Old Oak-A Hen of the Woods to give you a run for your money!!!!

[Bird-Man]

Old oak, I have officially found my largest hen of the woods, EVER! I saw it this morning in an overgrown area of a public park this morning and went back this afternoon to be amazed!!!! It seems to be in prime condition too!!

[Staveshaver]

That's a beaut, Clark!!! I've found a handful of them that big this year. It's been a  landmark year for Hens here. One of them was a virtual twin to yours. Same size, shape, and color. But I bet mine weighed more.... unfortunately... I had to walk away from it initially because I saw two bowhunters approach and stand nearby to survey the area for the evening's hunt. I thought it was funny that they were camo'd head to toe, including facemasks, and I was in my street clothes,,, yet I stood there watching them for almost 10 minutes, and they never saw me.... until I wanted them to. There were several Hens around that tree, 18 of them around a tree 80 yards or so downhill, 11 around a tree a stone's throw up the hill, with 46 total right there in the immediate area.

 

When I came back early the next day to harvest, I found the best one, the twin to yours to be EXCEPTIONALLY heavy when I cut it and tried to lift it. It was FULL of dirt and red ants inside. They used it as their anthill. I never saw that before. I began dissecting it, and trying to shake the ants and dirt out of the pieces, but I couldn't get it all out, and it had that 'red ant smell'... ever smell that? It's unique, and I didn't want to be tasting that in my mushrooms so I just scattered it around the tree and focused on the others.

 

Nice find. And I hope you got to make better use of yours than I did mine.

[Old Oak]

That’s awesome. Gotta love those giants.