Dogs control rodents
Lucy's worst trait is her tendency to dig up
garden beds, diving in and sending dirt and vegetables flying in every
direction. Usually, I berate her and grumble under my breath
about darn dogs, but lately I've had a change of heart. I've been
reading about how damaging mice and voles can be in the winter,
girdling young fruit trees. Granted, this guy that I found in the
snow near one of Lucy's manaical digging sprees is a shrew (meaning
that it eats insects and earthworms instead of plants), but I often
find dead rodents left in her wake as well. I wonder if she does
more good than harm with her digging episodes?
Merry Christmas! If you didn't get
what you wanted under the tree, why not treat yourself to a poop-free automatic
chicken waterer?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Anna-
First I enjoy your site on almost a daily basis during my breaks at work and I am a customer of the chicken waterers as well. I own two dogs and have been dealing with them digging in the yard over the summer. I get mad, fill in the holes and repeat. This winter I've started to notice the dogs enjoying some "rodentsicles" and I agree- I think she finds them in the snow and takes care of the "problem" for me.
Thanks for a great site. Cathy