1080

[Bron 2,705]

5 hours ago, Bighands said:

Yes, great to hear there are still some weka left in the North Island.It would be great to see them monitored to see if tere is secondary poisoning when eating othe animals killed by 1080

 

Problem with that is that every now and then the try to relocate them. They tried early on into the Coromandel & they all died! I have no doubt that some of the dedicated locals (1 of our guardians married a local farmer) know where most the local weka are. 

 

Not keen on 1080, we’ve avoided so far and I’m hoping that it stays away from our East Coast. Possum numbers here were down due  to a thriving fur collection for quite a while. Seeing a few more around in the last couple of years.

Edited October 28, 2019 by Bron
Spelling!

[Bighands 983]

34 minutes ago, Bron said:

 

Problem with that is that every now and then the try to relocate them. They tried early on into the Coromandel & they all died! I have no doubt that some of the dedicated locals (1 of our guardians married a local farmer) know where most the local weka are. 

DOC were planning a drop on the range from Ruatoria through to the Motu, but I believe the local iwi delayed it.

Not keen on 1080, we’ve avoided so far and I’m hoping that it stays away from our East Coast. Possum numbers here were down due  to a thriving fur collection for quite a while. Seeing a few more around in the last couple of years.

i heard rumours of a drop that w3as proposed on the range Ruatoria across to Motu but I believe the local iwi stopped or delayed it.

[kaihoka 2,916]

5 hours ago, frazzledfozzle said:

there are so many weka around here it’s crazy try to get rid of them but they keep coming back 

After 30 yrs without them , weka are back .

I blame 1080.

I was hoping they would eat some poisoned rats and mice and that would be the end of them .

No such luck .

The pair got trapped in the rabbit run and I could have caught them but I thought they may have had babies somewhere and I would be responsible for starving ophans .

They are causing havoc in the garden .  They dug up my asparagus bed looking for worms and pulled up all the weedmat on the strawberry bed .

They have only been here a month or two .

No one I know has a good word to say about weka .

[Bron 2,705]

I love ‘em! Mind you I’ve never really had to live with their havoc!

[yesbut 6,097]

9 hours ago, kaihoka said:

 

No one I know has a good word to say about weka .

Our local rabbit issue disappeared when Weka arrived.

[tommy dave 1,135]

54 minutes ago, Bron said:

I love ‘em! Mind you I’ve never really had to live with their havoc!

weka are neat. So are kaka.

And in nelson/motueka you'll find plenty of otherwise conservation minded types who want to get rid of weka, and now a few in wellington bemoaning the damage to trees in their gardens due to flocks of kaka. Pretty neat thing to be able to moan about :)O

[kaihoka 2,916]

1 hour ago, yesbut said:

Our local rabbit issue disappeared when Weka arrived.

Wish I could say the same about our rats and mice .

[ChrisM 1,139]

On 27/10/2019 at 8:29 PM, yesbut said:

https://predatorfreenz.org/kea-1080-survival/

 

Figure 2. maybe I'm looking at this wrong but after two 1080 drops the rat population is about 30% compared to a long term average of 15%? The rats bounce back super fast. What exactly was the point again? The non-treatment block rats died off when the food did and ended up lower than the treated ones? 

I guess I'm confused.. but it seems like the 1080 drops actually helped the rats. My conclusion from Fig 2 was that 1080 helps to breed rats. But maybe there are some other figures in other reports that will show differently (?). Anway it is great news that Wekas are hard to kill.

[yesbut 6,097]

3 minutes ago, ChrisM said:

 

Figure 2. maybe I'm looking at this wrong but after two 1080 drops the rat population is about 30% compared to a long term average of 15%? The rats bounce back super fast. What exactly was the point again? The non-treatment block rats died off when the food did and ended up lower than the treated ones? 

I guess I'm confused.. but it seems like the 1080 drops actually helped the rats. My conclusion from Fig 2 was that 1080 helps to breed rats. But maybe there are some other figures in other reports that will show differently (?). Anway it is great news that Wekas are hard to kill.

I don't delve into detail much. I trust the values and judgement of my DoC friends. 

[john berry 5,259]

We have one group of people saying that 1080 kills all the birds and other saying 1080 saves them.

I have seen the difference that 1080 makes many times and I am firmly on the side of 1080 saves them. It also improves the hunting because all the anti-1080 hunters are convinced that everything is dead and some of my favourite hunting spots become  devoid of hunters leaving more deer for me. As a side benefit the control of possums  leads to much improved springs with far more flowering plants around..

[kaihoka 2,916]

The main problem with some 1080 drops this yr was that the boffins in the office scheduled drops to fit in with their bureaucratic time table not the enviromental conditions .

There was so much food in the bush that the rats did not touch the bait before it went off.

I noticed here that the rats were not eating poison till the middle of july when it got wet and cold and the food in the bush rotted .

[ChrisM 1,139]

1 hour ago, john berry said:

We have one group of people saying that 1080 kills all the birds and other saying 1080 saves them.

I have seen the difference that 1080 makes many times and I am firmly on the side of 1080 saves them. It also improves the hunting because all the anti-1080 hunters are convinced that everything is dead and some of my favourite hunting spots become  devoid of hunters leaving more deer for me. As a side benefit the control of possums  leads to much improved springs with far more flowering plants around..

