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June 23, 2013
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I’m working on a crow, and one of the cheeks has gone bald. Does anyone have any insight as to why this might be and how to fix it? I’m assuming I was too rough with it …?? the most important thing is how to fix it… the surrounding feathers won’t cover it… maybe I could make a patch and glue it on top? << trouble shooting. ha
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Dolly
x
hello Dolly, welcome to the sight.
To answer your question, we call that slippage. With birds, it tends to happen when the bird has been out too long. When harvested, you need to freeze birds as soon as possible. For thawing, a crow sized bird can be placed on a table for 8-10 hours. By then he should be thawed and ready to skin. If it takes you all day to skin it, make sure you room is cold to cut down on slippage. Usually they will start slipping around the vent 1st, then the head second. You can also do it in stages if your very slow. Skin, freeze, clean, freeze, wash&dry, freeze, then mount. To fix your problem, mount the bird and let the bird dry. Then cut out the bad spot. Glue in a new piece of skin from a 2nd crow. Or you can replace the whole head before mounting. Good luck.
June 23, 2013
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Oh thank you. It only takes me a couple of hours to skin, but I didn’t think I could pop it back in the freezer; I don’t know why I’ve been treating it like food. haha…
It takes me a long time to get the mounting done though, partly due to time constrains and poor planning, is keeping it in borax or salt sufficient enough to stop slippage during that time or is there something else I could do to slow down/stop the drying process before I want it?
I shall definitely make a patch at the end.
Thank you very much for replying. :love:
There’s not usually an issue after thawing the bird. It normally starts after it’s dead and before being frozen. Is it 80 degrees outside when it’s killed? Is it 2 day old roadkill? Don’t salt the bird, just skin and clean as quickly as possible. Then you can take your time putting him together. I have a video on how to do a duck. It might be helpful to you. Every bird is basically done the same way. Look it up at Taxidermy Training Unlimited. Get the woodduck video.
June 23, 2013
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ok thank you, I’ll check that out. I’m following your page on facebook too. It’s a trapped bird from a wildlife conservation, the game keeper assures me that it was frozen the day it was killed, but there’s no guarantee…. there’s not really much I can do about that then… I live in England… there’s probably only one day of the year it gets that hot here…. 🙁 That said though I only pick roadkill up if it’s still warm because my husband can’t deal with the stronger smells so there really shouldn’t be the same problem with those.
