Flytier,

As the guys mentioned above they can be used in a variety of ways. One of my favorites is to use the the hackles for soft wing collars on nymphs. Hold the feather in your hand and strip off all the hackle on the right side of the stem. At the base cut off about 1/4 inch of the stem, then snip about 3 hackles, then tie in a make a couple of wraps. Works good for me and I hope it will for you also. Keep tying.

[This message has been edited by gqualls (edited 20 January 2006).]