VINEMONT, Ala. – Owner Judy Snead, along with members of the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce, cut the ribbon on Snead’s Farmhouse Friday morning to signal its grand opening. Started in 2019 with a couple of chickens, Snead’s Farmhouse is now home to 130 chickens, two alpacas, two cows, six goats, three pigs, 10 ducks, two tortoises, one donkey, a turkey and three rabbits.
Snead hosts farm tours, storytimes and field trips and in the next year will open an education center with a stage for puppet shows. Her gift shop and incubation education projects will be set up in the same building.
Snead has a passion for teaching. She first began learning about farm life in 2019 and became a National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP)-certified hatchery, selling chickens, which helped her gather a large Facebook following. She soon decided she would rather see her animals grown and started buying animals and giving tours last summer. Her following has increased to 9,795.
Now she teaches children all about what it takes to raise the different animals on the farm. She also uses her animals to encourage acceptance of others.
Snead said, “I’m new at farming. Because I wasn’t a farmer, I did not know to separate my animals. Like donkeys are not supposed to be with goats because they can kill baby goats. I didn’t know that, so I put them all together. So, what I noticed is if a parent doesn’t teach a child any differently, they don’t know to discriminate, so that’s what my puppet show is about that I do on my field trips, is how my animals live in harmony.”
For her farm field trips, for $10 a child, she said, “I do a puppet show, we do stations, everything is hands on. You’re not by a fence going ‘Oh, there’s a cow!’ You’re up taking a selfie with the cow. Then we hike to the creek where they discover bones, and we do science.”
In addition to running her farm, Snead said she has spent her time rescuing injured ducks at Sportsman Lake Park after receiving several calls about the matter. She has rescued six ducks so far and keeps them in a fenced-in, covered enclosure she calls her Sportsman Lake Rehabilitation Center.
“My goal is not to keep them, it’s to nurse them and put them back where they live,” she said.
Quacky Jacky is one duck who will need to live on the farm. After being attacked by a dog at Sportsman Lake, Quacky Jacky had to have one of her feet amputated.
Said Snead, “Instead of that being negative, Quacky Jacky goes to nursing homes where people have one leg to encourage them to keep going, so I have been able to use her in a positive way.”
Snead’s Farmhouse is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All proceeds from donations and farm tours go toward improvement of the farm enclosures, vet bills, feed, education center, incubator projects, medical supplies and more.
Find out more at www.sneadsfarmhouse.com. Farm tours and field trips are $10 per child. To schedule a tour, call Judy Snead at 205-807-2549 or email judysnead9522@gmail.com.
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