Bushcraft Mythbusters: Bracken Beds

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http://paulkirtley.co.uk/

Find out why bracken is a poor choice of bedding materials...

Tags: bushcraft,survival,outdoors,wilderness,camping,bush,bracken,ticks,Lyme Disease (Disease Or Medical Condition),shelter,shelter building,survival shelters,bushcraft shelters,outdoor safety,advice,mythbusters,mythbusting,errors,avoidable

Video Transcription

hi there I'm Paul Kirtley founder of the award-winning frontier bushcraft and author of Paul Kelly's blog the leading source of wilderness bushcraft advice and information on the net now one thing I get asked about quite a lot I've certainly seen it on forums and people discussing it on websites and discussing it on Facebook groups even it's that of what to make a bed out of when you're constructing a shelter and for some reason there's a bit of a cliche people seem to want to make beds out of Bracken I don't know where this idea comes from frankly making Bracken out of it making pets out of Bracken is a pretty poor choice of materials and there are several reasons for that first off you there's loads of Bracken here so it's it's a it's an abundant material so it's a natural choice to go for but the first reason why it's no good all of this is green and if it's green it means it's damp it contains moisture if you make a bed out of that you're lying on damp material it's going to make your clothing damp if you've got any bedding material any sleeping kit is going to make that damp as well and you're potentially going to be colder than you would be if you made your bed out of dry materials the second reason Bracken's not a great idea for your bedding is that it flattens down to nothing you put a pile of Bracken that thick and you lie on it for any length of time even 10 minutes and it's flat to the ground it's hard it's as uncomfortable as lying on the ground in the first place there's very little insulation there and partly because it's damp as we've already talked about and a partly because there's no air trapped in it that it's just squashed down to nothing so it's not a great material for bedding for that reason a third reason and a really significant one and an increasingly significant reason for not making your bed out Bracken is that Bracken often harbors ticks deer like to go in amongst the bracken they could hide up in Bracken just as I came down here a couple of minutes ago a couple of fallow deer went running off down there into the Bracken and wherever you get deer you get deer ticks and Bracken is often full of ticks I've seen people go off into the bracken just for a couple of minutes to have a way to have a pee they'll come back and they're covered in ticks crawling up their arms crawling at the legs and they've had to undrestand for us to brush all the ticks off them before they before they attach themselves in the fourth reason it's not so significant as ticks but it can it's something to think about if you cut Bracken which is an efficient way of getting the material down it's often quite spiky at the bottom there's lots of sharp fibers in Bracken which means you don't want to be pulling it up with your hands because you lacerate your hands so you end up cutting it if you're going to use it for anything and that means then it's got these very sharp points on the end which again doesn't make for the most comfortable of bed so there are four good reasons there not to be making your your bedding from green Brack and there are lots of other materials that are preferable that I would recommend that you're going to get a better night's sleep you're going to be more insulated from the ground and that you're going to not end up being a host to a load of ticks which eventually could lead to to Lyme disease if you if you're unlucky so avoid the bracken even though it's a an abundant material it seems like a natural choice but it's not the best one I hope you find that useful I hope it serves you well if you like this video please go across to my blog that's Paul curtly Cote UK where you can get 20 more free videos like this one full of lots of useful tips and advice on bushcraft survival skills and things that will enhance your outdoor life that's at Paul curtly Cote UK just go over there pop in a couple of details and I'll send you the 20 free videos straightaway and then after that you're going to get a load of other extra free information as well it's all good stuff but loads of people already signed up for it so head on over there if you like this video if you like the other videos please share them with your friends as well and also let me know what you think thanks a lot for watching and I'll see you on the next video Cheers bye