Down jackets duck down. Duck down: why duck down is valuable

Each of us, buying pillows, blankets and even a piece of clothing such as a jacket, is most often interested in what kind of filler is used in the middle of each product. In such a case, it is important that it is warm, environmentally friendly and safe for the human body. Nowadays there is a huge number of fillers, but the most demanded and often used is goose down. Let's consider what properties and advantages this filler has and where it can be used.

Goose down: properties and structure

Considering goose down, only appropriate ornithologists can answer the question of what it is. Experienced connoisseurs will answer that each bird has a contour feather, under which it is located special kind feather, which is just called down. AT scientific literature goose down is also called by other terms, but the warming ability does not depend on the name, but on other characteristics. This feature lies in the fact that downy villi are able to hold air even in the smallest plexuses. Due to this, everything down products are warm compared to other fillers, therefore goose down is best filler for numerous products.

If you look at a filler such as goose down, you can be sure that it is natural materialwith excellent performance characteristics. Each property that goose down is endowed with is unique.

1. Goose down has high thermal insulation characteristics. In cold weather, it is able to keep warm, and in hot weather, on the contrary, it is slightly cool.
2. High levels of comfort, as birds such as geese make it possible to obtain soft material, which is subsequently used to create soft-touch blankets, pillows and other products.
3. Goose down has good hygroscopic properties, which makes it possible to quickly absorb moisture.
4. Geese make it possible to obtain elastic and resilient goose down. Due to this, any pillow and other down products quickly take the shape of the head or other part of the human body.
5. This raw material is quite light, since about 10 million small fluffs fall on 1 kg of fluff.
6. One of the important properties of goose down is its ability to be stored for many years. On average, goose down is kept in good condition for 5 years, so the production of such products in this case is justified.

If you do not know whether to choose goose down as the main filler, then in this case you should say with confidence what you need, since it has a lot of advantages.

Goose or duck

Birds such as ducks and geese allow us to harvest a variety of raw materials commonly used in the production of various outerwear and other home textiles. Naturally, in this case, the question is quite natural, is duck or goose down better? It cannot be said 100% that duck material is much better than goose material. But at the same time, it is imperative to consider their main differences.

Goose down in production is more affordable than duck analog. Such material is obtained only if certain people simply collect it directly from the bird. In addition, comparing it with swan fluff, it is safe to say that their characteristics are almost similar, only the price will be different. Goose down and its price will be affordable for everyone, which depends on the productive collection of down without harming the goose population. The most valuable today is white goose down, but this does not mean that you should not pay attention to other options.

If we consider the characteristics of down obtained from geese and ducks, the second option is less preferable if it is used to create garments. The kind of raw material obtained from the ducks will be much smaller and tougher. In addition, it can collect in small lumps, moreover, it is not as warm compared to that obtained from geese.

How to choose the right down products

In the event that you decide to purchase jackets, pillows, blankets and other items with a similar filler, then first of all you need to carefully examine each product before purchasing it directly. First, you need to pay attention to a number of parameters:

• the product should be light enough, but not heavy;
• a pleasant aroma should emanate from the product: a bad smell will signal that the material was simply poorly washed before entering production.

Immediately after determining these factors, you need to take the product in your hands, shake it and squeeze it. When this process is carried out, approximately 50-70% of the product after compression should instantly recover. In the event that no changes are observed, we can talk about poor quality raw materials.

• It is necessary to ventilate and shake fluff products as often as possible and be sure only in the fresh air.
• You need to wash such things as carefully as possible: for this process, it is advisable to use any liquid soap and after washing it is imperative to rinse, wring out and shake the thing well.
• In the event that in washing machine there is a special mode for washing such products, this option can be safely used, while it is very important to carry out this process at a temperature of 40 ° C, but not higher.
• In order for this material not to undergo a decay process in the future, it cannot be stored in sufficiently humid conditions.

Adhering to the basic recommendations, it will not be difficult to preserve such a warm material as down. At the same time, one should not forget that geese enable us to obtain a type of raw material, unique in its properties, widely used in modern production.

Bird plumage is the true engineering art of Mother Nature. It has lightness, elasticity, strength and the ability to restore its original structure after removal of the load. Down-feather raw materials as a heat-insulating material for winter clothes and filler for blankets and pillows are used both from poultry (geese, ducks, chickens) and wild birds (eider duck, swan, wild duck).

However, the owners of the most valuable plumage - down are only waterfowl... It is believed that duck down is not as valuable as goose down due to its thermal insulation quality. In a goose, it is larger and more elastic. The duck is smaller and rolls down faster, therefore, its service life is half that of the goose, on average 10 years.

The main parameter by which the quality of down is assessed is its recovery after compression, which is measured in cubic inches. Thus, the higher the number, the better fluff... One gram of eider feathers contains almost a thousand feathers. Of particular value is the fact whether the down is collected from a killed carcass or from a nest.

In addition to light weight and elasticity, there are other characteristics that determine the quality of the down. It must have good air exchange and allow moist air to flow from heat to cold.

Goose down may hold pride of place among commercially reared poultry, but it cannot be compared to the down of the northern eider duck. This duck with valuable down nests on the coasts of the Pacific and Arctic oceans, in the Baltic. Despite the great number of synthetic insulation materials invented by man, they cannot compete with duck down either in terms of thermal insulation properties or in terms of service life. Due to the complex, branchy structure of the fluff, products made of fluff are distinguished by unique hygroscopicity.

You can often find offers to buy a down jacket, where the filler is exclusive white duck down. However, it is not specified which one: white Peking, white Moscow, or maybe obtained as a result of crossing Peking with Hakikempbell. Therefore, such a purchase should be treated with caution, because the color of eider down is gray.

