Recent content by yoderjac

Yes, I had no hens at all feeding in my spring oats this morning for the first time. I've been reviewing footage from sunrise until about 0900 each day. What I find interesting is how the cohesiveness of the flock seems to break down as nesting incubation approaches.

Over the last week, there has been a change in behavior. I started seeding hens in smaller groups. They would still feed in my spring oats, but they would come into it at different times from different direction one or two together. This morning, there was only one hen feeding in the spring...

Looks like they are all still alive. Here is a pic of a few of them.

Outstanding! Congrats!

Congrats on the investment! By the way, I'm glad you started the post with "I bought a farm" rather than "I bought the farm". :)

I gave away the buckets of germinated nuts to the neighbors today. There were about 40 that were left that had top growth. They also have some friends who said they wanted some so I'm sure they will share. BTW, I'm sorry for all the blurry pics on this and other threads. I thought it was me...

You are absolutely correct, ACs don't need to be cold stratified. They will start developing a root radicle very quickly. There is too much predation for me to direct seed them in the fall. If I try to grow them in Rootmakers starting in the fall, they would be huge by spring, and I'm busy...

We finished planting the last three chestnuts today. We have plenty left over. As far as the germination part of this project, I'd say it was a success. They were getting close, but not of the tap roots had hit the bottom of the bucket yet. The next question will be how many survive the...

Just about anything can be used. The key is knowing how your specific equipment performs together so that you can limit shooting distances to the range of your gun/choke/load combination. Otherwise, wounding rates go up quickly and recovery rates go way down.

FINALLY - We planted some nuts! The planting sites were still wet from watering last night. I used a hand rake to loosen the top soil. I used a hand trowel to dig a hole. Next, I extracted the nuts with the largest top growth. I was amazed at the size of the roots already. They were not...

I reviewed the video and there were no turkey this morning, but by 5:30 pm they were back in the same spring oats field as they were last night. This time they stayed in the field until about 5 minutes after sunset. They must be roosting close.

Congrats!!!

We haven't actually panted any yet. We spent today doing more prep and I really screwed up. We did the same prep work as yesterday for four more trees. Last year I direct seeded 42 ACs that had good root radicles but no top growth. This post was just after they were planted...

I decided today would be a good listening morning. I'm more interested in continuing to learn about this flock dynamic than I am to fill my last tag. I grabbed the gun this morning, just in case, and notices I had left the red dot sight turned on at the battery was pretty low. I was running...

This group of hens is still together this evening. Still now gobblers with them. I plan to listen in the morning to see if there are gobblers in the area but with other hens.