Our little terriers love to chase them, also, but can you imagine the mess and chaos in my pens with 2 wildly excited little dogs dashing madly to and fro, mud and water going everywhere and the poor snails being knocked flying and trampled into the mud. We stopped doing that very quickly, but my dogs prowl ceaselessly in the hope of surprising a cheeky intruder.
We have now bowed to the inevitable. We have got a couple of cats. We have built a pen outside the shadehouse for them to sleep in and a wire run leading into each shadehouse, for hunting purposes. They will definitely be working cats. We planted a lot of shrubs and trees over the years, to entice back the birds and won't have cats ourselves, though neighbouring ones sometimes wander in. Out new live - stock are semi - wild farm cats, so hopefully, will be capable of doing the job we require of them.
We have been snail farmers for 2 years now, still along way from selling any, but have learnt a lot and had some fun in the process.
I have become a scavenger extraordinaire -- I prowl the vegi sections of the supermarkets, inspecting their waste bins for suitable greenery and I'm never without at least 2 bags tucked into my purse.
I have learnt to value the presence of slaters and worms in the pens -- waste food and dead snails are quickly dealt with. We also have a horde of free - loading slugs and I wage a spasmotic war on them, but have you ever seen their eggs. A glorious fairy necklace of crystal beads! What a pity they are such a nuisance -- they breed nearly as prolifically as my snails.
The waste greenery goes into my embryonic worm farm, for recycling back to top - dress my snails pens eventually and the wast dry food is fed to my 3 hens. The dry food trays are washed in a trough under the lemon tree, thus utilising waste water.
The long hot, dry summer this year has seen the loss of a large number of our mature snails. Some have succumbed to disease, some to a natural loss occurring after egg laying, but I think the majority have simply given in to old age. Being taken from free range enviroment to an enclosure, with different food offered, is no doubt very traumatic for them, but I have been told ther will be fewer losses with each succeeding generation.
The problems we have are very similar to those other snail farmers have experienced, so its a comfort to know it's not just our lack of management skills to blame.
In the meantime, we will just " keep on keeping on ". We are making progress, abeit slowly, and hopefully, one day in the not so distant future, we will also make some money.
P.S No, I haven't given up on the idea of a coffee shop. One day, when the tourist start flocking in, perhaps I can offer them coffee and muffins or a devonshire tea or even a meal of snails. Who knows? The possibilities are endless.....
Written by :- Pam Jeffery
Published :- Grass Roots No. 115 June/July 1996
