How much is the most you would pay for a Skin of a Chicken?
Where would you purchase this pelt ?
From a sponser here on FAOL or if you could get the same Bird from another more reasonable place,
would you feel guilty and go ahead and pay more from a sponsor here from FAOL?
I have another question?
Where do these people come up with these prices?
Thanks
I highly recommend that you contact Denny at Conranch Hackle and tell him what you are going to use the hackle for and let him come up with what you need. He is very easy to talk to and he will treat you right and is honest. You can contact him through a PM on FAOL and he goes by “Denny” on here. He has a lot of his time invested in breeding good hackle and I know that you can purchase other hackle at less cost than his, but, the ease of using his hackle is at the top of the list of quality. The hackle stems are perfect and they palmer so easily. After using his hackle and comparing it to others, you will notice the difference immediately. I think you will fine that there is very little difference in price when you compare good quality hackle and the extra couple bucks for Denny’s hackle is well worth it. I spent many years tying with other hackle and thought all hackle would “fight” you when using them until I tried Denny’s hackle and what a joy it was to use it.
Send a PM to Denny and talk to him. I think you will be pleased with the conversation and once you try his hackle you will be impressed.
Just my recommendation and nothing more…
Thanks WarrenP but a chicken is a chicken a rooster is a rooster…I priced a bunch of different Saddles over the past 8 years or more and they are all Way too much for the average buyers.
I think that denny has his lowest price at $150.00 isnt it? when I can get the same skin for $50. to $80 bucks almost anywhere.
My question was How Much would you or the average buyer pay for your full skins…a chicken is a chicken
Jeffro, are you sure your not comparing apples and oranges here? There is a considerable difference between good genetic dry fly hackle and ordinary chicken feathers. If you want feathers for streamers and wooly buggers you can probably come up with something in any barnyard though a lot of the feathers will be damaged. The feathers on a quality cape are not only suited to use for dry flies but the birds have been raised so as to have mostly unbroken feathers with few missing barbules. If you have not been tying for a long time you may not appreciate how unnatural those birds are. If you are paying $50 to $80 dollars for barnyard chicken skins you should call me and I’ll get you all want for $40. If your paying $50 to $80 for full skins of quality dry fly hackle call me. I’ll be buying.
Im not talkin about barnyard chickens I’m talkin about good quality TYING feathers …they simply charge way too much!
My question is>>>>How much would you pay and where would you purchase it?
This is an easy answer for me and I’ll explain why. When I look at hackle I first look as what flies I can tie with that one skin, then I look at the different size of hooks you can use out of the skin. I also look at what like to call the breakage factor when tying; I have had hackles that break with barely any pressure on them. I also look at how many flies i can tie from one hackle strand.
The next Factor for me that is I believe the most important is how they are bread and how they are cared for. To me this is a huge factor. That?s why there?s only one place I will get my hackle (maybe I’m biased) but its Denny Conrad and Conranch hackle all the way.
Just talk to Denny and you will see why. He is full of a passion when it comes to his birds and hackle that by itself proves it’s not a money making opportunity but a labor of love. Then theirs fact that he keeps the tier in mind not the wholesaler is huge. You go ahead and ask him how rich he is from doing this and you will soon Find out that for Denny it’s not about the money it?s about his love and passion for what he does.
He doesn’t just breed the birds theirs an art to what he does. The time he takes with his birds to bread them just right, Denny even keeps genealogy records on his birds and uses this to produce some of the most beautiful colours i have ever seen. Even his “2” or “B” grade hackles are by far superior then others “1” or “A” grade hackle.
Now take all that I have just said and turn around and look at his prices for full skins, or just capes and saddles, Full Mature, Or Juvenile (JV), and tell me that his prices are not more than fair. Hell honestly I believe he is under charging after everything I have learned and the sorry state of our current economy. That makes Denny Conrad And Conranch Hackle The only place I will buy Hackle.
I hope this wasn’t too much. 
Hey Jeffro! Not trying to start a fight here but in one post you say “a chicken is a chicken a rooster is a rooster”. Then in another post you say “…I’m talking about good quality TYING feathers”. I guess I don’t understand your question. If you are talking about “good quality TYING feathers”, then a chicken ISN"T a chicken.
I like kentucky fried myself…
I will try this one more time: If you are wanting to purchase high quality tying “saddles” then you need to click on this link where you will find high quality saddles for $50, $36 and $27:
http://www.conranch.com/saddles.html
If you are looking to purchase “mature hen hackle” in high quality, then you need to look at this link which has them for $35:
http://www.conranch.com/mature.html
I am not sure where you came up with Denny’s hackle for $150. I am sure he has some very high quality hackle for that price or more but those are special order for a particular color or type of hackle, but for my tying, which is for fishing, you cannot beat his other hackle. You really need to visit his site and view/read it from the beginning to the end and you will find what you are looking for, if, you are looking to purchase high quality hackle for your tying. If you just wanted to “rant” about the prices in general for hackle, then maybe we need to discuss why gasoline is now $3.66 per gallon…
Besides the feather ladies driving up prices, I don’t know what the OP is talking about. I can get half a dozen or more dries out of most Whiting saddle products, whatever the line. On a cost per fly basis, quality hackle is cheaper now than it ever was, easier to get, and better for most applications (#6 stoneflies a notable exception).
" 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…
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.
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.
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
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
[FONT=Tahoma]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.
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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
I have also found good hackle and prices at http://www.collinshacklefarm.com/
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
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