Hackle availability

[Ray Kunz]

This situation is sickening. With the supply lines of hackles having been hijacked by the Yuppies (even the capes are unavailable now) Where do I tell my class folks to get their material? This is a childish thought, but is there no way to convince the producers that cutting off their "bread and butter" customers is not helping their reputations?

[TomS]

go to Http://www.Conranch.com

[Jack Hise]

Ray;
Denny doesn't answer his phone for all the calls from salons. He will not sell to them so there is one man standing up for us! He will check the caller ID and return the call if he knows it's one of us and not some beauty parlor!!

[mnklagoon]

How will he know its "us" if he doesn't know our phone number?

[Denny]

Perhaps I can shed some light on things.
For the past 4 months I have been getting from 25 to 40 phone calls per day.
I allowed the salon people to trash my 2100 minutes for two months in a row. My problem was trying to be Mr nice guy. So
I quit answering my phone, doing a call back on those I knew were customers of old. I have never taken an order over the phone,
( for 15 years) I also have never set up my voice mail, ever and feel I have more important things to do than listen to a lengthy message. I always ask for a customer to e-mail me or if I have ones # I will call back. I can then print it out and pull inventory and e-mail my findings back, allowing the customer to chose. I do accept most calls on Saturdays and Sundays, even at 0500 on a Sunday morning. (has happened many times)
I will e-mail back and forth as many times as it takes. Previous customers know this, so they do e-mail me.
Info: There are about 250 to 350 hackles on a grade #1 saddle. My price has been and still is $50. Today the going rate for saddle hackle, from 7 to 12 inches in length is a minimum of $4 per feather. Because of this not only are there a lot of new brokers buying and selling saddle hackle but even many of our loudest complainers have been selling saddles they do not tie from for the extra $$. I have no problem with anyone selling anything, no mater where they got it or what price they can get from sales. I produce a limited number of birds per year. Because I am not a big $$ breeder, I raise each year what I think I can sell. I sell only to fly tiers. Never has any of my hackle ever been sold in any fly shop. This is my marketing method I started 15 years ago. I do not plan on changing. I have been getting and still am, e-mails from shops from all over the country. I question if these shops want them to sell to fly tiers? The reason I wonder is many of them have offered me as much as $150 for a Grizzly, grade #1 saddle and several have offered to buy all I can supply. Interesting. I still do not sell to fly shops, nor do I sell to the "good ole boy dealer network", and I do not sell to the Hair Industry Folks.
It is normal for me to be out of stock on some colors and grades of both capes and saddles at this time of year.
I do have some very nice capes for sale at this time. Not all colors or all grades. My prices were raised back in 2008. Feed went sky high. Today the prices are still the same.
My 2009 hatch of birds is very low.(inventory) I have in the barns the 2010 hatch, waiting for me to determine processing date. (still do not know as the weather has been very goofy this year). Two weeks ago we shut off the incubators and moved the last baby chicks into the brooders in the brooder barn. These 2011 hatched birds will not be ready for processing until sometime about one year from now.

I will be most happy when this "Hair Fad" is over and forgotten about. I would suggest for tiers to not get pushed into purchasing hackle you do not need and do not fall into a higher price than you have normally been spending. I will have saddles for sale again once the Fad is over.

Another interesting note: For the past 15 years I have owned and marketed hackle from this flock I have found tiers buy 15% saddles, and 85% capes. It is understandable to me. My capes will tie only in the size 12s, perhaps a few 10s and a few 14. The capes, all grades will tie from 28 / 32 on up to the big boys. Today grade #3 cape hackle is as good a dry fly quality as a grade #1. There are two big differences, price of course and the number of flies you can expect to tie from one cape. I know it is impossible for a tier to tell the difference between cape and saddle hackle, except for the longer length of Saddle hackle.

Hopefully this will answer some of the questions that some of you may have.

Respectfully

Denny

[flyfishfairwx]

Awesome Denny just Awesome, great to know that there are standup business men..What North America needs right now is more much more Denny Conrad's

[ScottP]

I produce a limited number of birds per year. Because I am not a big $$ breeder, I raise each year what I think I can sell.

Denny,

Thanks for keeping it all in perspective. Do you know if operations like Whiting, Metz etc are planning to boost production to meet the fashionista's demands or are they going to wait out the (hopefully) fad and let the market re-establish itself?

Regards,
Scott