- Summer Salads in the Making
It wasn’t Mr. McGregor working among the lettuces in our garden the other day. It was Farmer Nyel. And it wasn’t Peter Rabbit lurking outside the garden fence. It was the Little Red Hen and her twin sisters.
The girls are very interested in the goings on in the raised garden beds. They haven’t complained about being shut out, though. They seem to be watching and waiting, confident that their two-legged employees (we work for eggs) will screw up eventually. Then they’ll know right where the best morsels await.
It would be fun to have a rabbit, too, but we are a bit put off by the experience of our down-the-street neighbor last summer. She had brought a baby bunny to Oysterville from her place “on the mountain” in Oregon. He was in a carrying cage which she sat on the porch while she unloaded her car. Within fifteen minutes, her neighbor’s dog was on the porch, was ripping into the cage and, before her horrified eyes, was shredding the bunny to pieces. End of bunnies in Oysterville – at least for the present!
I don’t know if the line “Good fences make good neighbors” in Robert Frost’s poem “The Mending Wall” is correct or not. Certainly I am glad for our fence that keeps dogs away from our chickens. On the other hand, maybe good leashes could make good neighbors. Or maybe even obedience training could make good dogs. Or how about obedience training for the dog owners? I do understand that it’s a two-way proposition. Assuredly, it’s complicated.
Do you have any trouble with coyotes? There are certainly a lot of them wandering by.
So far, no trouble with coyotes or eagles. We hear the coyotes more than we see them and usually at night when the chickens are safely under lock and key. The eagles, though, watch the girls closely from their perch on the nearby Monterey Cypress. So far, they seem more interested in the field mice and voles in our adjoining meadow. We worry.
You are fortunate indeed. we are a bit more isolated “up here” in the woods, and our houses are further apart. The only local visitors we don’t seem to get are your elk. I think they prefer the open spaces to the gorse and salal.
Our fist encounter with the wildlife was the day everyone paraded by the sliding glass doors in the bedroom.
Jim took pictures, deer, opossum, raccoons and a bear who practically left noseprints on the glass.
We started our little flock with doves. pleasant but not bright by any stretch.
Whilst breaking into the newly made enclosure for the feed, the bear dispatched the birds for the extra protein.
Next the cat was taken by a raccoon. (why is raccoon spelled with 2 c’s and racoons with one? spell checkers… gotta love ’em!)
When the coyotes were camping in the area this fall one trotted up our driveway midday and helped herself to 2 chickens.
Our “down the hill” neighbours have had trouble with the eagles, but their flock doesn’t have the shelter of the trees.
Monday, my (only) female Cayuga duck was taken by a raccoon, irritating creatures, since they will often kill without eating their prey.
Anything green the deer and rabbit eat. One took up residence in the pump-house (rabbit, not deer).
In the fall the bear will eat anything available. They break the huckleberry bushes and find bird feeders fruit trees and hive boxes particularly fun.
Basically the best deterrent is an electric fence.
I really don’t mind sharing, However I really would appreciate it if hey left a bit for “the two legged employees”.