Facilitating Interactive Exhibits - Red’s Hobby Farm Petting Corral Protocols Goal: To insure the safety of the hobby farm animals and all visitors in the corral. In addition to interpret educational material regarding the exhibit and its animals. Use animal names at the barn. Farmers are very familiar with their animals and will often call them by their names. Please do this while at the barn. Later in this document, you are given a picture guide to the animals currently at the barn as of April 2014. Duties when working anywhere at Red’s Hobby Farm 1. Interacting with guests: a. If there aren’t too many people in the area where you are responsible, be sure to interact often with visitors. b. Welcome them to the hobby farm. Encourage them to observe and interact appropriately with the animals. c. Don’t just stand back and watch. Make yourself available to them in an inviting manner. Be available to answer questions. 2. Be sure to observe animal/visitor interactions. a. Visitors are allowed to touch free roaming chickens as long as the chicken lets them. They can't pick them up or chase them. 3. Fill hand sanitizers as needed – sanitizer is stored just inside the door to the upstairs barn on a shelf. 4. When the animals are being shifted between barn and corral~1:30 each day: The area inside the barn is the rest area for the barn animals. By having the lower barn as the rest area, we are able to provide visitors with another potential interaction and close-up viewing area while also providing the animals with the rest area they need. The farm animals are divided into two groups. These groups spend half their day outside and half their day inside. They are shifted between the spaces at ~1:30 each day. While animals are being shifted between the corral and the inside of the lower barn, visitors are not allowed in the barn or the corral. It will be the duty of the interpreters in the barn area to engage with visitors about why they cannot be in these spaces while this is happening. The animals are often excited about going in or out of the barn. We don’t want children to be in the way of the animals as they come in and/or out. 5. Make sure the station has a radio at the start of the day. The radio stays all day at the Barn. DO NOT place/hook radio onto fence areas in the exhibit! Always have the radio clipped to your pants. Please return radio to the office at the end of the day. Make sure radios are on charger, turned off, and charging (red light on). Duties if working in the Corral 1. The red barn keeper will have let the animals out into the corral earlier that morning. The gates for the corral will still have the locks on them but will not be locked. Remove the padlocks and store inside the barn. There is a place to hang them inside and to the left of the door with other padlocks. Please do not lock them. 2. Be sure to observe animal/visitor interactions. a. Monitor for inappropriate visitor behavior (i.e. no food or drinks in corral, animals eating maps, must be wearing shoes, visitors riding animals, etc) b. Make sure visitors are not being rough with the animals. If they are, you should show them the proper way to interact with them. c. If an animal is misbehaving with visitors (biting, kicking, being aggressive, etc.), please intervene to eliminate visitor interaction with the animal, and then notify 900 Red Barn Keeper immediately using the radio. The keepers can help properly get the animal into a stall in the barn. 3. Grooming a. Encourage the appropriate use of brushes and show visitors the proper technique for brushing. This should be done from head to tail and not on an animal’s face. b. Discourage dipping brushes in water to use on animals 4. Cleaning a. Remove fecal matter from the corral throughout your shift using the rakes and pans provided. There are little rakes that you can get out if you are comfortable asking kids to help you clean up. Once you’ve raked fecal matter into a pan, place it in the compost container just inside the door leading from the corral into the barn. Please leave compost lid closed so chickens are discouraged from climbing in. b. Level sand/gravel as needed in the corral throughout corral duty c. Engage children; have them help you clean using appropriate sized tools 5. At the end of the day – or if for some reason the corral closes early due to severe weather, be sure to lock both the outer entrance and exit doors with padlocks. The locks will be hanging just inside the barn doors to the left with the other padlocks for the area. They are the smaller padlocks. Duties if working inside the Barn 1. Be sure to observe animal/visitor interactions a. It is okay if visitors touch the animals but they should be aware that the stall is their rest space. b. Monitor for inappropriate behavior (i.e. no food or drinks given to the animals, animals eating maps, etc.) c. Make sure to monitor animals in stalls so they don’t bite visitors d. Do not allow visitors to go up the stairs or out the back doors to behind Red Barn. Both areas are off-limits to visitors. Exhibit Information: Hobby Farm What is a hobby farm? A hobby farm is a farm that is operated not as the sole income for the operator/owner. In Michigan, many farms are hobby farms. In fact, over half of the farms in MI operate at a loss, rather than a profit. Most hobby farms are family farms, 85% of farms in MI are operated by a family or an individual. Many hobby farms have come about because they have been passed down from one generation to the next. Many smaller hobby farms have also come about because when a larger farm company comes in and buys up what used to be a large farm, they do not want the farmhouse and the barns. They often just want the fields for crops and grazing. In these cases, they sell the structures enough acres to make a small farm. In MI, just about half of all farms are 5-50 acres. What kinds of animals are found on hobby farms? Hobby farms include many different types of animals. You name the livestock or the small animal breeds and they can often be found on a hobby farm – goats, sheep, cows, alpacas, cattle, equine, pigs, turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, buffalo, rabbits, donkeys, mules. Hobby farms often specialize in smaller animals and rare breeds. These farms are where you can find the less common breeds of livestock, this can include bee farms. Why do people have a hobby farm? Hobby farmers have their farms for many reasons and income is usually not the primary one. Hobby farmers love being closer to nature, they like the hard work, they like seeing the product of their hard work and they love their animals. They sometimes just have the animals for companionship and the fact that they enjoy raising them. Raising animals on a farm bring us closer to the food we eat as well. When you raise an animal, you understand everything that goes into that process. The meat or plants you eat are not just found at the grocery store. They started with the birth of an animal or with the planting of a seed in the ground. Getting them from that point to your plate takes a lot of hard work and hobby farmers understand this. Many hobby farmers get food from the animals they raise on their hobby farm. Goats and cows provide milk, chickens provide eggs, etc. As the name suggests, hobby farms can also be used as a hobby, for instance bee keepers making honey to sell, or sales of alpaca fur for knitting. Exhibit Animal Information: Picture Guide to the animals of the Farm (as of April, 2014) (Note: Both male and female hoofed animals can have horns) Alpine/Nubian Goat: Russell: Born - 7 Apr 2005 Nubian Goat: Spot, Black with white spots Nubian Goat: Dobie, Black and tan Nubian Goat: No name, Blackish stripe down back Nubian Goat: Snap (sister to snip) Nubian Goat: Snip (sister to snap) 1 horned surgically removed 1 horn is snipped at end Goat: Johnny, White w/ long fur Pygmy Goats: Born - 19 Apr 2007 Melvin, dark brown Simon, white Theodore, light brown Anthony, black and white Katahdin Sheep: Born - 22 Mar 2003, brother and sister Primrose (short tail w/ freckles on nose) Bob Polypay Sheep: Brownie (brown), Benny (white with black freckles), May 2012 Dwarf Pygmy Goats (Will be transported to pygmy goat corral) Sugar (white), Saffron (reddish brown), Cagney & Lacy Fainting Goat: Arthur, 2011 Fainting Goat: Ringo, 2011 Chickens: Turkin, Polish, Silver Spangled Hamburg, Araucana/Americana, Cochin, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red Male Cochin: Fire Pants Female Araucana/Americana: Tony Female Hamburg: Oreo Female Polish/Cochin mix: Nugget Turkin (NOT a mix between a turkey & Buff Orpington chicken, but rather a breed of chicken with a long “naked” neck.) Exhibit Animal Information: Katahdin sheep are a breed of hair sheep developed in the United States. The breed is ideal for pasture lambing and grass/forage based management systems. They have demonstrated wide adaptability.