New Feather Earring store

My new Feather Earring shop is open

www.mountainmancreations.com

no duplicates from my ETSY shop
my feather store
www.montainfeathers.ca

Peacocks and peafowl

Peacocks and Peafowl

A Male blue Peacock displaying his plumage

The Peacock is native to Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.

There are 3 species of Peacock the Green which is endangered the Blue and the Congo. The white peacock is a hybrid and does not occur naturally.

The male (peacock) Indian Peafowl has iridescent blue-green or green colored plumage. The peacock tail ("train") is not the tail quill feathers but the highly elongated upper tail covert feathers. The "eyes" are best seen when the peacock fans its tail. Like a cupped hand behind the ear, the erect tail-fan of the male helps direct sound to the ears. Both species have a crest atop the head. The female (peahen) Indian Peafowl has a mixture of dull green, brown, and grey in her plumage. She lacks the long upper tail coverts of the male but has a crest. The female can also display her plumage to ward off female competition or signal danger to her young.

The blue peacock

The green peacock photo from Wikipedia

The Congo peacock photo from Wikipedia

The white Peacock photo from wickipedia

The feathers you are all so familiar with come from the Blue Peacock.

Male peacocks produce a new set of eye and sword feathers every year almost all peacock eye feathers are from moulting’s the annual drop of them. But since we do not see how they are kept we cannot truly say they are cruelty free. Peacocks can be kept free roaming they usually do not fly away. Someone will surely prove me wrong on this. There are wild Peacocks here on Gabriola. This brings me to the next point.

Peacocks where introduced into Europe as a curiosity and as FOOD yep. The peasants ate chickens and ducks and geese nobility ate swans peacocks and other exotic birds. Peacocks introduced as captive birds in some countries and released have become a huge problem. In New Zealand the government was laying poison for them due to the huge numbers. Introduced species like this are detrimental too native plants and wild life. Think Dutch elm disease.

Some people went to the Government and said if you stop poising the peacocks we will hunt them. Resulting in an environmentally friendly solution. The birds are killed and eaten and the feathers and pelts harvested and sold.

As a foot note I would like to add that there is a peacock Pheasant witch is endangered I have seen these feathers for sale coming from Avery birds.

Peacock Pheasant wickepedia

 

Thank you for reading

Henry

Here is a use for peacock feathers I grew up with

Gombey Dancers Bermuda

 

new home for mountain feathers

new home for mountain feathers

http://www.mountainfeathers.ca/

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Cruelty Free Feathers now in stock

Ginger #4
http://www.etsy.com/listing/89951307/20-ginger-feathers-2-to-5-inches-cruelty

Ginger # 1
http://www.etsy.com/listing/89951206/20-light-ginger-feathers-2-to-5-inches

White mottled saddle
http://www.etsy.com/listing/82577526/20-cruelty-free-feathers-white-2-to-5

white tip
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83291123/feathers-20-cruelty-free-black-with

Natural mallard flank
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83291733/feathers-natural-mallard-flank-cruelty

All washed sorted and ready to use

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what are cruelty free feathers

Cruelty Free Feathers

Part 1

A 3 week old chick It has decided the barrier to help keep them warm is no problem to get over

Cruelty free has become quite the buzz word in the feather jewelery trade. The term cruelty free was first used within the cosmetics industry to say that their products were not tested on animals.

Animals have been used as test subjects from everything from house hold cleaners shampoo and pesticides. To determining how much of something is lethal LD50.

Now we know that birds are raised primarily for three things. To eat to lay eggs or as ornamentals.

Birds we eat regularly chicken and turkeys ducks geese pheasants.

We get eggs from chickens and ducks primarily ( I know most people who read this will have never have had eaten a duck egg )

Ornamental birds kept in large outdoor aviaries include peacocks guinea fowl pheasants etc.

As well as parrots parakeet’s cockatoo’s finch’s buggies etc.

So let’s take a brief look how the main birds used for feathers are raised.

Hens for egg production are kept in 3 basic ways.

1/ Free range birds have complete accesses to outside fresh air greens and bugs.

Sometimes also referred to range confinement birds have a house that they are locked in at night and the range area is fenced to protect the birds from predators there are lots of things that want to eat my birds L

2/ Free Run birds are housed in buildings on litter and have no accesses to outside

3/ Battery birds are kept in cages with automatic waterer's and feeders eggs roll away to be collected.

Chickens raised for meat are basically 2 types

1 Commercial broilers as there name implies these birds are bread for one thing to eat and gain weight fast. They grow so fast they are normally harvested at 8 weeks.

They are raised in very confined cramped spaces on the floor. They grow so fast and so big their legs often cannot support their own weight at harvest time.

These are the ones you buy in the store.

 these are straight run chicks hatched by me 3 weeks old If you are wondering why the red glow its from the heat lamp and the red color discourages the young birds from pecking at each other

2/ Roosters raised from dual purpose breeds. These are older varieties of chickens that the males (cocks) get to be a good size to eat.

When the grower or farmer raises straight run chicks (mixed hens and cocks) the males are raised with the hens sometimes but not always separated at about the 8 week mark. They are normally harvested at around 12 to 20 weeks depending on breed they often have free range accesses to the outdoors as well.

Some of us use the feathers from our harvested cocks.

 a Plymouth barred rock rooster with part of his harem yes ladies he is where grizzly and chinchilla feathers come from

Roosters raised for feathers.

 The roosters raised for their long showy saddle feathers have been around for a long time and due to selective breeding practices they produce longer and thinner saddle feathers.

These roosters as you can imagine are well cared for as you can imagine to protect their valuable feathers.

So for rooster and chicken feathers what is cruelty free?

My own opinion

1 Naturally moulted feathers collected from the flock.

 This is Russel our dorking rooster as you can see by the photo hes looking a little ragged

he has molted out his tail feathers which are now slowly coming back

2 Trimmings from wing feathers yes chickens can and do fly.( I know some will have a problem with trimming birds wings) it does not hurt them and is the same as getting your hair cut. to stop them from flying out of their enclosure, as the minks and the raccoons would love to have a chicken dinner

3 feathers collected from duel purpose birds during processing.

Making the most use of the whole bird they way your great great grandparents would have.  

4 Feathers from commercially raised roosters that are just raised for their feathers.

However I would not label this cruelty free because one cannot personally vouch for the manner in which they were raised. Without visiting the farm.

Next instalment pheasants peacocks ducks geese caged birds