whiting brahma hen

I would appreciate the pro's & cons of the Whiting Brahma Hen by those who have purchased and tied with them several times.

Thanks in advance............

I have bought some Whitings Brahma hen recently and I used for a flymph swap.
I really like them, they have, apart from the usual feathers on the neck, which are excellent, two lots on what look like wings on either side of the main skin which I particularly liked and are the ones I used on the swap. I'll get to work with the camera and show them on pictures asap, much better than my pathetic attempt at a verbal description.The olive and yellow dyed look paticularly good.
I still like my Conranch juv hens but these are very nice.

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Donald/Scotland



[This message has been edited by Donald Nicolson (edited 27 February 2005).]

Here are the promised pictures Bill,

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL170/...5/87279960.jpg

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL170/...5/87279766.jpg

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL170/...5/87279687.jpg

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL170/...5/87279601.jpg

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL170/...5/87279508.jpg


I used the Olive wing feather(at least I think they are wings) for a March Brown Flymph in the Flymph Swap.
I haven't tried the the neck feathers yet but they look pretty good as does the Yellow Brahma.

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Donald/Scotland

Donald,

Those would be flank feathers..from under and to the rear of where the wings would lie.

Thank You,
My main concern was for soft hackles / spiders as a partrige sub. Do they tie down to size 14 ?
Besides partrige I already use/have hen pheasant skin (nice), speckled hen backs (o.k. but a bit webby), whiting & metz hen necks ( look nice, but a bit fine for real fishing, less movement) starling (o.k. for the small stuff)
Always looking for something like partrige that ties smaller. One of the the best I've used was woodcock & ruffed grouse wings. But, I don't birdhunt much anymore and my pointer is old and lies around (grin).

Thanks I flunked chicken anatomy ;-)

Bill, I have a copy of a neat trick used by Oliver Edwards, he adjusts any hackle to the size he requires.
I'll see if i can find it and I shall e-mail it to you.


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Donald/Scotland

I just thought of something else, I saw an advert in 'Fly Fishing & Fly Tying' for domestically reared Japanese Quail Skins, they look ideal. This was a UK company but I'm sure that there must be someone in the US rearing them.

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Donald/Scotland



[This message has been edited by Donald Nicolson (edited 28 February 2005).]

Any upland game bird will give you soft hackles to some degree of size, color and marking.

Donald,

I don't suppose you could post the Oliver Edwards trick to the board?