Preserving pigeons with borax

[ShropshireSam]

Had requests to detail preserving dead birds for decoys using borax. Borax is a sodium salt with low toxicity (it is a food additive in some countries!) and can be used as a preservative in taxidermy. I use it to preserve pigeons for use as decoys on magnets. They have the benefit of looking like real birds, will keep for at least a year if looked after, they don't smell and are very light in weight. Borax can be bought on line....I buy from Intralabs with a kg for less than a £5 is plenty for 2 birds. I only use this for birds to be mounted on magnets.

 

Need to choose a mature bird in good condition and good markings, no broken wings or lost feathers or broken neck.

I use newspaper under the bird and need to be gently when handling so as not to disturb the birds feathers and need to keep the bird dry.

 

Remove breasts as normally would but take care to cut skin in a neat line and not to tear the skin.

Then remove as much of remaining meat and the wishbone

Break off legs at knee joints, push legs through skin, then remove legs from carcase

Remove all innards.

Remove windpipe and tongue, push a medium sized phillips screwdriver up through neck and into skull

Cut away the breast bone

Use tissue mop up any blood

 

 

Then fill the body cavity with borax

fill mouth and neck with borax

push screwdriver up through neck repeatedly to push borax into skull

cover exposed skin and breast plate with borax and fold skin over breast plate

cut along muscle in upper wings and rub borax into muscle

use a wing spreader to hold wings open

(I use some home-made heavy duty wing spreaders - these stretch the wings fully out - made from twisting two wires together - makes them quite springy)

place bird on bed of sand to hold body shape and head in position. Spread tail feathers

(I do this in a bread crate so can stack out of way while drying)

 

 

Store for a week

After a week carefully turn bird over, ensure feathers in order and re-position.

(I do this as if left on back for whole time then can dry into a flat shape)

Leave for at least another 4 weeks, if cool/damp then suggest 8 weeks.

Hold bird carefully and tap breast plate so borax falls out. Poke clumps of borax with screwdriver to break them up.

I leave the skin loose as out of sight under the bird and when dried it stays in place but could be stitched or stapled.

When attaching to the magnet the spike won't go in the bird easily so I just attach by the wings...when dried the holes in the wings are a tight fit and hold the birds fine.

By removing the breast bone the decoys stack together flatter and I keep them together in a bag and keep on top of my other kit so they don't get squashed.

No problems with loosing feathers just start to get tatty after repeated use

 

I have prepared these at various times of year and no issues with flies. I re-use the borax....just top it up with some fresh.

 

All the above may not be necessary but I have based this on basic taxidermy techniques and it appears to work fine. The first one took me a while but much easier and quicker to do now and don't worry if the underside looks a mess...the important thing is how the bird looks from above....sorry I did not take a picture of the finished bird...but it looks just like a pigeon...honest!

 

[ditchman]

Thats interesting .........

 

 

cheers for that

[derbyduck]

well done Sam , that look safer than using formalin.

DD

Edited August 28, 2015 by derbyduck