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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/03/2017 in all areas

  1. About 4-5 months ago we decided to stick our toes in the water and bought (3) 18 month old Americuana chickens, a little coop and some electro-netting. After they settled down for a few days they started dropping an egg here and there and settling in. I added a light on a timer and a heat lamp for warmth and egg production went up. Feeling giddy with success we ordered (11) cornish cross chicks and (2) different types of Marans for a total of 18 new chickadees. Somehow we managed to keep them all alive through the brooding process and 7 weeks later the 11 cornish cross's graduated to the freezer. Due to some stupidity on my part I passed up a great deal on some 2 year old chickens and by the time I figured it out they were gone. Of course the next week the wife said we needed more laying hens now. So, we went to Poultry Hollow and bought (3) red sex-link birds that were about 24 weeks old. My buddy who helps me with projects wanted some and bought (2) White Leghorns and (2) Black Australorps. Both sets are very pretty birds. The 11 birds we processed taste good and definitely smell much better than chicken bought at the store. While we were waiting on our first birds to be delivered I remembered how tasty the pastured raised turkey I bought last year tasted so I ordered (11) broad breasted turkeys and 6 heritage breeds. 3 of those are for our neighbors. The heritage breeds won't get as large as the broad breasted birds but are better foragers and will reproduce better. You don't get to pick the sex on the turkeys so we are really hoping for at least 1 male and 1 female from both sets of heritage breeds. Really hoping to get 2 females of each kind and see if they can make free turkeys. We also have (10) more cornish cross chickens coming in the second order. The new batch will hopefully be more pastured than the first batch. Between getting them near the end of winter and these being our first birds to raise we kept them in a small protected run and provided most of their food. Hoping this next batch will be a little more self sufficient. I've built 3 long runs and the meat birds will go into tractors out on the pasture. Processing the first batch was possibly not the most fun I've ever had but the birds led a good healthy life and only had a second or 2 of bad luck. I thought I would probably want a automatic plucker and after doing 11 in one day I confirmed it. So, I'm ordering some parts and I'm going to build one large enough to process the larger turkeys. That will make things go much faster. Anyway, I know this is old hat to many of you but it was a big step for us as we move closer to having a homestead. These will probably be the only egg laying chickens we get as we will transition to ducks for eggs once we are living up there. I do plan on doing a couple of runs of (26) meat birds twice a year so we can put at least 1 chicken for each week into the freezer. It has been a fun journey and if you've been thinking about it I say get a few (not from tractor supply) and give it a shot. Mark
    5 points
  2. Well it took a few years (started looking into it when I still lived in NY!), but Saturday my package of bee's arrived, and they're starting to settle in. It's my first hive. Daughter did the artwork. - K
    3 points
  3. S&W 439 and 3 mags. Growing up my Dad had a 39-1 and it was the first center fire pistol I remember having shot so when I saw this, nostalgia bit hard and now it sits in the safe next to my 52-2. As with most older used pieces it needed a good strip and clean so a few minutes online finding a good .PDF file about 25 minutes later it was back to good clean and ready for fun status.
    3 points
  4. I've been keeping bees for about three years now. They are fascinating creatures and I'm always learning something new about them. I think you may have supered too early. Generally, you want to let the bees draw out comb one box at a time. The super goes on after the two deeps are fully drawn out. The bees have an interesting way of laying out their colony. Think of it like a bulls-eye. The queen will lay brood in the center, then the workers will put pollen around the brood, and then honey around the pollen. This bulls-eye usually spans between the two hive bodies. For some reason, the queen usually won't cross the honey boundary. If you put a super on now, they will just span all three boxes and you'll end up with brood and pollen in the box that you want to collect honey in. If nothing else, get a queen excluder and put it on between the deep and the medium. That'll at least keep brood out of the medium. Usually the first year is spent building the colony, and you probably won't get to rob any honey. I always say the first two deeps are their's, the rest belongs to me. But the whole point of them working so hard and making honey is to be able to eat though the winter, so you need to be sure that the two deeps are full up. Once they are squared away, you can start to think about your own honey. I would recommend getting into a bee keepers association, you will learn so much from attending the meetings, and talking with people. I am in the Anderson County Bee Keepers Association, and we meet in Clinton. That's a bit of a haul for you, but I think there is a Roane / Morgan county one too. I couldn't find any info for them other than an email address. Try to find an experienced "Bee-Buddy" that you can call on to help out and ask questions of. Our club is chock full of really experienced folk, and every meeting is spent telling everyone what they should be doing the coming month, and giving lessons on something bee related. Good luck
    3 points
  5. Generally you have to mail order a colony of bees to get a hive started. I'm also fascinated by bees and would like to have a hive or 3 myself. But as mentioned, it's seems like a fair amount of work and I don't think I'd have the time necessary to care for them.
