MeddelandeNick, and all,
Byard is correct on the quality issue. I know Deb was talking saddles, not
necks. In talking hackles now, I find myself almost ignoring necks, and
that's not right or fair. I've just become a saddle junky, pure and simple.
(Charter member of Over-hacklers Anonymous.) Necks and saddles are just
different. I helped John Schaper grade necks one day at the farm for about
4 hours. It's pretty intense as you need to stay focused for hours with a
mundane, repetitive task. I have 20 or 30 necks- I just rarely use them. I
have midge saddles and bugger packs, so necks are just 'trophies' now.
NECK grading is fairly simple, though, if taken in steps:
The farther down the neck the size 10 feathers go, the better the neck,
which basically means the neck is predom. small dry fly hackles.
The longer the size 10 and below feathers are, the better the neck.
The more smaller and midge size (18-26) feathers, the better the neck.
Feather color is taken into account, along with feather qualities,
which are the same qualities one looks for in a saddle feather.
Overall hackle count is then looked at, as a platinum may be a really
thick neck, or one with incredibly long and numerous small feathers.
With a SADDLE, it's how many flies that saddle will tie- pure & simple. So
feather count and length
are looked at for grading. If the feather is substandard in any way, the
saddle is recorded & trashed. If the feathers are high quality but too low
in number, then the grader grabs the hackles in a handful and rips them all
off the pelt and puts a twistie around them. Tom then sells these to
professional tiers (bulk rates), donates them, or gives them away at shows
as samples, like I do.
If the hackle is substandard quality, the heritage is checked as to whether
this one was a throw-back, a trend, or one that was allowed to grow because
it had an excellent neck cape to offset the saddle. That's a decision Tom
makes on many factors. He can't afford to raise sub-standard birds when
he's raising 200,000 birds. That's why bronze necks and saddles are
becoming silver, silvers are becoming gold, and so on. The best of the best
are chosen as breeders, so the lines get better and better, both in necks
and saddles.
Hope this helps,
DonO
----- Original Message -----
From: Deb Duran
Nick
As I understand it .... and I'm sure Don O will add to this.... There
will be no difference in the quality of the Whiting feathers from your
Bronze pelt to a Gold pelt.
