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ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FORUM => Topic started by: pdmattox on December 05, 2006, 07:52:19 pm

Title: Deer stands
Post by: pdmattox on December 05, 2006, 07:52:19 pm
Here is one of my deer stands. We have built 3 of these with a fourth still under construction.  They all have at least 1 swivel-rocker chair in them and are very comfortable.  They are the most kid friendly stands that I know of.


(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid220/pafe62ee1312103335ff94bb98466e4d8/ebbe7876.jpg)




This a shot taken out in the middle of my watermelon feild looking at the stand.

(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid220/p780ff7588594616d48d16f47ec470eff/ebbe5f5c.jpg)
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 06, 2006, 10:35:20 am
pdmattox
Looks like the deer stands would be a child haven.  But really, what are they used for?  I would take a wild guess that it is for observation of some sort, deer?  Do you hunt deer?  Define what the deer stands are used for, it would sound like one spends a lot of time up there if there is a swivel chair.  We have a house that is 3 levels and the uppermost has two loft bedrooms, when I am upstairs in the bedrooms looking out, I am amazed at how different everything looks gazing down.  I wish one day to have a study in one of the bedrooms.  The bedroom that faces the back of our property has a astonishing view of the apiary, gardens and everything else.  I love to go up there to get a totally different perspective on life.   Great day. Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: pdmattox on December 06, 2006, 06:48:24 pm
Cindi, I take my children hunting  in the stands, they don't have to be real still and the likes to make it safer and enjoyable for them.  We mostly observe the wildlife with only one deer being taken this year.  Sometimes you can watch a whole group of deer feed and play in the field. Last febuary we counted 81 turkeys in one group.
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 06, 2006, 11:43:10 pm
pdmattox, Now that must be the most wonderful thing in the world for your children to be so close to nature and observe these creatures of the earth, without disrupting the lives of the animals and birds and keeping the children safe.  What a sight that must be, I would have loved to see the deer and turkeys both.  Did you ever get any pics of these sights?  Knowing nothing about turkeys, this may sound a little strange, but do they take to wing?  If they were the great big 30 pounders that we cook for our family dinners, I could not imagine something in the air so big, what if it fell on someone!!! LOL.  Your children are very fortunate to have these experiences, they will remain embedded in the memory for their entire life.  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: pdmattox on December 07, 2006, 12:22:23 am
no pics yet but will get some soon.  The turkeys rather run than fly but will if they need to.  Most of the turkeys are on average 18#'s and are osceola's.
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 07, 2006, 12:47:39 am
pdmattox, what is osceola, a breed of turkey?  Can't wait to see some pictures, I have seen pics of turkeys in books and they look incredibly ugly, but oh so interesting regardless.  Great day. Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Robo on December 07, 2006, 11:24:31 am
Knowing nothing about turkeys, this may sound a little strange, but do they take to wing? 

The ones around here fly.

If they were the great big 30 pounders that we cook for our family dinners, I could not imagine something in the air so big, what if it fell on someone!!! LOL. 

You don't have to worry about them falling from the sky.  Coming thru your windshield is another story.  With their size, they don't gain altitude very fast.  :shock:
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 08, 2006, 12:31:30 am
Yikes!!!  Now I want to learn more about turkeys.  We are going to raise some this upcoming year, I have heard from other posts in the forum how aggressive the toms can be....especially with kids and animals, well, we have so many of these items (the kids and animals (dogs), that I will have to treat these big old things like babies, so that maybe they will be a little more tame than the ones that I hear chase people up the trees.  I wonder if they can be tamed enough to be even a little nice to the human and dog race.

