Buffalo Dan's Bison

 Today I finished installing a mechanical water level indicator for my buried water tank.  This device, which consists of a pole attached to a float that moves up or down with the water level in the tank, is intended to give me a general idea of how full the tank is at any one time.  The indicator prior to assembly and installation.  The "float" (on the left) was assembled with a plastic welder from portions of a 5 gallon plastic bucket I bought from Home Depot.  The "indicator pole" consists of a length of PVC rod inserted into a left over piece of HDPE pipe.  Midway up the indicator pole and not easy to see in this picture is the bulkhead fitting through which the pole will slide.  Short lengths of PVC pipe were cemented to both sides of the bulkhead fitting to give the pole added stability.  Gathering around to watch Dan work is a popular form of entertainment at the ranch. After carefully cutting a hole into the tank's manhole cover with a dril

No. 5 with her three-week-old calf.  The postpartum paranoia I mentioned in a prior post has dissipated and No. 5 no longer retreats when I approach.    With approximately three months between the day our first bison calf was born and the day our final calf was born there is a considerable difference in appearance among the calves.  No. 5's three week old calf interacting with one of the older calves.  Aside from being much smaller, very young calves are a lighter reddish-brown in color, keep their ears folded back, and tend to stay closer to their mothers.  As the calf grows older the hair on its head and the back of its neck will darken and small horns will appear.  Older calves are more independent, but they still have a very close bond with their mothers.  The older calves will spend a lot of time grazing with the herd, but still come running to nurse when their mothers call to them. 

A healthy honeybee brood comb with capped brood cells and newly laid eggs (eggs are visible in enlarged portion of image). Three of the four honeybee colonies we started out with this spring are growing quite strong now. One of the strong honeybee colonies (show in the above video) has an enormous population and may even try to cast a swarm this year.  Bees festooning (outlined with a white dotted line) from a partially built drone comb positioned near the entrance of the most populous hive.   The other two hives, though less populated, are also doing well: Honey and pollen stored at the top of the comb with an abundance of brood at different stages of development are signs of a healthy hive.  In this photograph new eggs (visible in the enlarged portion of the photo) have been laid in cells formerly occupied by newly emerged adult bees.  The capped cells in this photograph contain younger developing bees who should emerge as adults in a few days.  A brood comb wi

He may not be the largest bison bull known to man, but he's got it where it counts.  Recently our tenth and final bison calf for 2017 was born.  This means that the bull managed to impregnate all of the ten females last year and is, therefore, Buffalo Dan's "Man of the Year."  No. 5 walking cautiously in the background with her new calf.  Each bison mother seemed to go through a period of extreme caution and paranoia for a week or so after her calf was born.  During that time the normally curious and relatively fearless bison mother will regard me with distrust and go out of her way to avoid me. 

A bison bull at Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  This will probably be my last assessment of the decision I made two years ago to resign from my government career and transition to bison ranching full-time.  In my last blog post on this subject I answered a few questions regarding this decision and I'm happy to say that none of the answers to these questions have changed.  One change I have noticed over these two years has been in my state of mind.  The subconscious part of my mind always seems to be the last part of me to acknowledge major life changes and, in the last few months, I've sensed that part of my mind has finally caught up with the present state of things.  I'm no longer having dreams in which I still work for the government and, according to my wife, I've stopped swearing in my sleep.  You can never know what the future holds, but I do believe that Jess and I have made the right decision to start a bison ranch and that we are moving toge