HEN MADNESS!!!

[B-man715]

A buddy of mine saw some pictures of my hens last fall and couldn't believe it was possible. He has hunted mushrooms his whole life and has looked for hens over the last ten+ years. During that time he had only found two baby hens in his area (eastern Wisconsin).

 

 

I gave him a holler Monday and we set up a mushroom hunt for this Friday. Fortunately the mushroom God's didn't let us down, and we had an absolute blast!!

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2015 by B-man715

[TigerBlood]

Nice!  I've harvested 4 hens so far this year.  It was the 1st time I've ever really checked trees daily.  What I learned was that it's better to grab them sooner vs. later due to bugs.

The ones I watched reached max size in about 3 days.  I waited a week (to see if they'd get bigger) which was a mistake.  This was already a couple weeks ago when it was warmer - so maybe it's more forgiving with the cooler weather.  But I'll take a smaller, fresh (and bug free) mushroom every time going forward vs. hoping it will get bigger.  

Also, I noticed that the ones I found growing further away from the tree (vs. right up against it) had a lot more dirt/debris which unfortunately made it inedible.  I tried soaking, scrubbing and trimming...but it was like eating sandy grit.  The ones growing right up against the tree were very clean and dang tasty!

[Coldtrack]

Nice haul Brandon and Marty, seldom find any up here. Brian and I are finding a BUNCH of field mushrooms this year though.

[pushbutton]

Nice B-man!!!

For the last couple of years I was scoring about 8 or 9 huge hens that almost completely ringed a single monster oak,  that had to be way over a hundred years old. Best part it was a short walk to a road and made the hauling out super easy. Just went to grab them a few days ago and the tree had simply uprooted and fell over  

Don't  know if they were the cause,  or knew  it was coming...........

[Stick in Mud]

Nice haul, B-man.  It's another good year for them, but in my spots, it's *nothing* like last year. I did carry out a couple this weekend that I saw when out putting up some deer stands, though.  

Hens are a parasite, so if you see them around a tree, that tree's days are numbered.  It can take decades for them to weaken the tree enough to cause it to fall over, but then again it can take just one big storm, too.  Chickens are also a parasitic fungi, but they're also much more commonly saprobic.  In my experience, it's very, very rare to see a hen growing on a dead tree, though it does happen.