I've also had the same problem. I fish warmwater, so my dry fly hackle stock is small. I have one pack of Whiting 100s Grizzly size 12 and one of Brown size 12. They both seem like size 14 hackles when using Mustad 94845 size 12 hooks.
Lucky for me though, I use parachutes a lot more than traditonal dry flies. So it doesn't matter.
Yes mine also have places where the hackle sticks out 90 degrees from the quill, but I can't recall that being a problem when wrapping them.

Warmouth