not something I have ever experienced, sorry to hear all your materials have been infested. the treatment would leech out the colour of dyed feathers and fur if left soaking for too long, the key is to continuously check any dyed materials, I think you may need a more harder treatment, for carpet Beatles as this insect isn’t something that is commonly found on live wild animals or birds, they are always and introduced infestation. I would suggest a concentrated mix of borax and hot water ideally over 40, 45 degrees Celsius,and soak any feathers or fur, get a good can of insecticide like I have in the video, there are some good sprays for carpet Beatles. Periodically I spray all my materials and seal them away again. How do you store your materials, i store all my materials in zip lock bags. I ensure that when I am finished they get sealed away immediately. I never leave my materials out or exposed. And for good practice I never mix harvested feathers & fur with material I buy even though I do thoroughly treat every thing, I store them separately
@@robbieb20 Thank you Robbie. I will try treating a small batch of materials first and see how it goes. I will let you know. Richie
I assume this method can be used with any feathers that you harvest from any bird?
Yes, any wild bird feather.
Where do you get the borax?
I usually buy my borax from taxidermy suppliers