Breeder quality Silkie Chickens - $10. I have 1 week old Silkie chicks available for pick up. Colors available from this hatch are are White and Black. Hackle Haven is located in Gold Hill NC and I offer breeder quality Silkies in Buff, Black, Paint, White, Blue and Splash. Shipping of birds and hatching eggs also available when temperat.
Best of Breed: Maine Coon. Click on thumbnails for larger image. Best Maine Coon Of The Year IW BW SGC MTNEST CHRISTOPHER BROWN (BLACK) CLASSIC TABBY/WHITE Bred/Owned By: JUDY/DAVID BERNBAUM. Best Maine Coon Kitten Of The Year IW BW CHEMICOONS HELIUM OF CONCORDANCE BROWN (BLACK) CLASSIC TABBY/WHITE Bred By: EMMONS BROWN/LIZ HANSEN.

These are all cockerels which produce the hackle feathers you want. Pullets don’t have these. This Special includes at least some of each of the following: Barred Rocks for the Grizzlies; Blue Andalusians for the Duns; Silver Penciled Rocks for the Badgers; a Buff, Brown, or Red hackle breed for variety and experimentation.

peregrines

Super Moderator/Fly Swap Coordinator

(This FAQ is under construction, but here's the first bit)
it depends....
What kind of flies will you be tying?
This article will discuss hackle used in different types of flies and give some options for tying different types of flies in some detail and offer comparison of some common products in a table at the bottom of this post. Hopefully you'll have a better understanding of some of the differences among different types of hackle, and a better sense of what stuff is used to tie different patterns and why. But feel free to ask in the general fly tying forum if you have any questions.
In general, for .....
Dry flies - genetic dry fly rooster capes (to hackle a wide range of hook sizes) or genetic dry fly saddles (saddles will hackle a more limited range of hook sizes). For dry flies, you'll want to use cape or saddle feathers from birds that have been genetically bred for stiff barbs of uniform length and thin flexible stems that are easy to wrap.
Woolly Buggers - 'woolly bugger hackle' packs, long feathers at base of a dry fly cape, and some strung saddle hackle feathers
Wet flies - soft feathers from hens and gamebirds. Depending on hook sizes you are tying there's a wide variety of choices. Partridge, grouse and starling are commonly used as well as Indian and genetic hen cape feathers (hackle the widest range of hook sizes)
Nymphs- an Indian hen back is an inexpensive choice for tails and legs on nymphs, and there are a many other good choices as well, including most of the stuff used for wet flies.
Freshwater Streamers Varies by type of pattern and hook size- strung saddle feathers, genetic streamer saddles, Hen saddles for Matuka style streamers are common choices.
Freshwater Bass and Panfish Stung saddle and cape feathers may be inexpensive options, as are more expensive capon and rooster capes and saddles.
Saltwater and large freshwater patterns Strung saddle hackle is an inexpensive popular option for many baitfish patterns, as are more expensive generic and genetic rooster cape and saddle feathers. Indian rooster cape feathers for many shrimp and crab patterns used for bonefish etc. Some specialized patterns might call for flatwing saddles, schlappen, spey feathers
Salmon and Steelhead flies wide variety of specialized feathers including brightly dyed Chinese rooster and hen capes, genetic hen saddles, Rooster spey capes and saddles, spey hackle schlappen and gamebirds, and exotic feathers
What is my budget?
This FAQ will discuss typical prices as of (Spring 2011) and offer some suggestions for folks just starting out. The good news is that there are many excellent options no matter what you're tying.
There's a table in post #4 of this thread with some condensed info on different types of rooster hackle which might be helpful and a discussion (and another table) of Hen and Gamebird hackle here: http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/fly-tying-faq/202335-hen-gamebird-hackle.html
Hopefully it will help new fly tyers get a sense of the different hackle out there, how to select the right stuff for the flies you're tying, and some options for less expensive materials. Some hackle can of course be used for more than one type of fly.
For the purposes of this FAQ we'll be talking about chickens-- though other feathers from gamebirds (partridge and grouse) and other birds not protected by migratory gamebird regulations (starling for example) can be used.
Keep in mind that hackle can come from 'genetic' birds bred specifically for their feathers for fly tying and from the feathers of domestic or imported meat or egg birds (usually much less expensive).
The characteristics of the feathers among the many different choices of hackle will vary a great deal-- and so does their suitability for different types of patterns.
Here are some of the ways different types of hackle feathers will vary:
How stiff or soft are the barbs? Stiff for dry flies, soft for wet flies. The best way to tell is to bend the stem of the feather and take a look at the barbs.
Here's an example of a feather from the cape of a genetic dry fly rooster.

Note how the individual barbs stick straight out from the stem
Here's an example of a strung rooster Schlappen feather, with long and extremely soft and webby barbs used in primarily for tying salmon, steellhead and saltwater flies

Note how the barbs clump together (web) and the barbs curve around with the bend of the stem instead of sticking out straight.
Here's an example of a genetic hen saddle feather, used for the wings of matuka style streamers, and for hackling larger wet flies.

Note the soft webby barbs.
Note: All dry fly hackle comes from roosters, but not all rooster hackle is suitable for dry flies. Some rooster hackle and all hackle from hens is soft.
How long are the barbs? Standard proportions for many patterns for a hackle wrapped around the hook shank are 1.5 x width of the hook gap. A size 18 dry fly will need to have shorter stiffer barbs than the soft hackle used on a size 6 woolly bugger
Are the barbs a consistent length the length of the feather or are they longer at the base and shorter at the tip? A dry fly hackle should have a consistent barb length, but a woolly bugger often has longer barbs at the front of the fly and shorter barbs at the rear.
How long are the feathers? You'd want a long enough feather to palmer (wrapping a hackle in an open spiral down the hook shank) a hackle on a woolly bugger. Otherwise you'd have to use several feathers. And if you have long dry fly cape or saddle feathers you can often get more than one fly per feather ( 2-3 on a good cape feather, and 7-10 on a long saddle feather). But for a collar on wet flies and soft hackles that use just a wrap or two, a feather can be short in overall length.
What's the useable length of the feather? You'll find some fluff and and very wispy barbs on the base of every feather that you'll want to strip away before using the feather. And on some feathers the base of the stem can be very thick and stiff. So another consideration is not just the entire length of the feather, but the actual useable length of the feather after you get done stripping away the waste.
All hackle feathers have some web, which is a soft portion of all or a part of the barb. The web extends from each side of the stem, and may make up a large portion of the total length of the barbs at the base of the hackle feather. As the you go up along the stem of the feather the amount of web in each barb decreases. On dry fly hackle, because a large amount of web makes the barbs soft, you would generally want to strip off the lower barbs with a lot of web (say 50% or more of total barb length), and use the barbs with just a small amount of web (10-20% of total barb length ?).
In the pic below on the right, bodkin points to webby section of strung saddle hackle (bright red section of feather). On the left are two brown dry fly cape feathers, with one stripped of fluff and webby barbs at base of feather. The webby portion of the dry fly feathers is the dark brown color along both sides of the stem

Here's a pic showing side by side shots of from left dry fly hackle, strung rooster saddle strung rooster cape stripped of fluff and web to show useable portion of feather:

What is the shape of the feather? Wide feathers with rounded tips are often preferred for bass and saltwater flies, as opposed to slim feathers with pointed tips used on dry flies and for long tapered feathe

Best White Hackle Breeder