Snail Snack

We just put our broccoli plants in the garden this week and already they are being devoured by snails.

Normally, we rely on our chickens to deal with problems like this, but because we don’t want them to scratch up the seeds, they are in temporary confinement. 

I’ve heard of a few different solutions that “may or may not” work, but I wasn't sure the plants would survive another day of snails, so I decided to just remove them myself. Alexandra happily joined me when I told her we were preparing a snail snack for the chickens. We picked them off the plants and out of the soil and served them up in a dish. 

The chickens were delighted.

Eight hours later the plants are still (pretty much) snail-free, but I bet they’ll be back by tomorrow morning. And as much as I loved collecting snails, I think I’ll get some copper mesh to put around the plants. Apparently the copper reacts with the snail slime and gives the snails a shock.

I’ll be glad when we can let the chickens roam again!