Meet the Newest Members of Ocoee Farm: Donkeys!

Oh my goodness I can’t even believe I am typing this, but last week, PJ had three donkeys delivered to Ocoee Farm, so we officially have big animals living at our farm.

They are so adorable. Have you ever seen a donkey in real life before? Our friend Matt described them looking like giant rabbits and now I can’t unsee it. Their huge ears, their calm demeanor, their gentleness. We all love them so much already.

While we’re already obsessed with them, the reason we got the donkeys in the first place is kind of a sad one. We have predators that keep digging under the fences and getting in a killing our lambs. We’ve been dealing with coyotes for years, and we thought once we got our dogs it would help, but it hasn’t. For years people have been suggesting we get donkeys, since they’re great protectors and will warn off predators who get in, but we weren’t ready to commit to such a large animal that potentially would require a lot of upkeep.

However, after a coyote killed one of our new lambs a few weeks back, we had had enough. PJ searched and found a local guy who had three donkeys he was looking to re-home. For a great price, he delivered three sisters to our farm at the end of last week where they’ll be living from here on out, and hopefully make our farm a much safer place for our animals.

So far they’ve been super friendly and always stick together, mostly grazing in the pasture and making their way from the sheep lot to the back pond. They’re so much bigger than I thought they would be. For some reason, I always pictures donkeys being short and rather tiny, but these are as big as small horses. They seem gentle, sweet, and kind. They will fit in perfectly at Ocoee Farm.