Making a PillowEarly pioneers were always busy making homemade items. There were household things and personal items of prime importance to them (pillows for instance) or they lived without them. Through a progression of time chicken feathers were used due to the over abundance of chickens raised for eggs and stews.  Duck and goose feathers followed as Canadian geese flew into the USA. Civilization expanded, city folk tired, and needed a quickly acquired pillow to keep up with their rapid way of living and snoozing.Most chickens were plucked immediately after their demise. Pioneers did not waste feathers and even used "dead" feathers found on the ground or on the chicken house floor. Dead feathers are the ones lost during a chicken's regular molting process. Unfortunately, many feathers were swept from the ground and chicken coop floor along with straw, soil, chicken droppings, lice, and creepy crawling critters. To find the usable feathers they had to pick out the pebbles, straw, and globs of droppings. When selecting plucked feathers it was necessary to cut off the quills and sharp tips, however, the rough and tough cow pokes didn't seem to mind a sharp quill occasionally poking them in the face. Regardless of what kind of feathers were used it was necessary to wash and sterilize them several times until all bugs and gunk had been removed. The feathers had to look clean and white as snow. Thank goodness the hardy frontier women---between meals, working the garden, and milking the cow had the patience and time to prepare a new batch of feather fluff for the next pillow. After each feather cleaning it was necessary to dry the feathers in a warm oven or place them loosely in a porous sack and let them air dry outside. It was necessary to fluff the sack frequently to prevent the wet or moist feathers from sticking together. If there was any doubt that the lice and bugs had not been removed the feathers had to be immersed in hot water to kill the critters and the feathers had to be dried immediately again and again. If not dried immediately they would start to deteriorate, smell and ultimately decompose. The entire family kept their fingers crossed, sniffed the air for a really bad smell and hoped the process worked. 
Finally, the clean dry feathers were ready to be fluffed up and fill a pillow case. It was important to double stitch each end of the pillow casings to eliminate any of the quill remnants or feathers from squeezing through a small space in the fabric. The best pillow cases were made from their supply of finely woven flour sacks. Duck and goose down were used when a good supply of Mallards flew in for a rest. Regardless, many a weary head lay down on a chicken pillow.It takes 5 ducks to make a pound of down. Measure by quantity 25% of small body feathers to 75% of soft down. This ratio will make a resilient pillow. The size of your homemade pillow will determine the amount of birds to defrock. Remember the preceding processes for making chicken pillows and make your own it we become a duck less nation. After thought; If the ratio doesn't fit your chick and duck supply, contact your nearest ostrich farm and buy 2 feathers–that should do it.  
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