How are down and feathers collected from the birds? Are they plucked from the living animal?

Down and feathers are a by-product of poultry meat production. The amount of the geese and ducks kept for this purpose are closely connected to the corresponding meat consumption. In Asian countries, for instance, poultry meat is one of the main foods of the population. In the Easter European countries, by contrast, the export of poultry meat is to the fore.

 

 

Down and feathers are usually collected after slaughtering of the birds.

 

The moulting, the natural shed of the plumage, also plays a role for the collecting of down and feathers after the slaughtering. It is important that ducks and geese are slaughtered exactly at the time of their moulting period in order not to hurt their skin. For most birds, this is the case when they reach the first moulting period, i.e. ducks at the age of 8 to 12 weeks and geese at the age of 14 weeks.

 

Those birds that are not primarily destined for meat production, but for instance kept for breeding purposes (breeding geese) live longer and undergo a process during which the feathers are shed due to hormonal reasons (moulting season). Down and feathers from those birds can be collected manually.

 

The material harvested from the living birds is of particular high quality as it usually comes from older, further developed birds which make it more expensive, too. Nowadays, there is a high demand for such collected down and feathers predominantly in Asian countries (especially Japan).

 
 

Geese reach their moulting period at the age of 12 to 14 weeks which means that the down and feathers shed and are replaced by new ones.

Thus, down and feathers are harvested by hand when the natural moulting process takes place.

One has to wait until the down and feathers have reached the right degree of maturity. Feathers then grow again after 6 to 7 weeks and the cycle repeats itself. Harvesting of feathers concerns the traditional breeding geese (which lay eggs and produce offspring). They reach the moulting period 3 to 4 times a year.

 

Only a fraction of the traded down and feathers is collected from geese by hand. According to estimates, over 98% of the worldwide supply of down and feathers are harvested after the slaughtering of the bird as the consumer prefers young meat from smaller birds (statistic calculations of the European Down and Feather Association, EDFA).