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David K

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Everything posted by David K

  1. David K
    If you look at some of the news footage of the passengers escaping you can see that many of them are carrying their hand luggage, some even have two bags. There where reports of passengers holding up the evacuation while they opened up the overhead lockers to get their duty free and carry on bags. I know if a plane is filling with smoke and someone in front of me is holding the escape up while they retrieve their dirty laundry and 200 silk cut, well I'm walking over them. Plus going down an inflatable escape chute with your bags has got to be an act of stupidity. The crew should have ta
  2. David K
    Most mushroom field guides will blow your mind with hundreds of mushrooms, all similar in size and colour, harmful and edible with very little difference. Your best approach is to concentrate on the few good edibles you are likely to encounter on your foraging expedition and become really confident in identifying those and the ones they could be confused with. I pick and eat Parasols, Chanterelles, inkcaps,Puffballs and Boletes (Cep, Orange birch, Scarletina) but only because I feel confident I'm getting it right and there are no lookalikes that will destroy my internal organs in a few hours.
  3. David K
    Your first two posts are both asking for venison, don't be surprised if you aren't flooded with offers. Venison is easily available at game dealers and butchers, asking on a hunting site that you joined a few days ago will tend to raise some suspicion of your motive.
  4. David K
    You're right it is easy, just make sure your buckets, bottles, utensils are sanitized and have a go. The worst that can happen is you get something undrinkable but it usually turns out okay and sometimes brilliant. Make notes of what you do, how much sugar/ fruit etc because the great thing is you get to do it all again next year and you'll want to replicate that magic recipe.
  5. David K
    I find it is best to just go with the seasons and don't be like the supermarkets who have all fruit and veg all year round. There is always something ripe and ready for brewing or infusing, its a nice way to plan your year. I've just finished the elderberry brews both flowers and berries, raspberry vodka, the apples are nearly there for more wine or cider, blackberries will soon be everywhere for wine or a whiskey infusion, crab apples, rosehips haws and then finally the sloes should be nice and juicy. So do what you want but I find its always best to use what's ripe rather than rush things a
  6. David K
    That's a shame, always sad to see someone stopping doing what they enjoy due to circumstances beyond their control. Hopefully you have some ferreting mates that you can get out with when you get a bit of spare time. Best of luck with finding a new home for all the gear and ferrets.
  7. David K
    Lifted from the Citizens Advice Bureau website; Police can only enter premises without a warrant if a serious or dangerous incident has taken place. Situations in which the police can enter premises without a warrant include when they want to: deal with a breach of the peace or prevent it enforce an arrest warrant arrest a person in connection with certain offences recapture someone who has escaped from custody save life or prevent serious damage to property. The problem is that it the police officer can make these rules fit the situation and gain access. Best not be around
  8. David K
    I've bought a dehydrator, just a cheap one to experiment. I have loaded it up this evening with sliced apples, bananas, plums and raspberries. Will be trying to make some venison jerky when the deer season starts as well. Has anybody else got one and have you any tips or ideas.
  9. David K
    I usually make it every year but as it's only me that drinks it and I its not one of my favourite hedgerow brews I've decided not to bother this year. So I'm going to try and beat the birds to the elderberries and make some wine, I'm going to throw some netting over the Elder tree in my hedge and harvest as many as I can.
  10. David K
    The kids named my lot as well which seems to be a running theme with a lot of people, I have Bear, who's the big bear like hob, Kylie and Danni after the minogue sisters and Poppy and Sparky. I suppose its handy to differentiate them in your mind by name just so you can recall who's working better or in a different way but spending too much time trying to find a suitable name is probably not a good use of your time.
  11. David K
    You need to start your stretching before the skin fully dries out, it doesn't take much effort to rip a rabbit skin so go easy. You will see the skin change colour to white as it stretches and breaks the skin fibres. If you have let them dry out so they are hard you will probably have to wet them again, but I don't know if this will ruin your curing.
  12. David K
    After letting the ducks out this morning I had a wander up to my apiary at the end of our field. All the hives were quiet in the cool early morning, walking back home and I spotted a big cluster of bees on a broken branch in the hedge. They where in a hard tight cluster obviously been there overnight. Off to the shed to suit up and get a cardboard box to try and get them before they warm up in the sun and head off somewhere else. I managed to knock the cluster off into the box and a bit later put them in front of a empty national hive, it took them about an hour to walk up into the hive an
  13. David K
    We use the Diatom powder on the birds and in the dust baths, regular Jeyes fluid washing of the housing plus a good going over wth the blowtorch in all the cracks and crevises. had one really big infestation in a tongue and groove coop a few years ago, little b*****ds were impossible to get rid of so ditched that type of wooden housing, too many places for them to hide and breed. Mites are probably one of the most unpleasant things about keeping poultry, it really can make you wish you never had any chickens if you get an infestation, as you say its best to be preventative and not let them get
  14. David K
    Looks to me like Creeping Bellflower or Giant Bellflower, both Campanula species that you can also find in the garden centers.
