Looks like a beast...up to 10” diameter soft woods it says in the add. I wonder how big of hardwoods it will take out? All I have in soft wood is some cedar and some pine...everything else is hardwood...
2020 Native Habitat improvement thread!
- Thread starter OkieKubota
- Start date
I did some dozing up at our 90 a couple days back but have no pictures. Had a long brush pile along the north end of our plot that I burned 2 years ago but had some charred logs and root balls left. Dozed it all across the road from the plot and smoothed it real nice. I then started clearing trees around a clear cut I made with a chainsaw 2 years ago...it took me 3 days to clear as much with a chainsaw as it did to clear an hour on the dozer...lol
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Okie...If it ever quits raining we'll find out on just how beastly the brush mower actually is. Based on the Brushmaster, which takes down 4 to 5 inch stuff and is not near as heavy as this thing, I think we will be impressed with it. I saw it first hand friday on the way to the farm. It is one "beastly" looking piece of equipment. I'll post up before and after whenever we get a chance to run it. Not sure we will ever dry out. Rain has been relentless.
M. R. Byrd
Member
My health has kept me away from habitat work the past two years at the Ponderosa in Southwest Kansas, but I am getting some strength back now. I will be doing a planting in 2021 of a couple hundred acres of prairie grass, forbs and plums at the Ponderosa.
This year will be exciting for me as I will be helping my son with habitat work in an unfamiliar(to me) area in Northeast Kansas. It will be quite a learning experience going from an annual rainfall of 18" to 40", going from a pH of 7.5-7.8 to acidic, going from only plums to a variety of berries and soft mast, going from no trees to lots of trees, going from no oaks to lots of oaks, going from whitetails and mule deer to only whitetail, going from great pheasant and quail to no upland birds, going from Rio turkeys to Eastern turkeys. I will be back on the forum, studying and probably asking lots of silly questions.
So some of the first questions I have about improving the land in Northeast Kansas: a source of Allegheny chinkapins, a source of chestnut seedlings, recommended crab apple varieties, and how to start persimmon seeds(I was on the property yesterday and retrieved some persimmon seeds from some coyote scat).
I am glad to be healthy and able to get back on this awesome forum and do my best to create some awesome habitat for deer and other critters.
Thanks,
Maynard Reece
This year will be exciting for me as I will be helping my son with habitat work in an unfamiliar(to me) area in Northeast Kansas. It will be quite a learning experience going from an annual rainfall of 18" to 40", going from a pH of 7.5-7.8 to acidic, going from only plums to a variety of berries and soft mast, going from no trees to lots of trees, going from no oaks to lots of oaks, going from whitetails and mule deer to only whitetail, going from great pheasant and quail to no upland birds, going from Rio turkeys to Eastern turkeys. I will be back on the forum, studying and probably asking lots of silly questions.
So some of the first questions I have about improving the land in Northeast Kansas: a source of Allegheny chinkapins, a source of chestnut seedlings, recommended crab apple varieties, and how to start persimmon seeds(I was on the property yesterday and retrieved some persimmon seeds from some coyote scat).
I am glad to be healthy and able to get back on this awesome forum and do my best to create some awesome habitat for deer and other critters.
Thanks,
Maynard Reece
Last edited:
lakngolf
Well-Known Member
I am trying to improve hunting possibilities around a clear cut that was logged in 2015. The main area has become quite thick with stickers, vines, sweetgum and pines. Good trails in several locations. This week I ran tiller gingerly around the stumps that are still there. Area was limed couple years ago so food plot prospects are good.
Hope to plant some wheat and sunflower in about a month
Hope to plant some wheat and sunflower in about a month
This was me trying to improve nesting habitat for wood ducks.
I wanted to get two boxes put up but only managed one. Definitely a two person job.
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
I wanted to get two boxes put up but only managed one. Definitely a two person job.
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Two more wood duck boxes went in this weekend. Hope lots of little baby ducks are born soon.
