There are 12 sheep here at Fripps Farm.

There are 11 Miniature Shetlands at Fripps Farm.

There are 14 goats here at Fripps Farm.

There are 6 Llamas at Fripps Farm

There are 6 dogs at Fripps Farm

There are 4 Owls at Fripps Farm

There are 27 Cats at Fripps Farm.

There are 6 Reptiles at Fripps Farm.

There are 2 Donkeys at Fripps Farm.

There are 8 Emus at Fripps Farm.

There are 4 Meerkats at Fripps Farm.

There are 9 Pigs at Fripps Farm.

There are 20 Turkeys at Fripps Farm.

There are 2 Skunks at Fripps Farm

There are 2 Guniea Pigs at Fripps Farm

There are 3 Geese at Fripps Farm.

There are 8 Horses at Fripps Farm.

There are 3 Alpacas at Fripps Farm.

There are 5 Muntjac deer at Fripps Farm.

There is 1 Genet at Fripps Farm.

There are 2 Racoons at Fripps Farm.

There are 3 cows at Fripps Farm.

There are 2 Racoon dogs at Fripps Farm

There are 2 Hedgehogs at Fripp Farm

There is currently 1 fox at Fripss Farm.

Ernie is a shonkey. Or that’s what we’ve called him anyway. His dad was a full size donkey and his mum is Peggy, our miniature Shetland. Apparently there’s only one other of these in existence. They’re technically mini mules but we like “shonkey”. We didn’t know Peggy was pregnant. When we rescued our donkeys Chuck and Johnny they went straight to Jodie’s dads house to live in his paddocks until Jodie had the space for them. Jodie also moved Sid and Peggy the mini Shetlands over there to give them some more space and grass. When Jodie moved into a property with a lot more land, we brought them all back to Fripps. It was only when we were with the donkeys every day that we saw that they had their balls still. It sounds silly but nobody had thought to check and we all just assumed they were geldings. They certainly didn’t act like Jacks as they were very calm and loving to everyone. We immediately got the donkeys castrated but by then it was too late. Peggy did start to look very round but then she’s always had a huge belly since the day Jodie rescued her. She’s always been the greediest for food and has always pushed the other animals out of the way to get to the food. Not long after Jodie rescued Peggy she gave birth to a stillborn foal. From that day Peggy changed from a loving wonderful little pony to a sad and extremely depressed pony. She wouldn’t even let us give her kisses and cuddles anymore.

Jodie went out one morning at the new place, not long after she’d moved in and found Peggy had foaled in the night with a shonkey. She’d done it all by herself and was SO happy and proud. She was immediately back to being the loving, happy, bouncy pony that Jodie first rescued. Ernie weighed a whopping 10.8kg at birth and because his extra long legs had been curled up inside Peggy for so long, they were slightly wonky. Jodie took them both straight to the vets where Ernie had leg splints put on to straighten his legs. He is doing so well with the splints and is drinking fine from mum. Peggy is the happiest we’ve ever seen her and Ernie is the cheekiest little boy we’ve ever met. At ONE day old he was bucking and kicking and doing zoomies round the stable. He has so much sass it’s unbelievable. Peggy is the best mum ever and never takes her eyes off him. Ernie has made Peggy so happy and that has made all of us at Fripps so happy. Ernie is so rare and special and we feel honoured that this little miracle was born at Fripps.

Hayley is a wolfdog. We’ve had her DNA tested and basically she is 42% grey wolf. The rest of her is Czech wolfdog (which is again a hybrid of a dog and a wolf). We rescued her when her owner no longer wanted her and she wasn’t being kept in the right environment for her needs. Because she has so much wolf in her, she actually displays more wolf traits than dog! Hayley is best friends with Manic, our protection dog and she now lives her best life being outside all day playing with him (when he’s not working!). Jodie is obsessed with Hayley as very quickly after she arrived, Hayley “chose” Jodie as one of her pack members and they have such a close bond. Hayley is the most stunning and majestic girl. She eats lots of raw meat (bones and all) and she just loves cuddles with those she chooses. Hayley will live forever at Fripps as we are all too in love with her to ever let her go. Plus she’s bonded to Manic now too. We are so lucky to have her.

Baby is a 20 year old African Grey parrot. He belonged to Mark the builder’s grandmother. At the ripe old age of 92 she could no longer care for him properly and she asked us to take him. We fell in love at first sight. He talks A LOT. He says all sorts of things from “what are you doing on sunday” to “fancy a cuppa”. Our favourite is when he mimics the telephone ringing and it’s so realistic that everyone actually thinks a phone is ringing. He’s so chatty and vocal and funny. Jodie being Jodie decided his cage was too small so within days of him being here had ordered a giant indoor aviary for him along with a ton of parrot toys. He comes out of the cage every night and is allowed to fly around the house, which he loves. He watches TV with Jodie (when she has the time!) and he loves all his new toys. These parrots can live up to 60 years and we are so happy to add him to the Fripps family.

There are now 9 peacocks at Fripps farm. Seven of them came from the same place as the llamas. The owner just didn’t want them anymore. There are 2 boys and 7 girls. Once here they had to be kept in an enclosure for a few weeks so that they could settle in and realise that this was their new home (much like when you keep a cat indoors for a few weeks for it to realise this is now home). Nowadays they free roam on the farm and go wherever they want to. They all sleep very high up in the trees at night which keeps them safe from predators. The peacocks took a while to find their confidence as they hadn’t been around other farm animals but they happily now share their food with emus, turkeys and chickens !! They are stunningly beautiful and we never get bored of watching them.