My neice got a little baby Muscovey duckling from the auction last summer when she went with her mother there.  She took this little tiny baby into their home and nurtured it until it was old enough to go outside to the rest of the flock in the pen.  Now this little baby did inded think that she was her mother.  I believe they call this imprinting, yes, indeed.  This little duckling would follow her everywhere, S.. would show her food to eat and she would eat.  My darling neice really had to act like she was mom.  Honestly, I think that the baby would have perished had she not, it was so incredibly independent on her.  I was so surprised when she was slowly introduced to the clan in the hen yard, she did adapt.  There instinct became the winner.  That was good.  Because, have you ever seen the muck that a duck makes!!!!  I have never seen anything like it in my life.  We put the big old sabo out there, they make that water look like the mud from >>>>> in about one hour.  We put 5 gallon pails all over, for the fresh water, just for fun, they actually climb right inside and have a bath, don't ask me how they fit, but they do.  Hold the hose above you and let it make the water sprinkle on the ducks, well, you would have thought that they had died and gone to heaven.  I don't know how they love water so darn much.  I find the Muscoveys far more interesting than the Kaki Campbells or the Japanese Longnecks, they appear to have somewhat of a personality, and I like the hissing sound that the drakes make.  But the others make me laugh with their strange laugh.  The Kakis bump their bills onto the ground will making the funniest sound.

Oh dear, I do ramble.  So this morning I was awake long before the sun, and I have not heard the rooster crowing for the past two mornings.  Now this morning I heard him loud and clear.  He crowed and then I heard (they are quite some distance from my house) another crow, then our rooster, then another rooster.  This carried on for about 6 or 7 "calls" we will name it.  I called my sister and told her to listen out her door, there was a very strange "crow" coming from the neighbour that lives way, way out back, I could tell it was so far away.  So she listened, and I listened with my ear that was not on the phone with her and my free ear.  She laughed, and said that they neighbour had a male Silkie, obviously a new bird there, as I have not heard this particular "crow" before.  Amazing how different species can have different sounds, well, that sounds kind of dumb now, doesn't it?  I guess everything has a different sound.

By the way, has anyone heard the queen piping???  YOu will know what I mean.  LOL, I am curious how many people have heard this beautiful voice.  Great day.  Cindi.
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Robo on December 08, 2006, 09:07:17 am
Yikes!!!  Now I want to learn more about turkeys.  We are going to raise some this upcoming year, I have heard from other posts in the forum how aggressive the toms can be....especially with kids and animals, well, we have so many of these items (the kids and animals (dogs), that I will have to treat these big old things like babies, so that maybe they will be a little more tame than the ones that I hear chase people up the trees.

Can't speak for domesticated birds, but I had a standoff with a wild one this spring with my car.
 
There was a flock crossing the road so we slowed down and eventually stopped to look at the beautiful tom, he was one of the largest ones I've seen and his beard almost touched the ground.  He decided he didn't like us stopping and checking him out and preceeded to come over to the front of the car and really give us a hard time.  I'm speculating he may have saw his reflection and felt threatened by another male,  but it was quite amusing to say the least.  After a few pecks at the fender we slowly moved on :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 08, 2006, 09:17:52 am
Robo
Well, I have to say that the more that I am hearing about turkeys, be it wild or domesticated, the more that I want to learn.  I am heading off this morning on the net to check out turkeys, I am interested in what you were saying about the beard of this tom, I wonder if it is the same thing that we call a waddle on the rooster.  The hangy down thing under the chin (do they have a chin?) LOL.  I guess that a male turkey has a flock of female turkeys, like roosters.  I know that we have a banty rooster in the chicken pen and they kind of get along.  the banty certainly is the low one in the pecking order, he stays absolutely clear of the big boy, but I am sure if there was another large rooster, we would have a problem.  For the longest time the banty rooster did not have a hen, he just had all the big chickens, sometimes he had a good day, not very often that I saw though.  Then we got him two little banty hens for himself, he was a happy camper, it was pretty funny.  The big boy didn't bother the little girls, that was a thank goodness, cause I think he would have crushed them, ha, they can run pretty fast.  Great day Robo.  Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Robo on December 08, 2006, 09:55:31 am
Hi Cindi,

Here is a picture of a tom with a beard
http://www.kentuckyawake.org/image/multipleImages.cfm?imageIDs=23970,23967&mainImageID=23970 (http://www.kentuckyawake.org/image/multipleImages.cfm?imageIDs=23970,23967&mainImageID=23970)

