Billhook

If you can jack each end up a bit it would be a good idea to slip a sheet of heavy duty polythene under each end as poplar does rot quickly when in contact with the ground and moisture.

I would staple some galvanised fencing mesh across the surface to stop people slipping. We have used plasterers mesh quite successfully in the past as well.

The amount of food needed to support a very large population of birds is proportional. Like another member stated the animals go where the food is.

John Dillinger was asked by reporters why he robbed banks and his reply was because that is where the money is kept, same principle just a different animal.

easy-lift guy

But my point is that in the sixties and seventies when we had men sweeping up there was no grain left around the yard and the bins were sealed and yet there were dozens of sparrows.

Now I am lazy and do not sweep up so much after loading and spilling small amounts of grain and I see no sparrows.

I agree with you Difflock, we were careless with DDT in the fifties and killed the hawks and magpies and crows which used to keep the small birds in check so we have this rosy view of how wonderful things were in the old days, but it was all man made. This together with ruthless game keepers who shot all the hawks, magpies and crows that were not killed by DDT. We have about ten Buzzards here, a couple of pairs of Sparrowhawks (need 2000 small birds per season per breeding pair) A pair of hobbies, the occasional Red Kite and Peregrine, Carrion Crows everywhere, Magpies also Grey Squirrels, domestic cats, Mink not surprising the small birds are under pressure.

birds go where the food is .

the decline in food source around the farm has in my opinion been in the introduction of crop assurance schemes in the last 20 years which fully enclose all grain stores from birds etc.

thus removing a all year round food source for many birds

Our corn has been in bins since 1965 and there is no access for birds. In the old days we had lots of men to sweep up at loading time, now most farms have few men and a lot of pressure so the forklift driver has not the time.

But it still does not explain the loss of sparrows in towns where they have a constant supply of food all the year at bird tables.

I dont know much about chemicals,but i do know that a good friend of mine who,as a farmer,has been spraying roundup and the like for years like its going out of fashion,and now,in old age,has the terrible shakes of parkinsons,a decease often linked to exposure to r/u.

And secondly a yard ive had for years is surrounded by big arable fields being sprayed with something every other week,and year on year the birdsong has decreased in line with the reduction of aphids weedseeds and insects,until now,the whole area for miles around is as quiet as a grave.

What price progress?

"I don't know much about chemicals" is not such a good start to link it in an unscientific way to Parkinsons and birdsong.

Parkinsons could be linked to many other things, even sitting for too long in front of a computer screen while lack of songbirds cold be more to do with the increase in raptors and carrion crows and magpies.

When I was a child in the sixties there were song thrushes and blackbirds all over the lawns and in the eighties there were little clouds of feathers after the sparrowhawk had done its work.

In those days there were hundreds of house sparrows in the yard but today there are none. Modern chemicals you say but we are now organic and have been for over ten years. Even at double the wheat price I would not survive without HLS environmental subsidies.

But there are also no sparrows in peoples gardens in towns, where they and starlings used to be a real nuisance nesting in the roof. No chemicals there generally.

However in our local Spa supermarket car park there are hundreds of sparrows which you hear but never see because they are in a thick holly hedge, protected from the hawks.

The same thing on my morning bike ride I hear song thrushes and Mistlers singing but never see them out. Darwin theory at work here I think.

A sad truth is that DDT when it went into the eco system and killed the raptors, magpies and crows actually did a lot of good for a variety of smaller birds and what we see now is the pendulum swinging the other way before a natural balance is restored.

Sorry to disagree but where are you getting this junk??

 

It quite clearly states the website at the top of my post.

 

I think that you mis understand my point which is that I agree that by taking the active ingredients from a natural product and copying them in a lab, you are achieving the same effect

Aspirin copied from willow inspired salicylic acid manufactured in a lab is just a pill which millions of people take, and although it is a chemical it is not described as such in the same way that agricultural chemicals are.

I refer again to the pyrethroids from chrysanthemum which is no different to the aspirin story but as soon as it appears as an agricultural pesticide it falls into a different category of something terrible, silent spring, farmers killing all wildlife, ripping up hedges and all the same old stuff.

 

At least we farmers have to abide by many regulations about staying away from water courses, safe disposal of containers, safety gear etc. the housewife pours thousands of gallons of bleach down the loos each year which is unregulated and must end up in the ecosystem at some point.