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
cutman, when do the woodies generally get on the nest in your area ? I have one up on my pond and I’m hoping something will nest in it this year. I just put it up last fall.
They are checking out the boxes now, will start laying in March, then hatch in April. They will often lay a second time after that.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Looks great! We've got similar boxes out in beaver ponds. Question??? We always put them in the edge of the ponds which makes it a pain in the arse to wade out and clean them out. I've been told that wood ducks will nest as far as 100 yds from water and it's just as effective to put them on dry ground near the water. You ever done that?
Yep! They don’t need to be over water at all. The vast majority of my ducks nest in one pond then immediately take their babies to a pond hundreds of yards away.
Wood ducks normally nest in cavities in trees. Clearly those are not going to be in standing water in most cases. Put the boxes up in good areas and the ducks will use them then go where they want. Better to make them easily accessible for you so that you can clean them out every year and refresh the cedar chips. The biggest mistake people make is they don’t perform yearly maintenance. I clean them out after every hatch and get multiple hatches per box per year.
THE LLC
Well-Known Member
I am trying to improve hunting possibilities around a clear cut that was logged in 2015. The main area has become quite thick with stickers, vines, sweetgum and pines. Good trails in several locations. This week I ran tiller gingerly around the stumps that are still there. Area was limed couple years ago so food plot prospects are good.
Hope to plant some wheat and sunflower in about a month
Take it from me. Need to use whatever means necessary to keep that clearcut in about that stage of regrowth. Burn it in sections starting now, or roller chop it. Anything. Don't let it get a closed canopy and choke out the cover.
THE LLC
Well-Known Member
Sounds like fun times ahead. I'd get some of the guys on here to send you chestnuts and start your own trees. That's what I do.
THE LLC
Well-Known Member
Reduces predation being over water.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
I just ain't crazy bout wading out in the water to clean boxes. Too often end up on my arse in the muck. All of ours are in water but any new ones will go near but not in.
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Dang Cutman, don't you guys have moccasins and 10 ft gators in your waters? I'd rather dance with a bear. You def have bigger kahonas than me. Looks good.
THE LLC
Well-Known Member
Been there. Thank the lord for chest waders.
Pinetag, nice shovel. I'm on my fourth one. They really are great but do eventually break. Fiskars stands behind the one you purchase for a new one but not for the one they give you.
Lots of great projects going on here.
Since Jan I've
shredded 24 acres of crp to prep for spray to set back brome and trees.
cleared 250 yards of cedar choked fence line between neighbors and mine. They asked me about bulldozing them out and I said I'd chainsaw a pathway along my side and kill all on their side. They are good with it.
did a half acre chainsaw bedding creation
pruned 30 fruit trees so far, about 15 more to go. I did some touch up on pears but just a passing by job as they just go crazy like the LLC has stated many time about them. I think he is dead on about not really pruning them as they just grow way to crazy but still produce. I only hit branches that are really rubbing against other major branches.
opened up several oaks in the timber areas(got approx 25 left i want to get to)
put up some snow fence for deer movement manipulation.
frost seeded an acre of cir switch
cleaned up 250 yards of a osage tree line filled with locust and and elm. Cut or girdled and treated all locust. opened up the walnuts and oaks in there, cut and treated osage not in the fence line itself. Used the tractor to push the cut stuff into the interior of the tree line.
(Will plant cedars and plum on the edge opposite the fence line for screening and thermal cover as the tree line is twenty yards wide.)
I have to have the following done by May 20( my buddies and family who hunt are coming for a work weekend March 27-29 and the planting of trees, snow fence, and osage and locust killing will get taken care of then as well as clearing shooting lanes for next season.) I don't go into timber except to freshen licks and hang cameras in July. The next time I'm in the timber is to hang cams in late Aug and then start hunting in Oct.
plant a couple hundred hybrid willow and poplar cuttings for browse
transplant 100 miscanthus giganthus rhizomes
200 more feet of snow fence installed
plant 250 cedars, 24 pear trees, and 25 plum
have about a 4 acre area of osage and locust volunteer seedlings to cut and treat
overseed seed 5 acres of clover/chicory/alfalfa
seed brome on a culvert installation I did in November
spread 500#s gypsum per acre on 7 acres of soybean plots
apply pre emergence herbicide and gly to bean plots
plant bean plots
apply cleth to clover/chicory/alfalfa plots
have about a days worth of cutting/girdlng elms in and around old crp with me running the saw and another spraying. Goal is to kill the parent trees of all the volunteer elms in crp.
