I have always loved Chinese rooster neck feathers for body hackle on the Classics. I feel it has the taper I like and the web necessary to give full feeling to the wound hackle. Saddle and Schlappen just doesn?t offer the same qualities as good Chinese neck. When I decided to undertake this project there just happened to be an outbreak of Avian Flu in Asia and it was also infecting and killing humans. Just my luck. There was a ban on importing the good Chinese hackle necks that is still in effect. It is impossible today to find any quantity of good Chinese necks available for me to dye the colors I want to offer. It was Deja-Vu all over again, when I needed bricks there was a brick shortage, drywall-drywall shortage, even insulation, you get the picture. I hope I don?t have to buy gasoline. Can you imagine the problem that could cause.


But there was an almost better solution available. I was able to locate a supply of prime strung Chinese neck already bleached white and ready for my dye baths. The Hackle was 3 foot strings of 3-6 inch feathers starting with the shortest tapering out to the longest. Click HERE to see some of the strings. I am offering a size assortment package of each color. The package will contain a generous piece of Small, Medium and Large, one from the short end, one from the middle and one from the big end. It?s Almost like getting a neck, without the skin, but cheaper. I?ve dyed them in a number of vivid colors trying to keep everybody in mind. There are 37 colors available at this time. This covers all the Classic colors called for in the old recipes, available to you now for the first time, as well as some wilder vivid colors for the contemporary tiers. As soon as I get some more hackle I?m sure I?ll think of some other colors. Maybe some of you tiers out there will help me on that.

Have you heard of Cock-A-Bonddu? It?s not a dirty word, it?s a natural hackle. As I understand it, Cock-A-Bonduu (Kelson spelled it that way) is a brown or ginger hackle with a black center strip along the rachis,called a list and a black edge around the outer ends of the barbs. Click HERE to see a reference photo. It?s undoubtedly a British term as it?s not commonly known or used here in the USA. Even George Herter missed with his definition. I bought Furnace and Badger (there are a few Cock-A-Bonduu mixed in) as well as White so I?m offering some unusual colors as well as the standard fair.

Have you heard of the color Puce? It?s called for in the Shannon as well as some other Flies of Old. It?s defined as a Brownish-Purple sometimes with a grayish cast.......or as the Color of a Blood Gorged Flea. I Can?t say as if I?ve ever seen a blood gorged flea up close but I do like Furnace Hackle dyed Purple, I call it Puce. Click HERE to see a reference photo.