About Hickory Hill Farm

Our farm has been in the family since 1950 when my grandmother bought it for a home and a working farm. Our focus has been on raising sheep, ensuring their health and well being with organic principles as much as we can, and always with humane treatment.

Organic Principles

Our sheep thrive on pasture, supplemented with hay and grain as needed. We do not incorporate any antibiotics, hormones or animal byproducts in their feed. Antibiotics are only used to treat when necessary. Diatomaceous earth mixed with the grain and mineral mix helps to promote a natural way of controlling insect pest problems. Also included in the diet of our sheep is kelp meal for its vitamin and mineral value. For additional minerals we provide a loose mix specially formulated for sheep and goats. This past winter, and through the spring, we fed hay from our farm fields. We keep them supplied with clean well water year round, pumped from the same well which serves our home.

The flock started out with 17 ewes from a mixed breed group of lambs in 1997 purchased from Caroline and Slim Stalnaker of Strasburg, Virginia and a purebred natural colored Romney ram purchsed in 1998 from Marlene Halstead, Rocky Top Farm, Ottsville, Pennsylvania. We have kept some ewe lambs to increase the flock size and purchased a purebred Tunis ram lamb, Champion, in Spring of 2000. Our original Romney ram was sold in Fall of 2000 as a breeding ram. His son Drew is currently our half Romney ram. In 2004 we acquired Gallant, a purebred Tunis ram lamb and three new adult ewes of purebred Romney stock. Our breeding program yields lambs of different colors and body types.

Humane treatment

We enjoy our sheep and make sure they are protected from harm. They all have names and are "friendly". Our original group all have A-names such as Annabelle, Alice, and Audrey. Their lambs from the first season of births have B-names such as Beauty, Belle, and Betty. The next season of births include lambs from the A-girls and the B-girls and have names like Colleen, China, and Charisma. In Spring 2001, we had all D-names like Delight, Denise, and Devine. In each group of new lambs, we spend time getting to know them and making sure that they are cared for in the best manner to ensure they are healthy and happy. You may wonder how we can bear to sell lambs to customers who want them for their dinner. Sometimes it is hard to say goodbye to our favorites but we have to realize they have had a very good life, although not a long one. If we did not sell them, we would run out of space to keep them and have too many to manage by ourselves.

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