Supplements are simply the vitamins and minerals naturally found in healthy foods and known to be good for you, the main reason many take them is because modern faming practises produce food with less of these vital elements in them.

 

As for the glass of Roundup, I could smoke a full carton of cigarets in one go and do myself no harm whatsoever, but try smoking a few each day for 60 years and see how you feel, plus I bet no one would drink Roundup today:sneaky2:

Doctorsresearch.com

For decades the ‘natural’ health industry has been touting thousands of vitamin supplements. The truth is that most vitamins in supplements are made or processed with petroleum derivatives or hydrogenated sugars [1-5]. Even though they are often called natural, most non-food vitamins are isolated substances which are crystalline in structure [1]. Vitamins naturally in food are not crystalline and never isolated. Vitamins found in any real food are chemically and structurally different from those commonly found in ‘natural vitamin’ formulas. Since they are different, naturopaths should consider non-food vitamins as vitamin analogues (imitations) and not actually vitamins.

A lot of insecticides are produced by mashing chrysanthemum plants to make pyrethrum type products.

The humble aspirin comes from willow but is synthesised in chemical process, so although the active ingredient has been identified, it is then made artificially and is a chemical.

Do not forget that not all natural products are fantastic. Wheat without seed treatment can produce the ergot fungus which is an alkaloid poison which has killed thousands in the past.

Every schoolchild is taught about the terrible effects of DDT when it went into the food chain

What they are not told is that hundred of thousands of African people were saved from starvation by simply going over areas of locusts at their flightless stage, armed with nothing more than a branch and a bucket to spread the chemical to kill the locusts.

Malaria was very nearly wiped out worldwide just before the ban and has killed more people than all the wars put together since.

Strange how most people will take "supplements" basically chemicals, or medicines, mainly chemicals without too much fuss. These are directly ingested.

And yet they complain about farm chemicals which have been through just the same rigorous testing procedure, and which they are ingesting only in tiny diluted doses.

Not to mention the amount of bleach, detergents, fly spray and other chemicals that the average housewife splashes at random every day.

Roundup was always deemed to be one of the safest chemicals and wasused in waterways (not sure now) as it was said to be harmless to fish.

A glass of neat Roundup was drunk in front of an audience by the chairman of Monsanto to prove a point.

If you have a field of wheat that you have been working hard on all year only to see it taken over with greenery before harvest to make it unharvestable.

If you have chosen not to use Roundup for noble "I hate chemicals" reasons you will begin to feel a bit like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis.

This thread needs this for a soundtrack

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwGrC0KicSo]Corb Lund - Hard On Equipment (Tool for the Job) - YouTube[/ame]

Excellent soundtrack! Find us some more.

Our Palax 600 Combi has an electric motor as well as the pto drive.

I was setting it up in the yard and had just plugged in the extension lead and was walking back round the corner and heard that my 45 year old helper, who had already operated the machine many times before, had started work.

Unfortunately the extension lead 3 phase was wired to reverse the motor.

He was pushing this bit of wood against the circular saw with all his might, wondering why it was not cutting in reverse.

You would have thought that the fact that the conveyor belt was running backwards was a clue.

Result= lost about fifty teeth from the blade which had just been re-tipped.

All happened in few seconds and he is helping somebody else now.

I'd be interested to see how you work that out, the trailer cannot gross more than 18.29 tonnes so payload cannot lawfully exceed 15.29, even then it's problematic because not many balanced trailers weighing 3 tonne can carry that and the maximum drawbar load of an unbalanced one cannot exceed 6.4 tonnes. The tractor would have to have to have coupled service brakes and I suspect the 8210 is limited to a gross train weight of 18.25 tonnes by virtue of the road traffic act power requirement, which I do not think AMVs are exempt from.

 

Now whilst no policeman will be expected to realise that it's only after an accident that a barrister will check on all these things.

I bow to your superior knowledge here and admit I have not looked too closely at the 8210 position as I would not dare to use it.

I may be wrong about the trailer weight which is an AS Marston and they are much lighter than Bailey/Larrington, but the three ton figure sticks in my mind.

Is there not also another law about the GTW not being greater than four times the weight of the tractor.

