the Beetles

I read an entire book dedicated to dung beetles. For some reason I thought they were only native to Africa, and that dung beetles had to be imported. How wrong! There are dung beetles native to the U.S.!

The chemical free, mob and move method we use encourages dung beetles to join the habitants of our farm. They lay their eggs in deep holes they drill right through the pile of dung, catching the egg, dung and dirt into a ball at the bottom of the hole.

This is one reason why our soil is changing, why what is growing here is changing. Our pastures have greatly reduced amounts of poison ivy and pricker bushes and greatly increased amounts of clover and grass.

The cows, chickens and turkeys love it, and eat what grows right up. The soil, filled with holes from dung beetles and earth worms, holds much more water, deeper, with every single rain.

To a farmer, this is a beautiful sight to behold..