  15. David K
    That's correct, it is all sent over in tankers I believe. The Guinness brewed in the UK goes for bottling or export. Guinness is an the ultimate advertising success story, take a pretty average stout, pump millions into advertising, sponsorship, get Ireland and the Irish to promote it for you and then you have a worldwide business. Paddywackery at its finest. Saying that, if there is nothing else on tap in the pub more interesting and tasty I'll drink a few Guinness's, but it would cost around the 50 mark in most Irish pubs for ten pints! I will stick to my home brew, I can make a tasty sto
  16. David K
    Don't panic, I presume you have got a five frame nucleus with a good amount of bees, you're right that there will be some mortality but if the queen is laying these should be replaced quickly. Sit and watch the hive activity, if you can see them flying and coming back with pollen etc then it sounds alright until you feel able to open them up for an inspection. When I make up a nucleus I usually put some honey stores in, this might be the case with yours so the bees might not need your syrup. Hopefully it will all be okay.
  17. David K
    I use the alum/salt method and rub a little neatsfoot oil after drying and stretching. I suppose this will protect the skin from absorbing moisture, I have made rabbit skinned wrapped training dummies for the dogs and these get wet and dry out fine without any issues. The deer skins I have done don't get wet and I don't think it would do them any good, I think there are more permanent and durable leather tanning methods that would give you a water resistant skin out there. Best of luck.
  18. David K
    The Muscovy's are really quiet, they just hiss a little bit. We didn't clip the Muscovy chicks last year and they used to fly out across the neighbouring fields but they always came back for food, clipped them after they caused a traffic jam when they went walking down the road.
  19. David K
    We have some Khaki Campbells, great layers of big eggs, numerous call ducks, my wife loves these and we hatch quite a few of these throughout the year. My favourites are the trio of Muscovy ducks, nice to see them wandering around the field catching insects, one is sitting on around 20 eggs at the moment and what hatches will end up on the table as they are a lovely eating duck, still a couple left in the freezer from a hatch last year.
  20. David K
    Sorry I thought you were talking about juice made from concentrate and not the concentrated juice that is used in wine making. It would be interesting to find out concentration rate as its always one of those things I run out of and forget to order from the homebrew shop. Just one of those little tins does add a lot of body to some of the more dull hedgerow wines in my experience.
  21. David K
    I would say they are two different products and you can't substitute one for the other when home brewing. Concentrated juice usually has preservatives in that will stop your yeast from working effectively. I have brewed wine using Aldi and Lidl pure grape juice in cartons, not a bad drink, quick to ferment and clear, about a Euro a litre so good value.
  22. David K
    Yes, the bees that overwinter are worker bees. The queen stops laying eggs in the autumn and the remaining cluster of bees tend to her needs until spring. These bees manage to live a few months unlike bees born during the warmer months who only last a few weeks, literally working themselves to death foraging. Bees are used for pollination by commercial growers for both indoor and outdoor crops, the hives are usually only put in with the crops for the time the pollination needs to happen and then moved somewhere else. I have some of my hives in a local orchard while the trees are in blossom
  23. David K
    Yes, most colonies will overwinter in one brood box, containing the queen and a few thousand workers to look after her and maintain the hive. In spring she will start to lay eggs again and the colony will increase in size so more boxes are added for the bees to store the honey in.
  24. David K
    Seconded on that Pete, really good informative answer to the difficulties the original poster is experiencing, so hopefully the bee keeper will be able to sort the problem. Not a lot of oil seed rape here in the south west of Ireland which in many ways I'm thankful for but I hear its great for building up colonies in the early season.
  25. David K
    I keep bees, some on my own land and some on other peoples land. There can be many reasons for bees annoying people near them and a hives temperament is dictated by the queen. There's a lot of activity at this time of year with hives building up in size and the queen laying eggs like mad. One of the main reasons people have a run in with bees is that you are on their flight path and it's not that the bee is looking for someone to sting. A simple solution the beekeeper may take is to put up some sort of barrier close to the hives to get them to fly higher. There may be a problem with an angry
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