Need some input/opinions on the subject.
I say store a bird, but i imagine it's still frozen (don't know for sure yet). I killed a bird in spring of 2020. I wrapped the head and feet in wet paper towels, placed the whole bird in a black trash bag, then froze it for a week. The following weekend, I took the whole frozen bird to a taxidermist. The taxi looked it over and said it was a good candidate to have mounted. They mentioned the potential for a longer turnaround time (18-24 months), and I told them I was fine with waiting for quality work. I contacted the taxi in July of 2021 and specifically inquired on when the bird would be started. At that time, the taxidermist responded to contact them in May 2022, that they were running 24 months on their turnaround time. This led me to believe it was not started as of July 2021.
It's now May 2022. I have yet to contact them and have not heard anything from them since July 2021. If I contact them and they tell me the bird is still not started, is there any potential of damage (freezer burn, loss of color, or anything else), to the bird if it's been frozen for 2 years? The taxi does use the freeze-dried head for mounts, and I imagine they color it anyway, but I'm not sure.
How long would you wait for a quality mount? They do have an "express service" and I can't help but wonder if customers that pay more have pushed me to the back burner for 2 yrs, or if I should just chalk it up to the pandemic. The taxidermist is about 4 hours away, so if I did go and pick it up, I'd have to factor in the cost of gas and 8 hours of driving, and then I'd be back to square one anyway.
I'm also curious about the price of the mount and whether or not it will increase. The taxidermist took no money down, and a bill of sale was not generated. I did want some sort of receipt/acknowledgment they actually took my bird, so they emailed me an invoice with a total of $0.00 on it. I now see the price on their website has increased by $100 from when I took it in 2 years ago. I have to imagine I'm now on the hook for an extra $100 since the base price invoice was not generated in 2020.
The bird in question is a gould's turkey and I have no idea if I'll ever get the opportunity to hunt another one.
This could all be premature. As I said, I have yet to contact them and I have no idea how the bird was stored, but would still like some opinions.
Thanks.