I could pull a five ton trailer with my Little Grey Fergie in theory but that would be in another league of potential disaster! (even at max speed of 14 mph the hills around here make it even more dangerous.)

I drive a fastrac for harvest it does 70kph/43mph so I easily keep up with the maximum speed limit in built up areas, but there will always be someone who has got to overtake simply because your a tractor.Ive had people pull out on me at the very last second and if the trailer hadn't got good air brakes they would be dead. You could make tractors do 70mph and it wouldn't make any difference to some peoples attitude ," its a tractor ,ive got to get in front of it!"

My Fastrac 2170 only does 39,9 mph, how do you manage to squeeze three more mph!!

But I agree with you about people overtaking. The worst cases 95% of the time are women who sit right on your tail and look as though they are going to overtake but never do, even when there is a completely clear road ahead and I have indicated for them to pass. This means there is a frustrated queue behind and leads to an angry driver making a dangerous manoeuvre.

I always try to pull over where possible but it is sometimes very difficult.

The Fastrac is special because it has four disc airbrakes with ABS, but because it weighs eight tons and the trailer another three, I can only legally cart thirteen tons of corn to make up the 24 ton GTW

The old two wheel drive Ford 8210 since it only weighs 4.5 tons could in theory carry 16 tons in the same trailer which is a scary thought as the Ford brakes are not up to the job even when new. Another 5 mph with that tractor is really scary.

Fender every time.

Hendrix uses Huskys

HENDRIX CHAINSAW & GARDEN EQUIPMENT - New Products

Sad to report that my efforts to move the Hornets have failed and they rejected their new very superior property and presumably flew back to their original nest site a mile away as there were no casualties in the log on inspection.

Yesterday my wife went down to the now Hornet free log cabin and started to take some wood for the wood burner out of a half ton box full of wood that had been sitting outside the cabin for some time. A veritable cloud of Hornets came out of the box and she beat a hasty unstrung retreat.

I sealed up the cab of the Matbro Teleporter and went down in the daytime so I could see what I was doing, gently lifted the box with no bumps but to no avail as a huge cloud of Hornets came out and buzzed about the box very angry.

However they made no attempt to come near the cab so I again gently manoeuvred the box to a small wood not far away. This time I was more confident as I had not actually touched the nest inside the box. But alas the Hornets did not follow and remained buzzing around the cabin.

Later they had started work under the cabin on a new nest and I had to work out some form of deterrent as we have children coming this week.

We have some ant powder which I see contains 0.5% pyrethrum as opposed to the 35% dose in wasp killing formulas.

On the Wikepedia it says that low doses are a deterrent so last night I sprinkled a little around where they were going in.

This morning I hope I have achieved a good result as there were no Hornets at all and not one dead one. So a good experiment for Hornet lovers like me, that they can be deterred without killing them.w

I looked to see if they had found the box in the wood but no.

I hope they have now understood the message that I have no war with them but please not just around the cabin.

It is not always the old folk who frighten me!

I have always thought that a less Hitler like approach to birth control would be to put an infertility drug into all types of artificial sugar. This would cure the obesity problem as well.

You would advertise the fact so it would be a question of choice.

Its been a bad year for wasps this year no idea why loads of dopey near dead nests. I know its to late but a hornets sting will easily go through a bee suit. Be careful.

Under the bee suit I had a thick pair of jeans and heavy shirt and pullover, on top of that I wore my wool track suit and then the bee suit! Rigger boots and heavy leather gloves all duct taped to the suit.

It was a bit warm in there but I did not like the look of predator's photos!

Father always told me that it was the slash the Hornet made with its sting that was as painful as the poison. He was fascinated to see this damage when the wife of a friend of mine was stung on the head. She was sitting on a large log which I had chainsawed into a seat, and her terrier started to dig into the rotten centre which was the Hornets home. They did not take too kindly to this and flew around squirting venom. The dog was stung several times and she only once which was surprising considering the damage the dog was doing.

Both she and the dog were not badly hurt.

Billhook survived and lives to tell the tale!

Not. Nearly as bad as I thought. Dressed up in beekeeping clothes and tackled the Hornets nest first with about fifty Hornets inside. Put a strong clear plastic bag over it and gently pulled the nest from the beam and put it into a waiting cool box. Not one Hornet even tried to sting or even buzz me as there were one or two still outside the bag. Took them to their new home and they were a little more agitated when I tipped them out of the bag but still none actually came for me. Gas nailed a board over the hole in the stump leaving them with a mouse hole at the other end. Will report on developments.

