Our Farm Animals

 


Fund-A-Friend
Gloucester Old Spot


Fund-A-Friend donations are used strictly for the care of our farm animals. For your donation you will receive a certificate, magnet and the satisfaction of knowing you have helped our Farm Animals. Your name will be displayed on our Fund-A-Friend Donation wall. Fund-A-Friend makes a rewarding gift and is a meaningful project for a club or organization to take part in together.

Click here to find out more [in Adobe Acrobat format].


What are Heritage Breeds?

In addition to standard breeds we raise many heritage breeds of livestock on the farm. Heritage breeds are animals with a history.  They are the animals that settlers needed to survive in the early years of our country.  These animals are healthier and heartier than many of their modern counterparts and thrive in more natural environments.   Many heritage breeds of livestock are in danger of disappearing and our goal as a farm is to conserve these wonderful animals for future generations by buying and breeding only pure heritage stock.


Cotswold Sheep

CotswoldWe are starting a new fiber program at Queens County Farm Museum.  The goal is to produce lustrous wool from healthy sheep and to sell it here at the farm.   For this program, we have chosen the Cotswold breed.  This white sheep is one of the oldest wool breeds in the world.  They are hearty animals who prefer to live on the pasture and don't need much more than salt, water and grass to be happy.  Their fleece is very fine and grows so quickly that it needs to be sheared twice each year.

The farm sells a limited quantity of unprocessed fleece. Please email us at info@queensfarm.org to  check availability.

 

Heritage Pigs

We raise heritage breed pigs here at the farm for sale from our farmstand.  Our hogs are mix of three breeds-- Large Black, Tamworth, and Gloucester Old Spots.  These hogs prefer to live in the woods where they can dig up roots for food.  The Gloucester Old Spot is known as the "orchard pig" because it will eat fallen orchard fruit without digging up and killing the roots of the fruit trees.  Our pigs receive part of their feed from the wild and part of the feed from spent brew grains from a local Brooklyn brewery.

The farm sells a limited quantity of pork.  Please email us at info@queensfarm.org to  check availability.

Laying Hens


We have two hundred Rhode Island Red laying hens at the farm.  The flock lays about 10 dozen brown eggs each day.   Our laying hens are on grass all day and are fed oyster shells and alfalfa for their health and for the production of high quality eggs.
Eggs are sold daily from the gift shop. 


Dairy CowsDaisy

Franny is our dairy cow; she is a Brown Swiss, purchased from Hawthorne Valley Farm.  


Goats

Our goats are happy, healthy and extremely friendly.  You may buy feed for the goats from the gift shop.  We look forward to establishing a goat dairy in the near future.


Bees


The Queens County Farm Museum is home to Italian honey bees.  Our raw wildflower honey is available for purchase in the giftshop or at the Union Square Farmer's Market.