The few times I found "Hens of the Woods" they were at the base of dead oak trees, more or less on the "ground", where the wood was light, fluffy, already completely decomposed. I'm wondering if these are the conditions they require or merely a collection of random circumstance: where the spore(s) fell. This past year a guy told me he found several on live Oak trees. Of you that have found Maitakes, what were the conditions?