The wasps nest just fell apart and the wasps were particularly dopey. I feel that the nest had been nailed by the Hornets. I put the remains in another tree but they looked very slow and lacking in energy and I do not think they will survive.

Yes they still have a few minor bumps and are a bit slow causing some frustration, but statistically it is the young 17-25 year old men who are the serious problem, ask any insurance company.

There is a lot of difference between having a 5 mph parking bump than the sort of accidents caused by a 130 mph chipped hot hatch driven by hothead.

I love this Jay Leno interview with a feisty 100 year old.

Inspirational!

If they had built anywhere else I would just have left both wasps and Hornets alone but unfortunately we have a bunch of kids coming to use the cabin this weekend so I shall attempt to move the nests.

I have selected two hollow stumps in the yard about a mile from where they are.

I see on the web that Hornets do attck wasp nests and use the grubs for their own so I presume that the building of the nest next to a wasp nest was deliberate as an easy food source. Has anyone seen this before?

So tonight is the night! If you do not see anymore posts from Billhook you will know he has ended up like the photos in the previous post!

By the was Hornets seem to be more active and have better night vision than wasps. Is this true?

Correct, protected by German law, but you can get a permit to move or have moved the nest to another location if the nest is (too) close to your house or in intensively used or visited parts of your vegetable or flower garden. I once had a nest in my Eifel "garden" awfully close to my compost heap, so I moved it, with license, to the far end of my property, so they could still visit the fermentating gooseberries at the back of my house,

 

In our poplar log cabin there is a wasps nest hanging up in the rafters. I have no war with wasps as I think they do a lot of good around the place so I was about to try and relocate it in a pre-prepared hollow tree.

I went down to start the job but was amazed to see another nest being built alongside as I always thought that they were territorial, but then I saw they were quite big wasps so I assumed that the queens had all left the first nest and started to build this new nest. Strange I thought to myself!

 

 

Closer examination showed that they are not queen wasps but hornets!

Would they fight the common wasps or prey on them? The first nest does seem a lot less busy since this second one has been going.

 

How do you set about moving them Fungus without the whole nest collapsing.

I was thinking once suitably attired to go down at night and cover the nest with a stout plastic bag and sever it from the beam with a bread knife.

What preparations would you make to the new site?

dependant on size and time of year, anything of around 2ft in length deserves a wide berth, especially in the hot weather when there most active, seem to be more common in the heathland and forest type areas of the country, I used to catch them when I was a teen working on the farm, a little respect for them goes a long way, and according to new research, the "harmless" slow worm, or grass snake, is actually venomous as well

The Slow worm is a lizard, the Grass snake a snake.

Just reminded me of a letter from raw South Africa dated April 4th 1846 from Swellendam. It was written to my Gt Gt Grandma from her brother William Atmore who went out there as a land surveyor. He was a bit full of himself but I think that you had to be like that to survive out there in those days.

"What does that old humbug Pooley say about my success in this country? I daresay if the truth be known it gives him the gripes and I hope the colic Jack is a better man than his master now and he a clodhopper. I know you will laugh to hear me vent my spite on the old reptile. I should like to see him here with a fair deal and no favour and then see who is the best man!

I recall how afraid the old fellow is of a snake, I should laugh to see him blinder over a Yellow Snake ten feet long, one of the devils that will stand up and bid you do battle and if you run away they will run after you by Jove and he would have to wash his breeches.

Some days I kill five or six of these vermin in a day but when I first came I would soon had seen the Devil-- a Yellow Snake laid in the path the other day and started up before me and I kicked it to death....."

And we only have a few Adders to worry about!

He was building the Buffelsjag Bridge at Swellendam on the subject of timber. Presumably hand sawn but still standing 160 years later until 2007 when sections were washed away by massive floods. Now a national monument.

The old 'Sugar Bridge' at Buffeljags, Western Cape – Blog – South African Tourism

I've just had to listen to Arnold Lane because of you.....

 

 

Peatff, had a strange hobby

Climbing trees

Up pines, zip lines

They suit him fine!

Who are pink floyd?

Pink Anderson and Floyd Council