For once Google Search and Webster’s Dictionary have failed me. Neither will accept the words BIOT or FLUE. I know biot refers to the short pieces of a goose or turkey wing feather that are used for making bodies. I also thought that these smaller elements of a feather were called flues like the fine parts of a hackle feather. Can anyone help define these terms for me and cite their origins?
Ray;
You’re a better man than I so I’ll just lurk here while you get the answer!
I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here!
Cactus
Dear Ray, Did you know we had Tying Terms here on FAOL? Here is Biot:
Biot:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial”>quote:</font><HR>The short side of a duck or goose primary wing feather, stripped off the feather with some of the ribbing intact. Sections of this
material are used on top of some streamers to simulate dorsal fins of bait fish. Often tied reversed, with the fibers facing forward to toward the eye of the hook. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The ‘terms’ are listed under Fly Tying, as
Fly Tying Terms
LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL
The Flytier’s Illustrated Dictionary by Darrell Martin has the flollowing definition for flue:
“The soft downlike fibers at the base of a feather; the down mass or feather itself; the soft, immature feather. The term comes from the Flemish vluwe, of the same meaning.”
Thanks for the details folks. But why is a flue called a flue or a biot called a biot?
Are they from a foreign language like CDC?
The origin of flue is in the definition above. Martin says the origin of the term biot is unknown but appears to be modern since it’s not in older tying books. Somebody must know where it came from.
Jay
I believe the origin of the term biot came after a rather enterprising fly tyer/fly shop owner was discussing a pile of used duck quills with a fishing buddy.
When said fly tyer mentioned discarding the lot of feathers containing only the leading edge of fibers; his accomplice replied: " don’t throw them away, some idiot will buy it".
Later the words buy it morphed into the present term biot 
.
Well darn, I thought if I told you where the Tying Terms was someone might just go out and find Flue. No one did. So again, from the Tying Terms, listed under Fly Tying, here is Flue:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial”>quote:</font><HR>Flue:
The fuzz or tiny fibers on ostrich or peacock herl.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL
Ray…
Try in Google,
Biot Feather
Flue Feather
you will get lots of hits
Google Addict Fran 
I thought a Flue was; That tin thing that goes from the top of the stove out through the roof and, takes some of the smoke out of the cabin.“G” Jax
I’m a much better Fly fisher when talking fishing, than when I’m Actually Fly fishing!
I’ve tried to find the origins for biot before and got nowhere. But when I looked up Flue in the Concise Oxford Dictionary on my PC it said a pipe to carry away smoke but then under fluff I found -
fluff // n. & v.
n.
1 soft, light, feathery material coming off blankets etc.
2 soft fur or feathers.
3 slang a a mistake in delivering theatrical lines, in playing music, etc. b a mistake in playing a game.
4 something insubstantial or trifling, esp. sentimental writing.
v.
1 tr. & intr. (often foll. by up) shake into or become a soft mass.
2 tr. & intr. colloq. make a mistake in (a theatrical part, a game, playing music, a speech, etc.); blunder (fluffed his opening line).
3 tr. make into fluff.
4 tr. put a soft surface on (the flesh side of leather).
bit of fluff slang offens. a woman regarded as an object of sexual desire.
[probably dialect alteration of flue ?fluff?]
So it looks like flue in this context is a dialect word.
Donald/Scotland