Dwindling Resources

Greetings from the Stye!

The farmer next door had a coyote problem: they kept stealing his chickens. So he trapped them, tried “natural deterrents”, shot at them, tried poison…but they kept stealing his chickens. One day he got so angry he came up with his ‘ultimate’ plan: he trapped one and tied a stick of dynamite to its tail. He thought it would run to its den and blow the whole thing up and he would be rid of his problem. Well, he lit the end of the long fuse, opened the door to the trap, out ran the coyote… directly into the chicken coop - totally destroying the coop and his flock of hens.

Is there a moral to this story? Several actually: First, don’t make decisions when you are angry! They probably won’t be good ones. Second, there is a natural order to things and you need to figure that out before you can try to change it. Third, (my last one for now) maybe the root of the problem was not the coyotes but the lack of good protection in the hen house. So fix the hen house!

Unless you are raising chickens you probably are wondering what this story has to do with us or with stewardship. Good question.

Do we have a problem with dwindling resources (loss of chickens)? Maybe the cause of the problem is not out there with someone else…maybe the cause of the problem is closer to home. Take a good look at your own ‘house’ before you blame someone or something else. What is the state of our chicken coop? What can I do to keep it strong?

Happy farming!

Your pal in the stye,

Stewie