Did you know that people breed pheasants and sell them just to release them onto their land to shoot? Well they do. So Jodie now has 8 pheasants, all male. There are 6 ring neck, 1 melanistic and 1 pure white pheasant. Jodie bought them so that they wouldn’t be bought by someone to shoot because that is literally all they are bred for.

The melanistic pheasant is disabled. He has a hunchback and a twisted neck. Jodie was really worried that the others might pick on him but luckily they don’t and he happily lives alongside the chickens, turkeys and Guinea fowl with the other pheasants. He eats really well too. The pheasants favourite thing to eat is sweetcorn and Jodie goes to the wholesalers every week to buy massive bulk lots of it. The pheasants are really tame and eat out of Jodie’s hand. They also like being held and having chin rubs. They are really beautiful birds and their feathers are iridescent and they glow different colours in the sunlight, even having a bright pink colour on their chests. Jodie loves her pheasants and plans to get more when she moves to a place with more land.

There are 5 Guinea fowl here at the farm. Guinea fowl are like the guard dogs of poultry. Not only do they make a loud warning sound to any danger but they have been known to break up fights between other birds. Jodie hatched these herself from eggs in an incubator. People think they are funny looking but Jodie thinks they are beautiful. The only way to tell the sex of them is by the noise they make. Males make a one syllable sound while females make a two syllable sound. Jodie thinks she has 3 females and 2 males but it’s hard to tell when they’re all calling at once! They lay lots of eggs which is free food for the skunk, meerkats, dogs and pigs. They’re adorable birds and tend to all stick together in their own flock even though they happily live with the turkeys, chickens and pheasants. Jodie wanted them to act as guard birds and they certainly do their job. They will alert her to anything out of the ordinary by calling loudly.

Jodie has dozens of quail at the farm. The quails started with a funny story. Jodie bought some quail eggs from a supermarket. They were being sold as eggs to eat. A delicacy. Anyway Jodie took the eggs home and forgot about them for a week and then suddenly remembered them and popped them into an incubator. Within a couple of weeks two out of the six eggs had hatched!!!! She had two beautiful quail chicks. It turned out that they were both male so Jodie set about finding some females to go with them as males will fight. She found somewhere offering up quails and she took a few females. Within a few months she had dozens of quails as they were laying and hatching their own eggs. Jodie put some in the incubator too as they had been left by the mums halfway through the “cooking” period. She then got offered a load more quails that needed re-homing so she took those as well. Their eggs are tiny but are very good for other animals like the dogs and skunk. They eat them raw. Jodie loves the quails and she has a large variety of colours. Jodie herself doesn’t eat eggs, being vegan, but always tells people about the time she hatched supermarket eggs and warns them that if they do eat eggs, they may just be eating a chick embryo !!!!!

Jodie has dozens of chickens. They came from all different places. Some people asked Jodie to take them as they didn’t want them any more and some people just literally dumped them in a box outside Jodie’s house. Most of the cockerels are here because nobody else would take them (no one wants cockerels) and this was literally the last stop before they were slaughtered. Some of the chickens were even born here on the farm (some of you may be familiar with the tree chicks from the Fripps Farm Instagram). Jodie has nearly every breed of Chicken imaginable, including; wynadottes, bantams, silkies, jersey giants, brahmas, polish and all sorts of cross breeds. Jodie doesn’t have a favourite chicken as they are all so different and funny. They are very charismatic. The silkie chickens feathers are more like fur and extremely soft (hence the name silkie) and Jodie calls them the “cat fur chickens” as they feathers feel like cat fur. One of the prettiest chickens on the farm is a silkie cross bantam. Some of the chickens get broody and want to sit on eggs but Jodie mostly collects the eggs every day. It’s free food for the meerkats, skunk, pigs and dogs. If she misses a chicken sitting on eggs then she sometimes ends up with lots of baby chicks which she transfers (with their mother) to an indoor enclosure to keep them safe and to make sure they get enough food before putting them back in the run when they’re big enough.

There are lots of ducks here at Fripps. The runner ducks were rescued from two different homes of people who had decided during lockdown that it would be fun to have ducks in the garden. A few weeks later and they realised that their garden was ruined and that ducks are VERY noisy, VERY smelly, VERY messy and that they poo a LOT. Runner ducks can’t fly so they spend their time waddling around the farm. They get on well with all the other animals and are very funny to watch. There are then another 11 wild mallards who live part time on the farm. Basically Jodie took them all in at a day old when their mother was killed on the road. She reared them and then let them loose on the farm. Every day they fly off (presumably to a local pond) and then come back around dinner time to eat with the other ducks. They really don’t have to come back as they are wild but they seem to love it here and of course they know where the food is!! It’s a wonderful sight to see them all flying in for their dinner. They’re very cute and friendly and always quacking!! Ducks are very vocal!! Ducks are hilarious to watch and every day the runners have a bath in a paddling pool. They are very meticulous about cleaning themselves. The female runners are all laying eggs now which Jodie feeds to the other animals. Another wonderful free source of food. The ducks don’t sit on the eggs. They prefer to be splashing around in their paddling pool or snuggling up to Emoo.