Sample Collection & Shipping Instructions

Follow these instructions to collect your sample, then review the rules and shipping info below.

How to Take a Feather Sample

What you’ll need

  • Clean tweezers (optional, but easier on small chest feathers)
  • Alcohol wipe for the tweezers
  • Disposable gloves (recommended)
  • One small zip-lock bag per bird

Step by step

  1. Set up. Quiet, well-lit area.
  2. Sterilize tweezers with an alcohol wipe between birds so you do not cross-contaminate samples.
  3. Pick the spot. Use the chest area. Look for clean, undamaged adult-type feathers with a developed shaft, not down.
  4. Pluck 3 to 4 feathers per bird. Grip close to the skin and pull firmly in one motion. You should see a small, slightly moist tip at the base of the quill. That tip is what we test, so make sure it is there.
  5. Bag and label. All feathers from one bird go in one bag, labeled with the Bird ID.
  6. Repeat for each bird with a fresh bag and re-sterilized tweezers.
Sending it inDrop bagged feathers into a regular mailing envelope. Write your order number on the outside. Do not tape the envelope shut.
Read this first or your sample cannot be tested
  • No chick down. Soft, fluffy chick down does not contain a usable follicle. We need real, fully formed feathers.
  • Feathers must be plucked, not cut. The DNA comes from the tip of the quill, the part that was under the skin. A cut feather has no usable tip.
  • We do not recommend feather sexing for birds under 4 to 5 weeks old. Very young birds have extremely tiny feathers with very little feather shaft, and the shaft is where the DNA comes from. For birds younger than 4 to 5 weeks, please use Blood on Paper or Eggshell instead.
Rules that apply to every sample type
  • Do not tape your envelopes shut. We have to open them. Tape tears the envelope and can damage the samples inside.
  • Write your order number on the OUTSIDE of your envelope or package. You do not need to use the QR code, the order number by itself is enough. This is the single best way to prevent your order from being delayed or mixed up.
  • One bird per bag. Each bird gets its own labeled zip-lock bag with its Bird ID exactly as you entered it on the website. Do not combine birds, even siblings from the same hatch.
  • Do not reuse Bird IDs for multiple birds in the same order.
Ship all samples to:
The Silkie Lab
740 Shaw Road
Bailey, MI 49303
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Pullidex is the avian DNA testing lab formerly known as The Silkie Lab.