Beard

I put about 1 inch of Borax in a plastic cup.
All I do with the beard is once cut off with a bit of skin (see picture) is to place it in a plastic cup meat end in the cup. I will just let it dry as long as the fan.

Fan Mount….

What I do…
You will need a piece of board – I use plywood, a few screws – I use drywall screws, some flat thin wood pieces about 3 feet long, table salt, and some bug spray.

I cut the tail free from the bird cutting off at the narrowest area of the tail bone. Remember back to Mom’s Thanksgiving turkey and the part that goes over the fence last.

Should look like this. Here is a tail cut from a bird.


Picture of my mounting board I use year after year.


You see those 3 screws on the board> I place my tail good side of the fan facing the board – on the center screw.



Looks like this.



With the center of the fan positioned on top of the 2 inch drywall screw I take the right bottom most feather of the fan and spread the fan so it opens up and just take the feather shaft over the right and left dry wall screw. This will spread the fan.



Will look like this. Now again this is the backside of the fan. The part that will face the wall and not you. I then take a thin strip of wood and screw it down on either end. I will position each feather and then really tighten those screws down.

Below is the outcome.


Now I mound table salt on the meaty portion of the tail as shown.

And I will set it aside to dry for a few months. I leave this in an area in my basement of my house. I will check on it once a month and add more salt if needed.

I will also spray the fan with a good insecticide such as House a Garden a few times giving is a light spraying. This will kill any dermestid beetles….


After a few months I remove the dry fan and mount it to a plaque I make. I will put a dry wall screw from the back side into my mounting plaque. Now you will have all the tail bone intact and store bought mounting plaques don’t work all that good. But I have been doing this for years and my wall mounts still look great.
And here is another link to mount with out the tail bone by Adrian Hare.

http://ontariohunter.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=Turkey&action=display&num= 1090757179