Mallard wing

[danielp]

Later on this week a friend of mine who dos a lot of shooting is going to bring me a magpie and a few mallard wings. What do i need to do to preserve these lovely gifts?

Is it easiest just to take the feathers from them and then discad the waste or somehow preserve the whole wings?

Dan

[hopper68]

For years i just strip the flight feathers from the wing and keep them in seperate bags (left & right) for pairing there no need to keep the whole wing.I do the same with all wings.

[stevekale]

Preserve the whole wing. It's very easy. Turn the wing over so it's upside down and make an incision to scrape out as much of the meet as possible. (Hard to describe more accurately but should be obvious looking at the wing.) Rub Borax into the area where you removed the meet. Cover all the area with borax and leave for a week or so. Tip off the borax and then scrape out any borax that's stuck to the wing joints (forearm and upper arm). Re-cover with borax and leave for another week. After that you should have a well-preserved wing. If not just repeat the above. Put in the microwave for 20 seconds to kill any bugs. I also then pop them in the freezer for a week to make sure there's no bugs.

Job done.

[danielp]

Cheers guys, will give it a go. Where does one buy this borax? is it something a chemist will stock or do i have to get it online?

[stevekale]

Biostainonline on eBay.

I would also pluck the bronze mallard from the drakes.

[dun09]

dont forget the grey mallard flanks and the cdc