Outragous Saddle Hackle prices

[WarrenP]

" Besides the feather ladies driving up prices"


And Denny refuses to sell his products to this particular group which should tell you something about the high quality person he is and also lets you know that he is dedicated to providing products for fly tyers only.

I will now get off my soap box and crawl back to the rear where my seat is.....

[Silver Creek]

How much would I pay? Whatever it takes to get the hackle I want.

I've tied for over 30 years and found out that when you find what you want, you buy it. It saves me the frustration finding just the size or color and feather quality I want from a saddle or neck that is just not quite right.

My time is what is valuable to me. When paying more for the right hackle saves me time, I'll do that. How do I get the hackle I need? I never buy hackle that I haven't personally inspected.

[kglissmeyer]

I'm with Silver on this one. I search out high quality hackle that I inspect. What would I pay? Whatever I feel is reasonable to get what I want and need. Your comment about a chicken being a chicken really misses the point when it comes to buying quality hackle. I'm not trying to be argumentative or critical, nor am I trying to pick a fight - what's important in cost and quality is solely up to you and what meets your needs and expectations.

Kelly.

[DBenner]

If you want to look at the value of your feather collection on ebay, go there, type in saddle hackle, or rooster hackle or your "favourite name brand" and scroll down through the list. I figure that I have saddles in my fly tying box that I paid a handsome price of $40 last fall which meet my tying needs perfectly (that is the catch when buying feathers), is now actually selling for $200-400 for the exact same thing. Glad I bought what and when I did to last me a little while. Ouch.

Course with gas prices moving up to almost $1.30 per litre, cannot afford to go fishing anyway in a truck getting 14-15 MPG due to the new ethanol content mixture. Might have to sell one to go for a couple days fishing



Dwight

[CharlaineC]

warren you might want to talk to denny about the hair feather ladies. he wont sell in bulk thats what most want and are overly demanding, call denny or email him and talk to him, you will fint you are SADDLY mistaken

[James Smith]

The bottom line is that like any open market, it is based on supply and demand. With so many variables that hackle farms have to face such as weather, parasites, disease, predators etc; I don't blame any of them for getting as much as the market will bear for their products. The fact that hair fashion has adopted the fad of using hackle feathers to decorate people’s hair has driven up the demand; so the fact that the prices have gone up should be no surprise. I’m quite certain that everyone here on FAOL wants to get as much money as possible for our time, talent, products, services etc. as possible so why shouldn’t the hackle growers do the same? You just need to decide how much a hen skin is worth to you and then decide if you want to buy it or not.

[EdD]

Farming is a risky business. Remember that it wasn't too long ago we were afraid that we might have some of our hackle producers put out of business by avian flu. I acknowledge that having so much hackle taken off the market is inconvenient today. But the influx of cash might help secure supply for tomorrow. If the demand continues, then supply will likely increase. This won't happen today, it takes months to run up the supply of hackle. But again this is a point on which we can be thinkful for the breeding work done for us. I believe that it currently takes about 10 months to get a rooster from egg to prime condition. It used to take 2 years. We shall see what happens in the future. Since one can mail-order day-old chicks of (lesser) fly-tying strains surprisingly cheaply (cheeply?), we might see a whole slew of new hackle producers flooding the market. We worry about Whiting remembering us, maybe THEY are worried about us remembering them.

Ed

Ed

[millerwb]

I have also found good hackle and prices at http://www.collinshacklefarm.com/

[millerwb]

Farming is a risky business. Remember that it wasn't too long ago we were afraid that we might have some of our hackle producers put out of business by avian flu. I acknowledge that having so much hackle taken off the market is inconvenient today. But the influx of cash might help secure supply for tomorrow. If the demand continues, then supply will likely increase. This won't happen today, it takes months to run up the supply of hackle. But again this is a point on which we can be thinkful for the breeding work done for us. I believe that it currently takes about 10 months to get a rooster from egg to prime condition. It used to take 2 years. We shall see what happens in the future. Since one can mail-order day-old chicks of (lesser) fly-tying strains surprisingly cheaply (cheeply?), we might see a whole slew of new hackle producers flooding the market. We worry about Whiting remembering us, maybe THEY are worried about us remembering them.

Ed

As one who also raises chickens (but not for feathers), I am surprised that you could get quality, long saddle hackle in 10 months. I would think it would take longer than that, based on my limited experience.

Brian

[jeffro]

Looks like i touched some nerves ...thats not what I was trying to do.

I merely was curious HOW MUCH you pay and from where.
some of you sound offended or protective mode has kicked in.

Myself,I dont need any saddle hackles or any kind of hackles.....I have everything I will need for the next 10 years of tying....so calm down....

I asked a couple of simple questions about PRICES and WHERE......I have not said one word about your guy Denny....ya'll did

Now, Thank you for all the feedback ....a chicken is just a chicken I dont care what anyone says.....Be offended if thats what yanks your chain....This was not the intention of this thread.....

I asked a question or 2 and look what happened noone said anything about HooknHackle or Cabelas etc.,
Thanks for input