chicken feathers for fletching??

[PrimitiveHunter57]

I have a couple of tail feathers from a chicken that are 6'' long. Im not sure if they'er thick anough fill me please.

[aero86]

some native americans used crow feathers, so i dont see why chicken wont work. 

[primitivehunter2]

six inches is a little small but should work fine, your only gonna get a 4 to 4.5 inch fletching though.  size of the feather doesnt really matter as much as how they're fletched on.. remember to use the tail feathers that were located from the same side so that they are all cupping the air the same way. they should work fine so happy hunting!

[JW_Halverson]

Use whatcha got.  Just don't use hawk, falcon, eagle, vulture, owl, or songbird feathers if you can't afford to pay serious $$$$ to the US Fish and Wildlife and be under their close scrutiny for the rest of your life.

I have seen an original Sioux arrow at the Museum of the Fur Trade that uses a mallard secondary wing feather (it has that cool metallic blue section) and a yellow shafted flicker primary as two of the three feathers.  Near as I can tell, the third feather is sharptailed grouse wingfeather. 

[JackCrafty]

I've used guinea wing and black roster tail feathers.  They work, of course, but will not keep their shape well if you shoot a lot.  I use them mainly for kids arrows because they are cheap.

[okiecountryboy]

Turkey tail feathers are the best...Turkey faethers were used more by native americans

[hedgeapple]

Last year around this time I was starting my journey into primitive archery.  I had just finished my first board bow 30 pounder and need arrows.  Also, I had 15 adolecent chickens that need to go into the freezer.  Their tail feathers were not fully developed so those weren't usuable.  I did make several arrows using their wing feathers using a 2 fletched style.  They seem to work well but didn't hold up very long. 

Use what you got until you can get better.

[JW_Halverson]

Use what you got until you can get better.
[/quote]

That is the undeniable truth. 

Okie...as for "best" feathers and the blanket statement about NA's using turkey tail feathers...most of the country didn't have turkeys back when they were using bows.  Only with the help of the National Wild Turkey Federation and numerous state Game and Fish organizations have we spread turkeys to 49 of the 50 states. A careful study of existing artifacts will show that they used any feather they could make work, some even used plant leaves from time to time.  I personally love the look of turkey tail feathers, I often use them for the cock feather with two wing feathers.  One of the reasons I like them is that all but the two outermost edge feathers will give up two fletches...one right hand and one left hand!  For tightwads like me, that means more "twang for your buck"!