The fluff of those ducks that live in the conditions of northern latitudes and are able, thanks to their plumage, not to leave their place of residence even in the most severe winters, and to spend a lot of time in icy water, has unique properties.

Throughout the clutch, the duck pulls out the fluff from the chest and abdomen and covers the bottom of the nest. So, on a day, a portion of fluff is added to each laid egg, and all eggs are completely covered. Naturally, such fluff has an admixture of litter, shells, which requires scrupulous cleaning and sorting of the fluff, according to the variety.

In the last century, this breed of ducks was mercilessly exterminated, therefore today they are listed in the Red Book and the down is collected by hand in the nesting places of birds. From one nest, you can collect an average of only 20 grams. , hence the corresponding price due to the laboriousness of the assembly process. Duck down is available for collection only twice a year, when the birds begin laying and after the chicks have already left the nest.

Eiders live in colonies, so up to a thousand nests can be found along the entire coast not far from each other, which are used by one bird for several years. Eiders do not panic about the proximity of people and this allows the annual global collection of up to four tons of valuable fluff.

When buying products, be it a blanket or pillow, or another product filled with natural fluff and pen - you appreciate this product primarily visually. Of course, the quality of the material, its density and color are also an integral part of the product as a whole. But what you need to know about the contents of this product, which often cannot be seen, directly touch it.

So what determines the quality of the down or feather?

Let's start in order - today we'll talk about fluff. To begin with, let's find out that only representatives of waterfowl birds have fluff, that is, for example, a chicken, an Indoka (turkey) or an ostrich - they do not have fluff. Domestic goose and duck, as well as their wild relatives, are striking representatives of downy birds inhabiting the territory of Russia and Ukraine. The most affordable will of course be poultry. Do not wake you running through the steppes and fields in search of a wild bird to take away the down from it for your pillow. By the way, to make one pillow, for example, 70 x 70 in size, you need about 1100 fluff, taking into account technological losses in the process of its preliminary processing (sorting, washing, drying and dusting), and from one adult it is possible to get a maximum of 180 - 220 g of down.

This information about the down is not enough to have an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat is inside the product, and even more so to judge its quality.

Let's now understand the varieties of fluff, namely: it can be goose or duck... What is the difference, you ask? There is a difference, and it is inherent in nature itself. Structurally, this the difference can only be seen with a special microscope ... But the structure itself is not the defining difference in quality. This difference lies in the amount of fatty and waxed inclusions on the structure of the puff itself (cluster), of which there are more in duck than in goose. Accordingly, duck down is considered more "fat", which requires significant processing costs, it is heavier and is mainly used as a filler for the manufacture of outerwear. And, nevertheless, there are norms of content, say, duck down in goose. For different countries they are different, on average it is from 6 to 12 percent.

After we have figured out the difference between goose and duck down, let's move on to a more detailed study of it.

Both the duck and the goose are white, gray or mixed. To date, information is widespread, unfortunately I do not know by whom, that white fluff is superior in quality to gray. It's like a person's dark skin is worse than light skin, - rave... I declare with full responsibility that this is a lie, and if, of course, you do not consider yourself a racist, then you will agree with me. The price for white down is really higher than for gray down, but this is not related to its quality - this is only due to its aesthetics, that is, to its external data, appearance - in white. This was due to the aesthetic demands of the market. In the world, a white bed is much more in demand than a bed in any other color performance. For centuries, an impeccably snow-white bed was considered the royal bed, although there is no dispute about tastes. Modern sophisticated white translucent teaks do not allow the use of gray fillings, although gray is quite acceptable for other types. In addition, given the approximate percentage ratio in nature of pure white and gray down of 40 to 60, it becomes extremely clear where the price is formed from. The main determining factor of the quality of down is its place of origin (territorially), the breed of the bird and its age. Nature has taken care of the creatures living on Earth. Being in more severe conditions of existence (for example, in the northern regions of the country), the edge, in this case in birds, gains a more abundant and pronounced character, which is manifested in a significant increase in clusters and their number. As for the age of the bird, it is biologically laid down that in an individual, whose age is approaching a calendar year, the cluster is more developed in structure and size than in young animals. Finally, the simplest and most obvious in the quality of down is the direct human influence through selection on the breeding of down breeds of the same goose.

There is another myth that I really want to dispel and shed light on. It touches the plucked down from a live bird, the so-called "live bird", and the down taken from a previously slaughtered bird - from the carcass. Yes, I agree that down, as an organic derivative (down is organic), does not lose its properties ("lives") while it is fed from the skin of its owner - a bird, but as soon as it loses this, the aging process begins irreversibly and destruction as a result, I repeat, it's organic. In this case, there is absolutely no difference between the fluff removed in vivo and fluff removed from the carcass. The bottom line lies in something completely different, which determines the price of "livestock", which is much higher than the usual fluff. Firstly, as mentioned above, there are certain norms, tolerances for the percentage of duck down in a goose, with a goose down, the percentage of duck down in it is zero. Because the duck raw material due to its structure is valued lower than goose, the result is obvious - easy money with moderate mixing. Secondly, when carrying out a timely and correct "livestock", the percentage of down in the total mass is much higher than in ordinary raw materials. But this advantage is inherent only in the first stage before the start of pre-processing. Raw materials are sorted and sorted into fractions, therefore, the output is still aligned with the usual one. The difference will be only in the mass of certain fractions, in their quantity. Well, that's probably all that can be said about which down is better than duck or goose down. Enjoy your shopping, and don't be fooled!