Market Farming

["Errol Castens" <castens AT peoplepc.com>]

(Liz Pike wrote: The neighbors whose dogs devoured most of our flock, sold
eggs for half of what I'd planned to.  It was all I could do to smile, and
beg her dogs to come back a visitin'  "got a nice sweet juicy bullet waitin
fer yer lil doggie, maam")

I sympathize, Liz. Because we'd lost so chickens many to coons before, I
built a predator-proof pen in which our hens could scratch around and in
which I could feed them grass, clover, etc. I finally worked up the nerve,
after having them confined for two years, to let them outside to graze (in
my own yard) for a couple of hours in the late afternoon -- only to have
packs of the neighbors' dogs decimate them. One neighbor thought it was
funny when her precious pooch brought her a still-live hen. We have no leash
law in the county, but it didn't take but a couple of "lost dog" posters
before people got much better at keeping their mutts at home.

Errol Castens
Oxford, Mississippi