    2 points
  6. If my plan to de-escalate a situation is to flash, draw or use my gun, I might not ought to be carrying a gun. If I'm filling up my car at 3am, I may want to reconsider my overall lifestyle...Am I doing dumb things at dumb times in dumb places with dumb people?
    2 points
  7. We will be hosting a USPSA event at our range in Dickson this weekend. Five stages including a classifier. New, safe shooters are welcome to attend. Set-up starts at 7:00am. Any help is greatly appreciated. Shots by 9:00am or when set-up is done.
    1 point
  8. You have a pool for your chickens! Wow. That must be quite an incentive for them to produce.
    1 point
  9. Tractor I can not use anymore, wood is rotten
    1 point
  10. Tennessee is oddly not that carry friendly compared to the surrounding states. The permits until recently had quite a few restrictions on them that made legal carry difficult. You had to have a permit just to have a handgun loaded in your car. You couldn't even have a long gun loaded in the vehicle even with a permit. The permits are also initially somewhat expensive with the training class and fees. You'd think the state would trust people that are forced to take a class, shoot on a range, and get fingerprinted, but the state obviously doesn't when you can't even carry legally where the permits are issued. Yeah I guess it is not New Jersey where you probably won't get a permit unless you are politically connected but it sure isn't like a lot of places.
    1 point
  11. Do y'all think Rick would lay with that weird looking trash "woman" as she declared? You know, for Alexandria.
    1 point
  12. I was disappointed in Rick when the trash people turned, c'mon man! But then Carl went into badass mode and restored my faith.
    1 point
  13. I had a buddy of mines wife buy him a Glock23 40 cal for his birthday and he is wanting to know what would be the best ammo for it. He had one person tell him 165 gr but I wanted to get the best info for him so I came here to the best place to find out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Bersaguy
    1 point
  14. RED333, thanks, I've read that. We have a second wire crate (they make a pretty good brooder at the house with a plastic tub inside) We are going to brood them in a different room. I a;ready have a small building to use when they get a bit bigger and then they will be in chicken tractors.... Mark
    1 point
  15. 1 point
  16. Have was around $500 w/ veil and other assorted sundries. "Packaged" bee's is how hives are typically started up. You can order the package (3lbs and a marked queen) for about $120, or join your local Beekeepers club and get it at a discount like I did ($100). Not currently bear-proofed Jeb, but we'll have a fence-charger on the pasture nearby, and I'll use that if needed. Thanks Analog, I may be interested. I joined the Cherokee Beek's b/c a friend of mine is in that group, he's been helping mentor me, but I'm always interested in learning more! @Sidecarist offered to help w/ questions, too (Damned Yankee's stick together!) - K
    1 point
  17. Please do keep chickens and turkeys apart, turkey have a bug that will kill chickens. I have had chickens for 5 years now. My 1st group came from Poultry Hollow and they did very well. My 2nd group I got from a man here in Mt Juliet and thay have done well. All mine are egg layers.
    1 point
  18. I am hoping to see another shot at a $299 AR. Right now you can get ATI and Del-Ton ARs for $399 or so at grabagun all day long. I see all the local guys that were building and flipping ARs scrambling to sell their "cheapest parts I could find" ARs for $500. Some of those guys are gonna get burned for gouging people.
