All About Pocket Knives

Good story.

FYI about bee swarms. You are typically EXTREMELY safe around a swarm. Honey bees swarm because they are looking for a new home for whatever reason (old one destroyed, overcrowding, replacing an older weak queen).

Before they swarm, they gorge themselves on honey, as much as they can hold; since they don't know how long it'll take to find a new place. They need the food themselves and to store in their new hive. Because they are so full of honey they can barely fly, much less attack anyone. And they sure don't want to sting you and die since they need all the living bees they have to start the new colony.

Long story short, swarms are no real danger to you.

royal0014 wrote:Wade, I for one am glad to see some of the 'younger generation' keeping the old ways alive.
Kudos to you .. .. ..

Our local old timer, Mr Futral, has not had good luck with his bees. Probably been in the business 60+ years. Few years back he lost all his hives. Still hasn't recovered. Saw him at the Community Club meeting last night, and said he has no honey .....
You could tell that it is a source of embarrassment to him.

Thanks!

I understand his frustration. This is my third year, second honey flow. It'll be the first time, if things go well, I've made honey. I've lost Bree hives in two years. It's hard to get started.

On a positive note, as to the younger generation (I'm 40 I do t know if that's young) there is a boom of folks my age and younger getting into bees right now around here. But like I said, it's hard and expensive to get started. Fingers crossed.

Do any of yawl live in areas where Africanized Bees live? We have them around here and they are quite dangerous. Seems like once or twice a year someone is killed by their stings.
I wonder if they mix with our local bees?

Ray

We don't have them here as of now. They will mix with native bees. When they come into a hive they kill off the Queen and take up residence. When they rear a new queen she mates with whatever drones are out there, mixing the strains.

I've read some bee keepers say they suspected some of their hives had African genetics. The way you guard against that is to requeen every year with a bred Queen from known European or Russian lines. Every been in the hive will be her off spring. And since the Queen only mates once in her life she won't cross with the Africanized bees.

From what I hear, there has been a nation wide collapse of the bee population. Don't think the biologists have quite figured out what is going on. It may be due to mite infestations, or some kind of virus, or perhaps all the pesticides used in commercial farming, or a combination of several things.

Quick Steel wrote:From what I hear, there has been a nation wide collapse of the bee population. Don't think the biologists have quite figured out what is going on. It may be due to mite infestations, or some kind of virus, or perhaps all the pesticides used in commercial farming, or a combination of several things.

There are lots of reasons. Sometimes depending on where you live. There are the various mites and viruses. Pesticides do get some too. We're thinking now that Roundup and he other Glycophosphates pose a greater problem that we thought. There's some evidence that exposure to them creates an Alzheimer's like situation where the bees forget how to get back to the hive, and the hive collapses.

Last year what hurt us here was we had an excessively rainy spring. All during the honey flow it rained. Bees can't fly well in the rain, plus the rain washes away the pollen and nectar. So while the queen was raising new bees, there was little food and little opportunity to get out and look for food. They just laid up in the hive and died off.

Found a few morels today...will be tasty atop a venny burger tonight!

313 Mike wrote:Found a few morels today...will be tasty atop a venny burger tonight!

Awesome Mike.

313 Mike wrote:Found a few morels today...will be tasty atop a venny burger tonight!

...and there ya have it! Wisconsin venison, cheese curds and morel mushrooms...now that's a burger.

313 Mike wrote:

313 Mike wrote:Found a few morels today...will be tasty atop a venny burger tonight!

...and there ya have it! Wisconsin venison, cheese curds and morel mushrooms...now that's a burger.

That looks awesome!!!

Mike that sure does look tasty !

That is a great lookin' burger, ain't nothin' like a home made burger on regular sliced bread, reminds me of days gone by! I see some white stuff smeared on the bread under the 'mater and onion, surely that's not Duke's Mayonaise that far north. where are you Jerryd?
Mike, what do you mix with your venison to hold it together as a burger?
Treefarmer

313 Mike wrote:

313 Mike wrote:Found a few morels today...will be tasty atop a venny burger tonight!

...and there ya have it! Wisconsin venison, cheese curds and morel mushrooms...now that's a burger.

Ooooooooh my goodness gracious......mmmmm....mmmmm.

313 Mike wrote:

313 Mike wrote:Found a few morels today...will be tasty atop a venny burger tonight!

...and there ya have it! Wisconsin venison, cheese curds and morel mushrooms...now that's a burger.

Looks delicious - venison and elk both make better burgers than beef. All it needs is some sliced jalepeno peppers! Mmmmmmm-mmmmmm.

Ken

313 Mike wrote:
...and there ya have it! Wisconsin venison, cheese curds and morel mushrooms...now that's a burger.

Nice my friend. After you hexed me with that picture, I realized that I still had some venison and antelope rat holed. I grabbed a vennie roast, split her into 2 steaks. Some red potatoes with copious amounts of habanero, jalapeno, garlic, onions, celery and some olive oil later left me really rooting for the big game draw results end of the month. Need to replenish my supply. Makes me envious of the forum members that live where hardware store tags/multiple harvest is allowed. Like mine slightly bleeding still. Cleaned plate and some leftovers for lunch.

Jerry

Jerry,
That also looks fantastic!!

Jerry, that looks great.

Oh boy, I'm getting hungry!

Nevada Jerry,
You're alright! When I saw that you know how to cook venison, you passed the test! If it ain't red in the middle, you done ruined it!
Treefarmer

The worst mistake many people make when cooking wild game meat is to overcook it. You could take the best steak in the world and cook it too much and not have anything worth eating. The same applies to venison.

Thanks Guys. It turned out great. Making my my water looking at it too and I just ate it. Good lunch today too. If you want a good side dish, those spicy potatoes have some zing.

Yep, TF and Phil, I agree. Only way to cook it AND with limited spices. Light salt and pepper. I add a thin coating of olive oil too just enough to make the grill angry and flare up when I first put them on. Sears the outside nicely.

Have a great weekend Gents. In weather holds up here, out for another ground squirrel hunt this weekend. Regards, Jerry

Beef has about 30% intermuscular fat. This means fat cells between the muscle cells as seen with a microscope, not the marbling you can see by looking at it. Venison has about 3% intermuscular fat. Fat is an insulator, hence less fat = faster cooking.
I find venison 'thresholds' while cooking (my word): takes a while to get to still rare in the middle and then a very short time to go from that to cooked in middle which = overdone & tough. Better to take venison off the grill too soon rather than too late.
Beef by comparison cooks steadily from outside to the very middle. It does not suddenly become overdone and gives the 'chef' more leeway with timing.
kj

kj,
that is interesting information! I always knew venison was lean, I could tell just by how it cooked and how it was as a meal. The venison burger I got from the processor after they did the grinding from my kills, I always had them add beef fat. Made them darn tasty!

I finally got thru to the Salmon as the smelt started running this week not a big one but Sue will have a mother's day salmon