Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Critters

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Dennis Steinfort" <dsteinfo AT seidata.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Critters
  • Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 06:45:27 -0400



----------
From: Liannan88 AT aol.com
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Market-farming] Critters
Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 11:39 PM

Someone told me once that the concept of "letting the wildlife have their
fair share" only works in Disney movies! I've come to believe that. Last
year,
I lost an entire field of watermelons & cantaloupes to night critters,
probably armadillos, possums, pack rats & raccoons. Never could catch them
in the
act, but they never bothered to eat just one, always had to have a bite out
of
all of them to see which was the tastiest!

I've been told that a dog or two would solve the problem, but as a market
farmer, with a plethora of small livestock (& cats), I was REALLY hesitant
to
bring home just ANY old dog. And finding a semi-purebred dog that wasn't
of
obvious terrier or birddog mix (birddogs tend to recognize that chickens
are
birds!) was really hard. I just brought home a Rescue dog today that is a
BullMastiff mix. He gave up on the cats after one swatted him, & gave up
on the
chickens when he almost caught one! He's not interested in either at this
point.
Whether he'll take care of the critter problem, I don't know, but I've got
my
fingers crossed! Just don't tell the Rescue people that you expect the dog
to
actually "work" on your farm - they tend to have a cow on the spot that you

expect the dog to earn his keep in any way or fashion. If anyone can get
hold
of a little pack of Standard or Giant Schnauzers, they were used in Germany
to
guard market farmers' carts, but I got totally snubbed by Schnauzer Rescue!

About the porcupines: I know that they love to eat the bark off of fruit
trees, & have a special fondness for apricot & peach trees. Today the
house,
tomorrow the orchard! I have a recipe for pickled porcupine to use in
Cajun
Beans & Rice if anyone is interested. I dressed it myself & it was quite
tasty!

-Maridian Carlton
_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page