I agree it is impossible for the average person to know the truth. Normally I would prefer to trust DoC, and that is the preferred option, but DoC hasn't made it easy with a lot of spin and falsehoods. It is also not at all helped by Karen on Facebook. 

[jamesc 4,349]

3 hours ago, john berry said:

We have one group of people saying that 1080 kills all the birds and other saying 1080 saves them.

I have seen the difference that 1080 makes many times and I am firmly on the side of 1080 saves them. It also improves the hunting because all the anti-1080 hunters are convinced that everything is dead and some of my favourite hunting spots become  devoid of hunters leaving more deer for me. As a side benefit the control of possums  leads to much improved springs with far more flowering plants around..

Agreed.

But what interests me is the residual in the bush .... the dust that drops into the blossom florets from which the bees gather nectar and take home to enter the human food chain.....

As I have said before, the official recommendation is no gathering of Kai for three months after a drop.

[yesbut 6,097]

1 minute ago, jamesc said:

As I have said before, the official recommendation is no gathering of Kai for three months after a drop.

As long as you stick to the Dr. and don't drink tea you'll be fine.

[jamesc 4,349]

4 minutes ago, yesbut said:

As long as you stick to the Dr. and don't drink tea you'll be fine.

Aaah .... The Doctor ....He also prescribed honey on toast for breakie, and a honey sandwich for lunch ..... and hot seared venison soaked in a honey marinade for tea .....all gathered from the drop zone .

[YTB8TA270 27]

50 minutes ago, jamesc said:

Aaah .... The Doctor ....He also prescribed honey on toast for breakie, and a honey sandwich for lunch ..... and hot seared venison soaked in a honey marinade for tea .....all gathered from the drop zone .

Wana buy some clean green honey not from the DROP ZONE ?

[jamesc 4,349]

5 minutes ago, YTB8TA270 said:

Wana buy some clean green honey not from the DROP ZONE ?

Hmmm ..... interesting handle you got there .

I got other honey ..... that's from the other side of the hill where we have Glyphosate, Lorsban  and the good lord knows what else.

 

Interesting that this year we put the polys up in the bush  away from the spray  tank..... and they have never looked so good. They just gotta get mated now , but Sunday looks good.

[YTB8TA270 27]

4 minutes ago, jamesc said:

Hmmm ..... interesting handle you got there .

I got other honey ..... that's from the other side of the hill where we have Glyphosate, Lorsban  and the good lord knows what else.

 

Interesting that this year we put the polys up in the bush  away from the spray  tank..... and they have never looked so good. They just gotta get mated now , but Sunday looks good.

Hives i took splits off of on the 21 sept that i checked yesterday , 4 of the 5 have new mated queens just started laying. Other one will have old queen put back in. And thats Lake Kaniere, ####ty west coast where its hardly been above 15 degrees. ???

[jamesc 4,349]

16 minutes ago, YTB8TA270 said:

Hives i took splits off of on the 21 sept that i checked yesterday , 4 of the 5 have new mated queens just started laying. Other one will have old queen put back in. And thats Lake Kaniere, ####ty west coast where its hardly been above 15 degrees. ???

Uh Huh ..... sometimes you just get caught with yer pants down ......little microclimates for a brief spring loving .... still trying to figure your handle .....

[Maggie James 723]

25 minutes ago, YTB8TA270 said:

Hives i took splits off of on the 21 sept that i checked yesterday , 4 of the 5 have new mated queens just started laying. Other one will have old queen put back in. And thats Lake Kaniere, ####ty west coast where its hardly been above 15 degrees. ???

 

Hi something to do with white bait. 

 

It will be interesting to see further in the season how well mated they are.  Not saying they won't be, but I guess time will tell. 

[YTB8TA270 27]

11 minutes ago, Maggie James said:

 

Hi something to do with white bait. 

 

It will be interesting to see further in the season how well mated they are.  Not saying they won't be, but I guess time will tell. 

Yep. Whitebaiter shootin a 270. YTB8TA is my number plate. Time will sure tell how well mated they are. They were packed full and had plenty of drones so thinned them out tryin to avoid swarming. So far so good.  Double brood boxes and first supers went on a few to fill up with quintinea for winter feed. Bring out the sun.

[tommy dave 1,135]

1 hour ago, YTB8TA270 said:

Yep. Whitebaiter shootin a 270.

i've heard of using a rifle for getting trout, never whitebait though

[Stoney 1,388]

5 minutes ago, tommy dave said:

i've heard of using a rifle for getting trout, never whitebait though

Long as ya shoot em in the eye there’s still plenty left to cut the fillets off. 

[yesbut 6,097]

11 minutes ago, tommy dave said:

i've heard of using a rifle for getting trout, never whitebait though

My experience is you may as well just jump in. They always get away and you always get soaking wet.

[YTB8TA270 27]

7 minutes ago, Stoney said:

Long as ya shoot em in the eye there’s still plenty left to cut the fillets off. 

Yep. Like they say, everythings bigger on the coast.