Real pigeon wings on decoys?

[Nial]

A few people have posted recently about wing/tail feather copies they'd made out

of foam etc.

 

I was processing a few birds last night and wondered if real wings could be used.

They would need to be glued to a thin supporting board in the required position,

the board could then be used to mount to full body shells on bouncers etc.

 

Do the wings keep OK or will they eventually go off?

 

 

Nial.

[ironhorse]

Cut the pigeon wings off, find your self a peace of board, put a nail through the base of your wing into the wood, put another nail about half way up the front of the wing, but not through the wing this nail helps to keep the wing in the right position, then open the wing into flying position and place another nail through the feathers to hold it open, now just leave the wing somewhere safe to dry out, once dry it will stay in open position. I have pigeon wings I dried years ago and there still fine

[Nial]

I have pigeon wings I dried years ago and there still fine

 

 

I thought the feathers would end up falling out as things dry out.

 

The idea of having something behind is to support things a bit and to provide a way of

mounting them to a shell.

 

Looks like this might be worth trying.

 

 

Nial.

[Warlock]

i have heard of people setting them on a board then spraying them with Humbrol spray matt varnish which didn`t change the look of the feathers too much and kept the matt appearance, it also acted as a glue keeping everything together.

[ironhorse]

I have a set of pigeon wings I dried 8 years ago, I had a plastic flying pigeon decoy I had bought some years ago, it was so naff I used it once; anyway I reduced the existing plastic wings in size and mounted the real pigeon wings onto the plastic ones, that way I was able to use the fixing that was already there to attach the wings to the body , job done

 

No feathers have been lost so far

Edited February 11, 2009 by ironhorse

[ljtucker]

I used small wire like the garden stores use for flaging sprinkelers or the gas company uses to locate marks for digging small dia very stiff Can be shoved through the skin next to the bone then through the shell and then the wing on the other side little hot glue and done .Have also hot glued wings to full body dove decoys

[Towngun]

But first you need preserve them: Salt Water Method:

 

The best way is to soak the part for two weeks in a saturated salt solution (pickling salt or the driveway salt works well and is inexpensive).

 

In a bucket of lukewarm water keep pouring in salt and stirring until no more of it will dissolve. You may have to weight the wing down with a well-placed rock so it does not float. After two weeks, take the wing out and nail it to a board in the position you want it to dry in.

[chrispti]

I made these about a year ago, still use them today and still work VERY well .

 

Just cut off the wings left them on a shelf in the shed for a couple of weeks then glue gunned them on to a cheap flying decoy, for the tail I just plucked out the feathers and pushed them into a small piece of cardboard, sprayed it Grey and glue gunned on

 

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...al+pigeon+wings