New local pet farm open

A new Pet Farm just opened at Stonebrook Farm, between Kilcullen and Ballymore, will be an eye-opener for possibly thousands of children, and even their parents.



The project is being developed by Jackie Ronaldson (above), whose husband Tim farms several hundred acres in a mix of tillage and animal husbandry at Stonebrook.



Helped by her friend Caroline Broadley, who operates a local PR consultancy, Jackie has put together a programme wihich will involve a 40-minute tour of parts of the farm, followed by general time to play and picnic in a real rural setting.

Stonebrook Farm has been in the Ronaldson family for four generations, and the property has links much further back than that to the Eustace family. To manage the new venture, Jackie and Tim have established a number of paddocks in the former kitchen garden where the visitors can meet and pet and even feed some very friendly baby animals. The project is geared towards pre-school children and junior and senior infant classes.

The tour begins with a visit to the hens and ducks house, where the youngsters will get close up and personal with those feathered animals, feed them, and work out which kind of hens laid the differently coloured eggs.



Then they come through to meet with Bertie the pygmy goat and the Shetland pony Elf. Although Bertie and Elf spend a lot of time butting each other in mock fighting, they are the best of pals.



Two new suckling calfs are happily bounding around their new paddock and will be a big attraction to the children, while three young lambs are already getting very hardy from a constant round of bottles of milk. A black lamb is also in the paddock with its mother.

Two rare kune-kune pigs are also part of the petting menagerie. Along with Bertie, they came from Dublin Zoo. There will also be baby chicks, ducklings and goslings to see.

Brian Byrne.