Here is an interesting video on wild turkeys
http://www.kentuckyawake.org/files/video/plantsWildlife/turkey.ram (http://www.kentuckyawake.org/files/video/plantsWildlife/turkey.ram)
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 08, 2006, 10:34:04 am
Robo, I loved the picture of the turkey and the video.  Thank you for taking the time.  I did a tiny little  bit of research on domesticated turkey.  this is what I found out.  The male turkey is called Tom or bleep. The female is called a hen and the baby is called a poult. A young male is called Jake and a young female is called Jenny. The male turkey has a long wattle at the base of the bill and additional wattles on the neck. Turkeys are omnivores.

So these cultivated turkeys obviously are slightly different than the wild.  I was impressed with the beard that the wild species has, very elegant bird, I guess the domesticated ones have the wattle (I spelled it wrong last time, waddle), whereas wild have a beard.  Wonder why they have two different sets of neck hangy down things (LOL), I brought a picture in to show what the domestic look like.  I now know a little more about turkeys, yeah!!!  Great day. Cindi

(http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7496/turkeysyu3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Actually this is a very, very ugly bird.
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Robo on December 08, 2006, 12:10:15 pm
You can also buy Eastern wild turkey poults to raise as well.  I knew I had seen them in the poultry catalogs and when I went to find it I also found an interesting site that talks about raising them.

Buy Them -> http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/wild_turkeys.html

Raise Them -> http://www.fishpondinfo.com/turkey.htm
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Kathyp on December 27, 2006, 07:53:33 pm
cindi

the most important thing to know about turkeys is that they are, without a doubt, the stupidest bird on gods green earth.  in fact, they may be the stupidest of all gods creations.

after you know that.....the rest is easy.  feed them up and eat them.
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 27, 2006, 08:04:28 pm
Kathy, oh girl, you make me wanna laugh and laughing is the fruit of the heavens.  Great day. Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Romahawk on December 27, 2006, 11:43:18 pm
cindi

the most important thing to know about turkeys is that they are, without a doubt, the stupidest bird on gods green earth.  in fact, they may be the stupidest of all gods creations.


Hmmmmmmmmm, old Ben Franklin had just the opposite opinion. He thought they were the smartest of the bird kingdom and lobbied to have them as our national bird here in the U.S.A. instead of the Bald Eagle.  ;)
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: pdmattox on December 27, 2006, 11:52:03 pm
I will have to agree romahawk.  I've hunted the osceola breed for many years and find them to be very resourcefull.
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Kathyp on December 28, 2006, 03:05:46 pm
he also enjoyed sitting around naked in front of an open window, and trying to electrocute himself :-)

the wild birds are probably a bit smarter, or at least still have some survival instincts intact.  the ones you raise domestically for food are stupid
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 28, 2006, 11:50:45 pm
he also enjoyed sitting around naked in front of an open window, and trying to electrocute himself :-)

the wild birds are probably a bit smarter, or at least still have some survival instincts intact.  the ones you raise domestically for food are stupid

What the blazes?!!!!  I heard turkeys look up at the rain coming down and drown while standing their agasp!!!  lol.  Great day. Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Kathyp on December 29, 2006, 11:06:31 am
Quote
he also enjoyed sitting around naked in front of an open window, and trying to electrocute himself


sorry cindi.  i was talking about ben franklin!  HE was a odd bird :-)
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Cindi on December 29, 2006, 11:10:39 am
Kathy, now what guy in his right mind would sit in front of a window, NAKED, trying to electrocute himself.  He would have had better luck if he wore some clothes.  I'm surprised someone didn't try to electrocute him (lol).  Have a great day Kathy, I get a kick out of some your posts, oooh, it makes me wanna laugh!!!  Cindi
Title: Re: Deer stands
Post by: Kirk-o on February 15, 2007, 11:28:49 pm
When I was a kid we had deer every winter yum yum
kirk-o