White Turkeys

This year, it is estimated that 247 million turkeys will be produced in the US, all through artificial insemination. These Broad-Breasted Whites Toms are so huge that they can no longer breed naturaly.

Poulets reach a weight of 35 pound in just 19 weeks. If left to live longer, they continue to grow so fast that their legs can no longer support their weight.

This line was bred to be white feathered so as to better hide pinfeathers on the finished bird. Unfortunatly, feather quality has deteriated, becoming so britttle and filled with stress bars it is almost unusable,

Turkey Barns in Arkansas

Tying with White Turkey Feathers

Marabou, the fluffy feathers collected from the vent area of a turkey, is by far and away the most used feather from a turkey. Dyed every color imaginable, marabou is called for in everything from trout flies to spey patterns. These long fibers are commonly used for large hackles on spey flies as well as collars on leech patterns.

Turkey Flats, the feathers from the neck and back of the bird, are used in trout patterns to tie wing posts. Turkey Rounds, the secondary wing quills, are used for winging on smaller flies. Turkey Biots, the stiff fibers on the outer edge of the primary wing feathers, are used for wings on the prince nymph or to wrap segmented bodys on dry flies.

For the salmon fly tier the Turkey Tails have been a standard for tying married and mixed wing flies. The fibers are long, they dye well, and marry like zippers. The hard part is to find feathers free of stress bars. Seems that every feather on this taesty bird has a good use!

Marabou - Strung Blood Quills

$2.75

Feather Packs - 1/4 oz strung

The fibers on these feathers gives your fly life in the water. No other feather does quite the job simulating movement in the water.

Marabou is collected from the bird right where you put the stuffing in the turkey. These are the softest, fuffiest feathers on the bird.

The term "blood quills" refers to the stage of feather growth. When a feather is growing, it is said to be "in blood". New feathers just coming in are called "pin feathers".

The reason blood quills are are the best to use is that they are new feathers. Birds molt each year and these new blood quills are fresh, not brittle, and free of any broken tips

A second reason is that a blood feather stem is flexible and not as bulky. If left to grow another 10 days the feather "primes out" and the stem thickens and hardens.

Dyed, they come in countless colors. I've listed the most popular colors, but if you don't see what you're looking for, please call.

To check out, click the "view cart" button


red	yellow	orange	chartruese	soft pink	purple	hot pink

Hot Colors


black	white	brown	olive	lt olive	tan	wine

Earth Tones


Premium Turkey Flats	$3.00
Feather Packs Flats get their name from the fact that they are flat, the tip of the feather that is. The reason that this is important is that when tying cut wings or parachute posts, you want all the fibers to be the same length. If you were to use a round tiped feather, the fibers at the top of the post would all be different legths. So here it is not important the size or legnth of the feather, but rather you should be looking for a feather shaped simiar to the white one pictured on the right.
To check out, click the "view cart" button


Turkey Rounds - coming soon!	$0.00
Feather Packs These are the secondary wing feathers.
To check out, click the "view cart" button


Dyed Turkey Tails - 20 color set	$200.00
If you're getting the itch to try your hand at married wings, this is a perfect set to start out with. All the primary colors and then some, the fibers marry well and stress bars are at a minimum.



To check out, click the "view cart" button

Jock Scott

dyed tail sections

Fly Patterns

white wolly bugger

prince nymph

bivisable dun

Marabou Packs

Turkey Flat

bwo parachute

item

Earth Tones

Blood Quill

Fly Patterns

am gold pheasant

am gold pheasant