TO JOYFUL HEARTS FARM!

A joyful heart is good medicine......
Proverbs 17:22(a)

ABOUT US

Joyful Hearts Farm is run by a husband and wife team, Jeff and Fern. It is a labor of love.

We get requests every week to come and see our animals or tour our farm. We are very sorry, but we are a private farm. We are not open to the public to view our animals or our farm. We do not offer tours. There are several reasons for us choosing to be a private farm ~ the first is biosecurity. Keeping our animals healthy is very important to us. Also, we have extremely limited *free* time available to us for family time, coupled with a very long list of farm chores . So while we would love to meet everyone and show off our animals, we simply are not able to do so. We offer our website with as much information as possible, so you can *meet* everyone. =)

2004 ~ our first chickens having a chat & cluck around the water cooler *grin*

We are also home to the only true miniature dairy goat ~ the Nigerian Dwarf ~ which originated in Africa. They were brought to the USA to feed zoo animals. Breeders have been working with these little darlings since the 1980's. They are becoming extremely popular, especially for small children, those in 4H or FFA, and for those who are disabled or elderly, due to their small size. They are perfect for the small homestead and produce 1-2 quarts of sweet, rich milk each day.

In September 2007 we added a new family member ~ an Anatolian Shepherd Dog (ASD), who guards our (HER) livestock and poultry. She is a wonderful farm dog & guardian of the herds and flocks. We are so happy with the excellent job she is doing warding off numerous roaming neighborhood dogs (by far the greatest threat to our animals), bobcats, and packs of coyotes. We sleep easy knowing she is working 24/7. We also have our darling Ragamuffin house cat! Bosco is almost 12 yrs. old now.

Here at Joyful Hearts Farm, rather than trapping and killing predators, we have chosen to protect our herds and flocks from predators through management and our Livestock Guardian dog. We do not use chemicals to control pests and unwanted vegetation. We maintain good health with proper nutrition, tonic herbs, and a healthful environment, rather than relying on the routine use of antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals. To learn more about our management practices, visit our Management Page

Fern enjoys making cheeses, butter, and cultured dairy products from our ladies generous milk supply, as well as quiches, custards and ice cream, utilizing our farm fresh eggs!

We have fallen in love with our little caprine friends, the Nigerian Dwarf miniature dairy goat. We were raising Pilgrim geese from the Holderread lines but for now, have rehomed all of our geese until another season of our lives permits us to raise them again. For now we are concentrating on raising quality Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats as well as our Cuckoo Marans chickens, and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, who will be getting their own webpage as soon as they grow up.

View from our property overlooking the citrus grove nearby

You can pick up farm fresh eggs or we can meet at our drop off point nearby every Friday or Sunday. They are $5/dozen. We usually have blue, olive, cream, brown and chocolate brown colored eggs from the various breeds of chickens. Very colorful. And our girls free range almost every day.

We also offer fertile hatching eggs from our Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. You may pick them up at the farm or have your eggs shipped to you, weather permitting. Visit our BLRW page for more details.

We are a small family farm and NOT a touring facility. We have feeding schedules and lots of farm chores, so visits are limited for biosecurity purposes. Please email ahead for an appointment. Weekends are the only time to set up an appointment. We look forward to meeting you in person or via email and possibly helping you with purchasing farm fresh eggs, fertile hatching eggs when they are available and/or a Nigerian Dwarf dairy goat or two or three! *smile* Thank you for visiting our Southern California farm via the internet!

Farm Pics

If you would like to stay current with our farm happenings, birth announcements, available kids or adult Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats for sale, as well as when day old chicks and hatching eggs become available, please join our Joyful Hearts Farm email list!! This is an Announcement group so you will not receive much mail throughout the year.

Click to join JoyfulHeartsFarm