Prangs of Home

I read Rachel Dickinson blog with interest today, She had a link to a radio interview at WSKG’s Off the Page show. The Radio is part of the PBS network, it instantly reminded me of the BBC's world service and in an instant i was almost back in the UK and made me feel quite home sick. At the moment i feel in some ways torn between the UK and here both are home. My son recently broke his arm in the UK and i felt quite helpless that i couldn't give him a hug and be there. Made me feel quite guilty too, yet at the same time my life here is so different in that i am able to do so much that i would never have been allowed to do in the UK. My wife is amazing in that i say "hey i want to do this" and she quietly and patiently follows along.

The show was pretty interesting and you can go to her blog and get the link. I think of the two shows that she has highlighted this was allot more informative about falconry and more interesting about her book "Falconry on the edge". The show gives a very good insight to how the book was written and whats in the book. The book is on my to get list along with Matthew Mullenix "In Season " Matthews book is more of interest as my Sponsor has two of Matt's birds and "Charlie" features in that book. However Rachel books is of interest as it more of a biography of someone who has gone to the extreme of falconry.

I've been looking for a radio station to listen to for a while. My family are Country Music fans so the local radio station is normally on in the car but sometimes you want something a bit more than just music bit something you can learn from. I work in a noisy office and sometimes a headphone is necessary in order to cancel out background music. I found the Oklahoma equivalent at KOSU. We will see how it goes...

Not a falconry post but.....

Well the wife got fed up and kicked me out the house this afternoon. She said your grumpy enough here is your fishing tackle go fish. So i went down to the red river. I had seen a point that i wanted to fish from that a slight bay off from the main river and the current flows back on itself, small fish will hang out in prompting the big ones to come after them. I haven't really used any of my gear i brought from England so this was the first time to do that.

I used my feeder rod which has a sensitive tip. this proved most effective for catch small channel catfish and striped bass each about a pound to a pound and a half. I placed a small lead weight on and cast it out. The tip is painted so that it bends and acts as the bit indicator.

I also used my Match rod which is 13feet long and put a chubbing float on i figured it would be the same as fishing for chub in england. i think i need to be in more fast flowing river for that but it did catch me a pearch which i then went on to use as bait for the striper and the catfish.

As the sun went down the bass really started to bite, it wasnt falcony but it was alot of fun

Weathering Area

Well the weathering area is starting to come together. I have three sides up and all is stable. Hope to work on the roof this weekend and embedding some wire into the ground around the sides. Might have to re-do the door as i am not happy with it at the moment.
So far the mews measures 10.6 feet x 8 feet x 8 feet

A step Closer

I decided some time ago that i wanted to make my own bow perch. I was shocked by how much was being charged and since that decision feel rather justified in that choice as the cost of bow perches has almost doubled. I was given the metal and bought a 4" Ring from Mikes Falconry. I cut the metal to size and then asked a local to weld it and bend it into shape. My Sponsor gave me some rope to put round it and ill get some neoprene to go over the top. The dimensions are 29 Inches wide 10" from the middle bar to the top and 9" long spikes. Needless to say i am very delighted with it and will be looking to make an indoor version soon.

My sponsor and i decided this is where we are going to put the mews and the weathering area. The dimensions are going to be 10.5 feet by 8 feet for the weathering area and 10.5 feet by 8 for the mews. The wife also wants a storage shed on the end. With a bit of engineering ill get it all to fit. From the picture you can see the first section that is the front of the weathering area.

Callout

I got called out to get some bee that had taken up residence in a bird box. The box was about 10 feet in a tree and the owner wanted to replace the box. So down came the bee's box and all. Latrell my wife , came with me along with our new pet, Emma a terrier puppy.







We transported the whole box back to the house and started to move them into there new home.







Thanks to my awesome wife we have some photos of the event !

I think judging by the comb , how soft it was and the amount that this swarm had only been there a few weeks.

Hunting

I got my Combined Hunting and Fishing License this weekend. I have never had a hunting License before so it was very weired being asked what i had caught last year which was a big fat zero. The price for an Oklahoma combined resident Hunting and Fishing License was $37 + $5 which to me is nothing really.

Im thinking about getting a .22 Rifle again somthing i have never done before. Squirall season is open and i could stock up on some of this for the Autum

SEASON DATES: May 15-January 31 BAG LIMIT: 10 per day (both species combined), 20 in possession after the first day

Oklahoma Small Game

For some reason 3 weeks ago one of the Queens stopped laying, The hive is completely dead, no broad, no nothing. Its all very strange and no one knows what to make off it, This was a hive that was building up very well was filling 2 deeps. This happened to a hive last year and one has to think to ones self what did i do wrong when things seem to be going so well.

If the queen had died one would have thought the hive would have raised a new one however this is just not the case no queen cells, there is even very little wax moth. I would have thought that the wax moth would have been more prevalent. Once again this is very frustrating.

I'm wondering about wether to re-queen the remaining hive from last year and use the old queen as a backup. I want to get some queens anyway because the swarms i have caught are a little to hot for my liking.

On another note , i've been using Mann Lake Hive top feeders for 2 seasons, Recently i noticed that more and more bee's where escaping. I looked more closly and realised that the harware Cloth used on these has actually coroded and broken down. I think im going to build some of my own hive top feeders as i really dont want to replace the Harware cloth every season. I also am a bit concered about the fact that if this has corroded that the bee's have then digested this material.

I've been thinking about developing something along the line of the Brushy Moutian line but with a screened top. I dont think it would be hard to covert what i have to this and see how we get on