[Cob] Chicken feathers

[Kathryn Marsh]

Can't think why they would be going to landfill anyway since feather  
meal is a valuable protein supplement used in the pig and poultry  
industry. But its easy enough to pasteurise feathers to use for  
insulation - after all we've been using feathers to make quilts for  
hundreds of years. The best wool batting uses the natural  
characteristics of the wool to stick it together rather than mixing  
with adhesives - there are some question marks over off gassing from  
wool batting with an adhesive content. So I don't think adding an  
adhesive to feathers would be a good idea. I know that some  
experiments with woolcrete are going on and maybe feathercrete would  
be worth looking at. And in the meantime I think duvet style pockets  
might actually have better U values than sacks as an insulation layer.

Important to remember that you need a vapour barrier with organic  
substances like wool or feathers

kathryn
On 2 Jan 2009, at 03:31, Jon Kerr wrote:

>
> On Jan 1, 2009, at 7:55 PM, Luanna Dycus wrote:
>>
>> I saw something interesting on Bill Nye (green channel).  Someone
>> is using chicken feathers to make backer boards for computer
>> circuit boards using soy resin as a binder.  They said that USA
>> produces 2 billion pounds of feathers going to landfills per year.
>> My thought was how to use them for insulation.  Any ideas?
>>
> The basic method would simply be put them in sacks and line the inner
> surfaces of the walls and roof. I know something similar has been
> done with wool batting. With chicken feathers, though, I'd want them
> to be completely dry before I did anything with them, and I'd want to
> make sure they were not harboring any fleas or other parasites/
> contagion. With the mechanical processing of chickens being de rigeur
> these days, I'd think twice before using them, though I'm sure
> persons more familiar with sourcing them will have better-informed
> opinions than mine.
>
> Jon
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> "Whatever form, or no form, whatever teaching, or no teaching; what
> supports you will appear. You find in yourself the longing for what
> cannot be filled by food, entertainment, relationship, things, and
> you see what is truly longed for. Not to be grasped, kept, acquired.
> Only recognized, and bowed to."
> --LR
>
> http://jonkerr.efoliomn.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coblist mailing list
> Coblist at deatech.com
> http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist
>