    1 point
  19. My Papaw was a bee keeper. He usually had 5-10 hives. I remember walking through clouds of bees and I think I only ever got stung twice. Both were really my own fault. I don't mind honey bees at all, but yellow-jackets are my bane. I actually did a project in school with a 1 rack view hive. One of my Papaw's woodworking bee keeper buddies built it. It was all cedar and beautiful. I think my sister has it now. She cleaned it up and used it to display my Papaw's army uniform. This is what it was like, but only one rack high. If I remember correct he kept his hives on a piece of tin larger than the hive bottom by a few inches each way to limit ants crawling in. Ants and other bugs will wear down a hive if they keep at it. So what kind of trees and flowers do you have around for them?
    1 point
  20. Situational awareness is important. Anticipating situations and avoiding them is equally important. I'm never out that late. If I were out that late for an emergency, I wouldn't need to stop for gas because... I never go home without enough gas left in the tank to make another trip and return home. I don't gas up after dark. I always gas up at my neighborhood gas station that prominently posts a sign "Concealed Carry Welcomed Here." If for some reason all the above failed and someone is casing me while filling up, I am definitely putting my right hand in the 5 o'clock position under my jacket and looking in their direction. There is no need to expose your handgun or even have a handgun. Bad guys know what this movement means. I was followed into a parking lot once. I was positive because I noticed it early and zigzagged to get to my car and was still followed. When I reached my car, I paused, looked over at him, and casually put my hand in the position described. The guy never made eye contact, but immediately peeled off.
    1 point
  21. Nice! I lost all my bees this winter and things have kept me from re-starting yet.... As to bear proof I can help you with the right set up for an electric fence that will work on bears. I learned the hard way... it's setup different than for livestock.
    1 point
  22. These were $575+ less than 45 days ago How low can we go???!!!
    1 point
  23. My father was a big bee keeper in the late 70s, 80s and into the 90s, until the blight took them out. At his peak, I think he had over 100 stands, he was hooked up with a couple of restaurants in Pigeon Forge. Though he was from Sevier County, he kept most of bees around Jamestown in Fentress county due to the concentration of sourwood trees (best honey every). He was setup with the bigger equipment, extractor, hot knife, and his canning was absolutely beautiful. All of his canning had the beautiful comb. I was of course his second set of hands, and I learned a lot during that time frame. Its been 30 years since I worked with bees, but where I live it begs for bees. I have many sourwood trees on my property. I actually have some interest to dabble in this as a hobby, that I once disliked. When I helped my dad, it was always to help move heavy stands early early of the morning. It was always hot, and somewhere in Egypt. Then I helped to rob bees, he would do all of the hard work, but I would be just the second set of hands if needed. BTW, my dad rarely used any veil, never a suit, but he did use gloves. I have seen him stung many times, he never complained, just kept on working. OP not being critical, but when I was 10 or so, I wanted to paint some of my Dad's hives some color other than white. I remember him saying, no son, it must be white to keep the heat down in the hive. White reflects the solar heating. Example, ever felt of a white car in the summer, the temperature will be cool actually ambient temperature, however a dark color car, will be hot to the touch, same principal. In the summer, those boxes can get really hot. Though the bees will hang on the outside to stay cool, and they use their wings to cool the queen, it can lead to poor hive performance. So you might want to re-consider. They are cute though, your daughter did a good job.
    1 point
  24. 1 point
  25. Ahhh... Bees... I'm very envious. I thought when we first bought our property in 2014 I would get 4-5 hives set up and producing. I was under the very incorrect impression that bees were kind of set it and forget it. The more I read the more I realized that we really needed to bee (hah!) living there full time. So, I wait and wait and wait... Eventually we will get started on our house and then we will bee (sorry) living there and get to start a hive. I think once I can keep a hive alive for a year then we will see about adding more I think meantime I will bee (I freakin couldn't resist) patient and live vicariously through you. Bee well....
    1 point
  26. Do you have it setup to be bear proof?
    1 point
  27. Congrats. My grandfather was a devoted beekeeper. As a result I have very little fear of bees.
    1 point
  28. 1 point
  29. Here is one that does NOT require any NFA paperwork. Can be bought and taken home immediately. https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/short-barrel-no-hassle-black-aces/ Just throwing it out there for those who do not do the NFA thing.
