Our barnyard community offers healing experiences for so many visitors. Volunteers support this program in the following areas:

Morning Feeding
Arrive before 9am to prepare breakfast for our two pot-belied pigs, Max and Pickles, and our menagerie of birds. This involves measuring out their food, setting it out for them in the pasture and the orchard and filling their water bowls. You can sign up to do this one day/week. You can also sign up to help as a substitute on an “as needed” basis.

Afternoon Water
Stop by for a farmyard visit, hang out with animals and re-fill their water bowls. In hot weather cool off the turkeys by spraying their feet, refill the baby pool for the ducks, or hose off the piggies. You can sign up to do this one day/week. You can also sign up to help as a substitute on an “as needed” basis.

Put the Chickens to Bed
Coming at dusk to chase the Guinea hens in, count the roosters, collect the eggs, and close the coop doors, so our birds can sleep unafraid of nightly visitors. You can sign up to do this one evening/week. You can also sign up to help as a substitute on an “as needed” basis.

Wash out the Water Bowls
This weekly task gives you a chance to get to know the animals and their personalities. As you scrub out their water buckets, experience the curiosity of the alpacas, the friendliness of the turkeys, and the bossiness of the guinea hens. You can also sign up to help as a substitute on an “as needed” basis.

Coop Clean-Up
We have weekly, monthly, and seasonal coop chores. Every week we clean out nesting boxes and put in fresh pine shavings and diatomaceous earth. Monthly we lay new wood chips on top of old as part of our deep litter method of keeping the coop clean and fresh, while making compost at the same time. Seasonally we removed the composted litter and begin again.

Foster Baby Chicks
Each Spring we add new chicks to our laying hen family. Chicks need to live inside in a brooder until their feathers grow in and they can live safely outside (~6 weeks). We offer foster families all the supplies they need to take care of baby chicks at home until they can move into the Farm’s teenage chicken coop.

Barnyard Tours
Sign up to lead visitors and groups on a tour of the barnyard. Teach them about how eggs become chickens, share the stories of Max and Pickles, introduce them to the different ways birds lay their eggs, and explain how alpacas live in community. This opportunity is great for extroverts and others comfortable leading groups and offering hospitality. We will gladly teach you everything you need to know to lead the tour.