This black thing is called "the jewel in the feather", using it to make a futon, can sell for 60,000 yuan, it is one of the warmest fibers in the world, Icelandic goose and duck down.
Icelandic duck down is a unique natural treasure, it is the softest and warmest fluff on the chest and armpits of female geese and ducks, female geese and ducks incubating baby ducks, pecking off these feathers from the body and spreading them in the nest, the nest of geese and ducks is also known as "the warmest care in the world", and the down products made of Icelandic duck down are more of a genuine luxury.
Iceland's cold climate and harsh environment, the local people learned to use all the resources provided by nature to make a living, since 900 AD, the Icelandic people began to raise geese and ducks, and then collect duck down from their nests to produce down products.
In 1847, the local government stipulated that the duck herd was protected by Icelandic law, and the collector had to remove the fluff from the abandoned nest after the incubation period, and the harvesting qualification was generally obtained by the local reputable traditional flocking family.
Winters in Iceland are extremely cold and long, but many species have long been accustomed to them, including geese and ducks.
Unlike the common dry ducks, when winter comes, they form a large team and migrate along the lake.
During this time, tens of thousands of spawning scaly fish in the lake are spawning, and geese and ducks will dive into the water and swallow them directly into their stomachs.
They are very watery, with small short legs fluttering and swimming around the water, and the average length of each dive is about 1 minute.
When they emerge from the lake in flocks, swaying with the waves, they feel like a flock of birds soaring on the water.
Usually, the male flock prefers to follow a female duck,
A chubby female goose duck gracefully stands on the shore basking in the sun, and soon all its "suitors" are gathered around, choosing who to partner? This can make it difficult.
May to the end of June is the nesting season, and many geese and ducks will build nests in the seaweed on the shore, but in doing so, it is likely to be washed away by the sea at high tide, so Uncle Gale carefully uses iron to move the duck nest.
Then let the little grandson help take care of it, the cute little guy is not dirty, directly lying on the side of the nest, constantly touching the mother duck.
A goose or duck produces an average of 4-5 eggs per day.
Once a remote colonial area, arctic foxes are often seen breaking through fences at night, destroying nests and stealing duck eggs to hatch.
In order to ensure that the geese and ducks hatched safely, Uncle Gail repaired the fence with fishing nets to prevent foxes from invading.
Uncle Gale raised more than 10,000 geese and ducks, repaired the fence, and prepared to walk around the coast to investigate the hatching of the geese and ducks.
After driving around, Gayle still felt uneasy, and when he got home, he took off his glasses, sat in front of the telescope, and peeked carefully.
Unfortunately, he found a white-tailed eagle, which was the biggest "natural enemy in the air" during the incubation of geese and ducks.
He hurried out to check it out, but it was over, and an egg that had just been laid today had been pecked.
However, Furett, who is far away from the colonial area, will not have such troubles, he directly bought a piece of land, specializing in raising small geese and ducks, initially he only raised 250, did not expect that the breeding ability of geese and ducks is super strong.
Three years later, his procession of geese and ducks became a large-scale farm, and after feeding the ducklings, Furett led the ducks down to the shore to bathe, and the ducks lined up in two columns, jumped into the water and dispersed, and the owner sat aside, accompanying the ducks to frolic.
After the expedition, Forrett and his ducklings lie on the grass, enjoying their leisure time, and he has always regarded the ducklings as a pet, from hatching to the "eating and living" of the ducklings, Forrett will do it himself.
He often wrestled with the ducks and ducks, for him the geese and ducks have long been a relative-like existence, Icelandic geese and ducks have long been accustomed to the company of their owners, they seem to never be afraid of human approaching, Forret thought, when will his little geese and ducks grow up and produce a lot of high-quality fluff.
There are often many hourglass crustaceans near the Icelandic seashore, which can be used for delicious food, and on this day, Forret's wife and children also joined the fishing team, and they planned to eat more tonight and improve the diet for the ducklings.
As summer arrives, temperatures rise, and the geese scattered across the waterfront hatch, and the baby ducks begin to toddlers, and it's time to collect the fluff from their nests.
Uncle Gail of the colonial district came with a family of old and young to carry out the collection work, they each carried a white pocket, put on gloves and took a stick to wander around the coast, found a place and crouched down, with both hands to pull the fluff into the bag, the distance between the duck nests, in order to ensure that all the fluff can be recovered, the Gale family went back and forth on the coast 3 times.
Finally, they spread the collected fluff on the wooden board, which needs to be carefully cleaned before it is spread out to dry, because the fluff is exposed to nature, and there is inevitably a lot of dregs.
In the past, this was a very time-consuming task, first requiring duck down to be put into a large pot and light a fire, baking in the high temperature for about 8 hours.
When the branches, grass roots, seaweed, etc. mixed in the fluff are roasted and broken, the debris is all selected.
With the development of science and technology, people have a more convenient fluff treatment tool, when the fluff collection is enough, first with a machine with a sodium ion battery for preliminary treatment.
Uncle Gail picked up a lump of duck down, rolled up and down on the machine, rubbed it, and quickly crushed the impurities.
In the second step, the cleaned duck down is put into the oven, roasted at a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius, and disinfected by the way.
The dried down may also contain some debris that needs to be sorted by different machines for large impurities.
Next, the feathers attached to the outer layer of the spinning machine are manually selected, then cleaned and extruded, and finally a comprehensive quality inspection is done.
The weight of each ball of goose and duck down must be controlled at about 16 grams, don't underestimate this number, the swelling feeling of duck down is unimaginable.
When we take out a handful and hold it in the palm of your hand and slowly release it, it will immediately fluffy into a big pile bouncing off your palm.
If you put it in a plastic film, its volume will explode, trapping a lot of air and making it very light.
Compared with ordinary down, Icelandic goose down is denser, and its down front is hooked, so that the inside of the down is tightly fitted together, so the down jacket we bought will be so light and thin, but it is very warm.
After the goose and duck down reached the standard, Uncle Gale sold all the fluff to the quilt processing factory, and they would formulate different shapes and sizes of duck down duvet according to personal preference.
After the production is completed, after the inspector's assessment, the certificate of conformity can be issued before it can be sold, it is understood that a duck down quilt with a fleece content of about 800 grams, the price is as high as 60,000 yuan.
Once, a supreme duck down quilt on the cabinet in a city in China was sold for 428,000.
In short, the price of duck down quilts will vary according to the amount of fleece content, processing time, etc., but it is generally high.
But it is also understandable, after all, the geese and ducks are rare animals from Iceland, there are only about 200,000 in existence, according to the production of 2,000 kilograms of down, the world can make up to 2,000 duvets per year, because of this, its high price is also reasonable, but if it is you, willing to spend 60,000 yuan to buy a quilt?