permaculture

["Johnathan Avery Yelenick" <yelenick@riseup.net>]

Our two blue heelers are wonderful. They patrol the 400 feet of chicken
moat we have, all night long, keeping EVERYTHING (coyotes, racoons, foxes,
etc.) away from the zone 1 garden and from massacuring our chickens. Of
course, their home is outside of zone 1 so as not to trample sensitive
plants and compact the soil.
They will get your chickens, however, if you're not careful. Last summer a
pop door on one of our chicken tractors, in zone 2, came loose and the
dogs got 6 of 8 chickens in there.
They are very sedentary as well. We have no fences to "keep them in", and
when I sally off on my bicycle they don't follow me.  good dog.

>
>
> OK, my dh would explode if he knew I was contemplating this, but I really
> have too many visitng deer and I think the best solution would be a good
> dog.
>
> First of all, would a dog do this kind of job well?  Does anyone have any
> knowledge or recommendations for breeds or types of dogs that would be
> best?  The area to be 'patrolled' is about 2 acres.  Since we have two
> children, the dog would of course be a part of the family.  It would
> definately be an outside dog with it's own little home.  We also have
> chickens, guineas, geese, and cows (planning on sheep and rabbits soon). A
> home-bound attitude (not wanting to leave the property) is also necessary.
>
> I think a medium size would be best - large enough to scare a racoon, but
> small enough to keep the feed requirements down, would be good.
>
> Any suggestions or experiences along these lines?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Marjory
>
>


"If your experience is that your water comes from the tap and that your
food comes from the grocery store then you are going to defend to the
death the system that brings those to you because your life depends on
that; if your experience is that your water comes from a river and that
your food comes from a land base then you will defend those to the death
because your life depends on them. So part of the problem is that we have
become so dependent upon this system that is killing and exploiting us, it
has become almost impossible for us to imagine living outside of it and
it's very difficult physically for us to live outside of it."
— Derrick Jensen