Petting Farm Ideas

Every June I have preschool classes come out to my place for the afternoon. I set up my barnyard like a petting zoo and the kids get to see and touch everything, I was thinking of getting some bottle lambs this year and letting them feed them. I love seeing the kids react to all the animals, it makes it so worth it and reminds me how blessed we are to live on a farm. I am trying to set it up as kid friendly as possible.

Bottle lambs are always a big hit, but a lot of work for you once the kids leave.
We have 3 that are on a bottle and on their moms, feeding 3 times a day, gets busy when I am so busy with everything else.
But you know it is totally worth it to see the kids enjoying all the animals. My girls love being with all the animals, and I am sure the kids you get out there don't often get to see or touch baby animals.
Good luck with your adventure.

Yes, I had 6 bottle lambs when my youngest born, it was a flurry of feedings, lol.

Yes I remember our first bottle lamb, we had it in the house because it was born at my FIL farm in January. My oldest was only 9 months old at the time and every time that lamb would cry the baby would cry. It was a long couple weeks, eventually we put it in the chicken coop, the only place we had warm enough then, it was crazy. Couldnt imagine having 6 of them and a baby. YIKES!

We did my sons bday party at the petting farm down the road and the highlight for all the kids was milking the goat. They all lined up to get a turn and most got back in line a few times I'm not sure how much work that'd be since I don't have goats but wow the kids sure enjoyed it. Bottle feeding would be great too when we were in PEI a couple summers ago my kids had a blast feeding a calf and I thought for sure my hubby was going to try bringing home with us lol. I think doing something like that gives a greater appreciation for the animal and makes the experience more real for everyone when they actually interact with them.

It's a great idea. There are lots of activities the kids will enjoy. Petting the animals, feeding the animals, finding eggs, shearing sheep, cleaning out the pens...

Maybe I should hold one of these 'Kid Days'.

My dream is to win a lottery, quit work and have a petting zoo. I have had friends kids out to see the animals I have now, but don't have enough variety

to have whole classes. I bet you have a blast on your 'kid day' Amy.

WE always used to do the petting farm thing for the kindergarten class. We were fortuneate to have goslings, ducklings, chicks, turkey poults, kittens, sometimes puppies, baby calves, baby goats, piglets, and sometimes wild animals that were waiting to be picked up that we had found hurt or abandoned (we knew they were abandoned due to their condition or our dog had brought it home for us), and a couple ponies/horses for them to "ride". We would also bring in a couple lambs from a friends place. The highlight for the kids was always our old milkcow that 4 kids could sit and milk her at a time. She was very tolerant, and the kids could do pretty much anything. They also loved to milk our nanny goat. After playing with all the animals we would host a lunch made up of home grown offerings, and fruit. Then we would play a game of bingo (we made up bingo cards with pics of different colored chickens, geese, calves, lambs, pigs ect.) then we called animals and colors. We would also do a hardboiled egg scavenger hunt and at the end each child got prizes. It was a great day for all!!

I know of one farm who hosts a little kids rodeo for birthdays. They have all the rodeo events of course in miniature such as mutton busting, team penning(with the kids herding calves into pens), goat milking. All this is done with a clown. They have a blast. Lou