Eiderdown – More Valuable Than Gold

You should trust your hand's sense of touch more. If you let children (or even adults) play with duck, goose, and eiderdown, the same thing always happens: After a few attempts, their interest focuses on the eiderdown. On how a pleasant warmth develops in the palm of the hand... and that happens in a matter of seconds.

Strange... and then you discover that eiderdown behaves completely differently. Goose and duck down can be blown through the air. Eiderdown isn't suitable for this, even though it is significantly lighter, larger, and finer.

Eiderdown Duvets Keep Body Temperature Constant

The secret can be found in Iceland, the land nestled between red-hot lava and the bitter cold of icebergs. Geese and ducks lose their down during molting (the change of plumage), while female eider ducks lose it during the hormonal changes that nature has set before they lay eggs. The mother duck diligently collects every one of her down feathers, as she needs many hundreds of them to build her nest.

If you're familiar with the biting cold of the polar winds, you'll understand why even the tiniest amount of eiderdown insulates like no other natural or synthetic material. This is why eiderdown duvets maintain a constant body temperature. Sweating or even freezing isn't an issue. To withstand the brutal force of spring storms, the fine eiderdown balls clump together. The winds therefore can't catch them and carry them away into the air – it's almost as if they're "magnetic." Dauny® eiderdown duvets utilize this property in a way that's as surprising as it is pleasant. Since – unlike all other down – no down-proof fabric is required as a covering, the precious eiderdown is encased in natural silk. Connoisseurs around the world swear by it.

The "raw material from which this luxury is born" is the result of a unique symbiosis between wild eider ducks and humans. The following report is about this tacit (or sometimes chattering) agreement between some Icelandic farmers and the polar birds.

The Eider Duck

With its fine breast down, the eider duck cushions its nest and covers its eggs while feeding. It breeds primarily in western Iceland and the western fjords. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates the population at approximately 500,000 pairs. The birds first nest between the ages of 3 and 5. Approximately 420 farmers are dedicated to eiderdown farming. The nests are collected after the chicks hatch. The nesting period depends on the weather, but usually begins in April (staggered) and lasts 6 weeks.

"It's a matter of the heart"

Magnús Helgi Jónasson (46 years old) is a seventh-generation eider farmer. And the eighth, his two sons, ages 8 and 10, are already in the starting blocks. The eider down business is a family affair in Iceland. The youngsters learn the craft of eider farming from an early age. "My boys can hardly wait for the harvest season to begin," says Magnús proudly.

Precious Down

The crossing from the mainland to Æðey, as Eider Island is called in Icelandic, takes only a few minutes by boat. Located in the large Ísafjarðardjúp fjord in northwest Iceland, it is 2.2 kilometers long and 800 meters wide. It is home to a single farm and a weather station. During the breeding season in spring, between 5,000 and 6,000 pairs of ducks live on Æðey. Outside of breeding season, the animals spend most of their time on the water, feeding on mussels, snails, crabs, and fish. After mating, the large, bulky-looking sea ducks begin to build their nests along the coast of the barren island. They form large colonies of up to 1,000 pairs of ducks and search for shallow, sheltered hollows in the rubble for their nesting sites. The eider ducks pad their nests, made of grasses and fine twigs, with breast down. When the female leaves the eggs during incubation, she covers them with down to prevent heat loss. It is this precious fluff that Magnús and his colleagues guard like a treasure. They will gather only this down after the breeding season and painstakingly process it by hand into one of nature's most valuable raw materials.

Unique Symbiosis

During the breeding season, an extraordinary, unique partnership develops between the ducks and the inhabitants of Iceland. They protect the eiders' eggs from natural predators such as seagulls and white-tailed eagles. One of the most industrious duck hunters and egg thieves, the Arctic fox, fortunately does not exist on Æðey. Every day, Magnús and his guards travel to the island and patrol the coast. They check the nests and replace any damp material. The otherwise wild eiders allow humans to move around and care for them in the middle of their breeding grounds. It's as if the animals and humans have tacitly entered into a pact: If you protect me, you can keep the down from my nest later. "The ducks know we won't harm them," says Magnús, "which is why they come back to the island every year."

As soon as the ducklings hatch, the family returns to the water, led by the female. It takes a good two months until the young ducks can fly. On land, the big collection begins. Together with his family, friends, and relatives, Magnús goes from nest to nest, carefully removing the down. Around 60 nests are needed to collect one kilo of eiderdown. On the mainland, the down is roughly cleaned in special shaking machines, then cleaned and sorted again by hand. This painstaking, detailed work takes months. It is this complex cycle, from guarding the nests to the final sorting, that makes eiderdown such an expensive commodity. Anyone familiar with this long journey understands why duvets filled with eiderdown are in the top price segment. A purely natural product that first protects the duck eggs from Iceland's bitterly cold climate. And then serves as filling material for the best duvets in the world, which have unrivalled warmth properties – with minimal weight.

After his work, Magnús returns to the area near Reykjavík, where he lives with his family. The yield of eiderdown isn't the same every year; "business fluctuates a lot, and the effort is enormous," says Magnús. You won't get rich from eider farming – it's a labor of love.

Tested Quality

Dauny®, a brand of billerbeck Schweiz AG, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-quality eiderdown duvets and pillows.

Handmade – Products of First-Class Quality

No other natural product provides better warmth than eiderdown at such a low weight. It consists of the finest branches, each with countless tiny barbs.

In nature, they intertwine, thus defying the wind – in the duvet, the natural filling material combines to form a loose, light cushion with high loft that traps maximum insulating air.

Compared to goose down, less eiderdown is needed to achieve the same level of warmth. Because eiderdown tangles into small balls, it doesn't pierce the upholstery fabric, which is why we only wrap it in a touch of fine silk.

In addition to its unsurpassed insulating properties, eiderdown adjusts to the ambient temperature, regulates moisture, is durable, and boasts an exceptionally long lifespan.

Various Designs

Dauny® eiderdown duvets are suitable for all seasons. They are available in designs with different warmth properties: as a light summer duvet, for the transitional season, or as a year-round duvet.

Best Quality

We use only the very best eiderdown, which we spend hours lovingly hand-sorting before being wrapped in the finest silk and sent to our customers.

Can I wash an eiderdown duvet?

Eiderdown duvets cannot be cleaned wet or dry and require special care. However, this should not be necessary for a period of about five years. Usually, it is the frame or cover of the duvet that needs cleaning first, and the old frame is replaced with a new one. During this full service, the eiderdown is subjected to a hygienically perfect cleaning using steam, and heavily soiled, damaged down is replaced with up to 10% new down. Costs vary, as each duvet is individually cleaned and refilled based on its condition. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us directly or request a quote.