Other Critters

Thank you for visiting our Other Critters page! You will find the many different types of critters who we share our farm with here and a little about them. Check back often…you never know who might be joining us next!

Livestock Guardian Dogs

I really don’t know what we would do without our LGD’s…to us they are worth more than their weight in gold! We have really been blessed with some good protectors for our farm. We adopted our first at 1 year old from an animal shelter and he was one of our best. I remember those days of worrying about predators all night long when we heard noises, now we turn off all the lights and rest assured all will be well in the morning. It amazes us daily what these dogs know instinctively with no formal training!

Horses

All 3 of our horses came from rescue situations and we have raised them from babies to be lovely trail riding companions. 2 of our mares, Celie and Licorice, came to us as foals from an Appaloosa Premarin (PMU) farm in Canada. We bought and paid for them from pictures online and waited for them to be weaned and to travel all the way from Manitoba to GA. Cookie, my husbands girl, came from a rescue in Kentucky that saves culled foals from nurse mare farms. These farms keep pregnant mares available to lease out to other people when their foals need surrogate mothers for different reasons. When a mare is leased, her foal is ‘done away with’. Cookie’s mother was leased when she was 8 days old. She was taken in by the rescue and bucket fed milk replacer until adopted out.

Our family and friends really enjoy saddling up a horse or two and riding our many winding trails that run throughout our property.

Our Donkey

Pawpaw always had a donkey here from as far back as we can remember. Everybody remembers old Sport and as soon as someone was actually living on and caring for the farm again, the search for a donkey began. We ended up with six donkeys (long story), and there is such a thing as too many donkeys let me tell you! We found a good home for all of them except for one little feller that had just been born here on our farm. The grandkids named him Tanner after Pawpaw. He’s a sweetheart and donkeys are just so darned comical to have around!

Guineas

Here at Patchwork Acres we love our Guineas! They are truly the clowns of the barnyard. I enjoy watching them make their daily rounds, eating up insects as they go. We have actually had our little herd chase a large dog off the property while our LGD’s were napping in the sunshine. They actually lifted their heads when they heard the ruckus, but settled back in as if to say ” The Guineas have this one handled.” Some people cannot deal with all the noise they make, but we have gotten used to it and would be lost without these feathered family members. We enjoy hunting for their nests and packing the incubator full of eggs so we occasionally have hatching eggs, keets, and adults for sale.

Chickens

In the past we’ve raised a few chickens of different breeds as a hobby. We have a huge, old, incubator and the kids….well…and the kids at heart also, love to load it full of eggs and see what we get. A few of our favorite breeds to raise have been, Rhode Island Reds, Light Brahmas, Buff Orpingtons, and Dominickers.

Being interested in raising our own eggs and meat for our family, we decided to get a little more serious and specialize in one main breed. We researched all the breeds from all angles and finally decided to give Delaware’s a try and have not been dissapointed in their egg laying abilities.

Nothing beats fresh, brown, eggs from our hens that have been raised with no growth hormones, no antibiotics, and no chemicals of any kind.

Snickers

She is our only goatie of the floppy eared variety. Of course she doesn’t think she’s a goat at all and protests being penned with the others. I dabbled with raising Mini Nubians for a couple of years and Snickers is one of our kids that was rejected by her mother. We raised her in the house on a bottle and my husband spoiled her rotten. She is ‘his’ goat and loves him to death! He lets her out to roam when he’s out doing things around the farm and she follows him around like a puppy dog, including right into the house if you let her. She’s full of personality and even talks back to you when you talk to her.

We lost Snickers in 2010 and she has definitely been missed by not only us, but by visiting friends and family also.