Joe Grand

Ziploc bags for fruit, leaves, stems & seeds, also pill bottle for seeds, so I can gather many kinds with out mixing them.
I would say a knife, but I carry that everywhere that not an airport or government building, I try to avoid both.
I carry a small shovel, hand pruners, loppers & folding saw  in my truck, I wear long clothes' & boots, sometimes a coat & hat.
Small first aid kit for chiggers, insect bites.
I do less foraging then some, because I have fruit from February/march-Asparagus, April-May Beets & turnips, May-June
Blue berries, blackberries, raspberries & Strawberries.
Garlic /onions & plums June-July, Figs July- October, Grapes, persimmons, nuts, paw paw, Hawthorne, red sumac.
I have Huckleberry & American gooseberries, Buffalo berry & Silver weed from Washington State, but they are not bearing
as of this year.

Eric,
You sad "When I put these in, the chips were rather large, more like chunks. "
Ho big in inches or MM/CM, are you calling chunks I ask because I have not found Hardwood sawdust or hardwood chips. I will use some wheat straw, but I need some hard wood &  may have to chop the limbs with an ax, so how big should I start with??? Thanks.

It has been said that many girl today think they are a 10 & have not home skills at all.
I do not know, I am 61 & married.
I can tell you that my girl friend made me a upside down pineapple cake for my 16th birthday.
She made me a shirt for my 18th birthday, she bale hay, rode & cared for a horse.
Gradated from three school with honors.
So I did the smart thing & married her.
Many of her friends did not know how to sew, my sisters did, so I knew it was important.
I hand sew, but not the machine, well I can do a few inches in a straight line, but that is not sewing.
You have to trace, cut & pin, many other thing I can not name.
Respect for anyone who have sewing skills & know the craft of making things.

My mother used a glass mason jar to "sharpen" her scissors when I was a child, it worked well.
Did turn the edge or sharpen the blade, I am not sure, but they cut better.

Brown Millet is a cover crop that many birds like, as well as a place for insects to live.
The biggest problem with Bluebirds is that you need to "Eastern Bluebird – Minimum of 100 yards."
Some birds should be one box per six acres.
https://backyardwildlifeconnection.com/2021/03/10/birdhouses-are-often-placed-too-close-together/

Do not know how Land you have, but here is a link to nectar flow chart, so you can plant plants that help your bees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Northern_American_nectar_sources_for_honey_bees#Flowers,_crops,_herbs,_and_grasses

As for why they produce so much, survival, workers work themselves to death, so the hive can live on.
Worker are replaced every thirty days or so.
They work like Joseph  did for the Pharaoh & the little red hen or the ants that work all day.
To save up for hard times, honey will last forever, if it is not eaten or burned.
That is way it is important to grow plants, trees that have a good nectar flow.
Maple, Cherry, blackberry, raspberry & milkweed to name a few.
If yo use summer cover crops, Buckwheat is great for a cover crop & bees love it.
Succession planting Buckwheat up until frost date in your zone.

A lot of good things in this thread.
Decorating Eden
by Elizabeth Wilkinson, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Marjorie Henderson
Is a great book on classic gardens all over the world, in it is animals in the European garden.
They dug a pit too deep for the rabbits to jump out of, put good organic soil in the pit to grow grass & then put rabbits in the pit. The pit had straight walls, so a man would have to lower a ladder in the pit to feed the rabbits or catch the rabbits.
I do not know if this will help you or not, but here it is, do with it as you see fit.

Mike Barkley wrote:Our deer are foiled by a tall fence around the garden. Plus we have numerous food plots planted specifically for deer & turkeys. I've seen turkeys in the garden but never any deer.

Hi, I am in zone 8a also, S.C.
Deer can jump a fence, but would rather walk in & out of an open garden.
So the fence will help & a second fence five feet outside the first or in side the first if that is better,
will look like a trap to the deer &  they will not jump it.
I have a electrical easement that I can not plant trees on, so  am going to plant deer plots on it in hopes that it will keep the deer off my garden next summer. Fifteen deer had been harvested off my land last year & they are back n full steam this year.
Not sure if this helps.
Turkeys I know nothing about, we had them on the farm one year only.