    1 point
  30. Took a while to finish, but I think it's finally 'done'. 700-800 rds through it so far (probably, maybe more ), 6-inch groups at 200 yds w/ Wolf .223 factory rounds. 3" groups at 100 yds. Anderson Manuf. Lower w/ Houge grip, Anderson 5.56 upper w/ 24" Stainless Bull Barrel 1:8 twist. Nikon P-308 scope, Reflex site, and CAA Group Stock w/ cheek rest. Starting to become a fan of the AR. Want to get another upper in 300 blk. out so I can use that as an excuse to buy another lower! It truly is an illness. I should be able to get government compensation somehow, shouldn't I? - K
    1 point
  31. I am going to throw out the Walther PPQ. Nice gun, great trigger.
    1 point
  32. "One caveat is that if you're using a BDC reticle & want to use the BDC markings, you'll need to zero at the distance that the BDC was designed for. Realize though, that (unless you have a very specific BDC designed just for your load) BDC reticles are by nature somewhat generic, and may or may not have the accuracy that you need for what you want to do."------- @NashvilleStage To even come close to helping (in your specific case) we/I would need more specific info. You can 'zero' wherever you choose, then remember where you want to go from there. A deer rifle for 100-200yds is not the same as an elk rifle set for 500yds with all factors being equal. [if you reload] Scope angle is important to factor. And I think your assessment of the shims are misleading you. I am cold on this these days, so I might be simply jibberish, I have been using computer scopes for some time, for long range, and am spoiled. I will say that if I set a rifle for 600-1000yd I would not zero/shim for 100yd. I am glad to see you have a long range available......I also shoot off my back porch, and would move if I ever lost that option. I know this vid does not address your situation per se, but it will give you a gateway to Cleckner.
    1 point
  33. Well, after two months, some very good news. I took Ellie back to the breeder with no expectations, but low and behold they went above and beyond and did the needed surgery to fix Ellie's heart murmur. I just brought her home for the second and last time. She cleared 3 different vet's with no sign of the murmur. She should lead a long, normal life with no side effects. It's pretty remarkable what they can do these days. Here she was at 8 weeks. And today at just over 4 months.
    1 point
  34. Just saw the results... What happened to bay 1? Fun match BTW...
    1 point
  35. I don't agree with 'showing' my weapon. AFAIK, since open carry is allowed, and IF he did not finger his weapon I would argue he is perfectly fine. If there was an imminent threat and he pulled his weapon he would need to immediately call the police from a safe place and report the incident. I would also recommend verbal challenge loud enough to draw witnesses initially if got to the point you felt threatened. Keep in mind you will be judged by was it a reasonable response. As many of you realize, simply presenting the gun may neutralize the threat, but you have to make the call to 911.
    1 point
  36. If I was being cased that hard I'd be looking for the guys partner... increasing my situational awareness rather than focusing on one potential threat, looking for the best escape route, etc.. Just having a weapon isn't a fight ender. Some may consider it an escallation, it may make you more of a target if there is a team working because they want your weapon. Lots of possibilities. I'd look into getting some additional training. There are some vendors on this site such as Randy Harris (cruel hand luke) that offer training that is well worth it. I was particularly interested in part of a class he taught that he called the "pre-fight negotiation". The best fight is the one you never have. Flashing your weapon and telegraphing your intentions may not be the best answer...
    1 point
  37. I think the best kind of fight is one that I never get into. Therefore, I'd rather the guy see that I'm not an easy target and move along.
    1 point
  38. Depends on the manner in which you expose your weapon, it may be seen as brandishing by some and an overzealous LEO may agree if called. Personally, I would not show my weapon until I was ready to pull the trigger.
    1 point
  39. The late night clip that she had forgot about and was somewhat embarrassed by was good. She did have the nerd look rocking with the glasses she was wearing. However she does clean up good and is quite on the attractive side.
    1 point
  40. The snowflakes and libtards won't move out of America because most other countries would not put up with all the crap they talk and spread around without putting them in jail. We are going to be stuck with them, like it or not............jmho
    1 point
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