I want to hear more about this buckwheat pillow. It sounds gross, but of course I sleep on dead animal skin covering (down).
Isn't down the small duck or goose feathers from the neck/breast area. My mom used to pluck goose feathers off the live goose. We would put a small canvas bag over their head and hold the goose with legs between my legs and holding the goose with both arms around the wings. This was because the goose didn't like that crap one bit.
what your mom did is illegal today because it's animal cruelty. I think they get the down from all over, it necessarily need to come from neck and breast
The premium down is in the neck and breast area and any other area would cause the goose to bleed because feathers are to large. The larger feathers are stiff and cheap feather pillows have them, but they are removed from dead animals. The commercial feather pillow makers cut the feathers off the stem and chop them. They don't come close to the quality of a down pillow.
All down sold commercially should come from dead animals today
I could see that, even thou it didn't hurt the goose physically as it grew back and it did not bleed. I would image that the irritation of plucking the down from the goose is similar to plucking hair from your chest. This has been a tradition for hundreds of years.