I love doing this stuff and it don't feel like work. Its more of like the thrill I got when I played in football games. Each project I look at like I'm going to kick its ass. Sometimes they win but that's rare.
Lots of great projects going on here.
Since Jan I've
shredded 24 acres of crp to prep for spray to set back brome and trees.
cleared 250 yards of cedar choked fence line between neighbors and mine. They asked me about bulldozing them out and I said I'd chainsaw a pathway along my side and kill all on their side. They are good with it.
did a half acre chainsaw bedding creation
pruned 30 fruit trees so far, about 15 more to go. I did some touch up on pears but just a passing by job as they just go crazy like the LLC has stated many time about them. I think he is dead on about not really pruning them as they just grow way to crazy but still produce. I only hit branches that are really rubbing against other major branches.
opened up several oaks in the timber areas(got approx 25 left i want to get to)
put up some snow fence for deer movement manipulation.
frost seeded an acre of cir switch
cleaned up 250 yards of a osage tree line filled with locust and and elm. Cut or girdled and treated all locust. opened up the walnuts and oaks in there, cut and treated osage not in the fence line itself. Used the tractor to push the cut stuff into the interior of the tree line.
(Will plant cedars and plum on the edge opposite the fence line for screening and thermal cover as the tree line is twenty yards wide.)
I have to have the following done by May 20( my buddies and family who hunt are coming for a work weekend March 27-29 and the planting of trees, snow fence, and osage and locust killing will get taken care of then as well as clearing shooting lanes for next season.) I don't go into timber except to freshen licks and hang cameras in July. The next time I'm in the timber is to hang cams in late Aug and then start hunting in Oct.
plant a couple hundred hybrid willow and poplar cuttings for browse
transplant 100 miscanthus giganthus rhizomes
200 more feet of snow fence installed
plant 250 cedars, 24 pear trees, and 25 plum
have about a 4 acre area of osage and locust volunteer seedlings to cut and treat
overseed seed 5 acres of clover/chicory/alfalfa
seed brome on a culvert installation I did in November
spread 500#s gypsum per acre on 7 acres of soybean plots
apply pre emergence herbicide and gly to bean plots
plant bean plots
apply cleth to clover/chicory/alfalfa plots
have about a days worth of cutting/girdlng elms in and around old crp with me running the saw and another spraying. Goal is to kill the parent trees of all the volunteer elms in crp.
I love doing this stuff and it don't feel like work. Its more of like the thrill I got when I played in football games. Each project I look at like I'm going to kick its ass. Sometimes they win but that's rare.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Just got some 3' tree tubes and stakes ordered for Allegheny chinquapins and dcos. I usually just let the dcos do their own thing as tough as they are, but since I was getting some tubes for the allegheny's anyway, I got a few extra. I would rather they turn into a shrub than a small tree, so I went with the shorter tubes. Also, I think the tubes will help them get more light than just dropping them in the ground in places I will not enter the vast majority of the year for any kind of maintenance. Trees should arrive in a couple weeks. If it works out okay, I'll be planting a lot more in years to come. Beavers are taking a toll on the oaks close to the creek, so I need to increase the amount of mast producing trees/shrubs majorly in years to come. I'm putting a lot of distance between the creeks and the new trees going in the ground. I got permission from the local warden to take care of the beaver problem by any means necessary; but it is a losing battle.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
This is really interesting, we have a lot of wood ducks in our creek every year; I've never thought about helping them out with nesting boxes.
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