Firefly Farms was founded in July 2021 in Angelica, NY. We are a small regenerative farm on 83 acres. We have several ventures working together as a system, focusing on livestock - rotationally grazed grass-fed hair sheep, pasture-raised egg layers, and meat chickens.

We are the owners (Zach and Jessie Badgley), and we started the farm freshly newlywed, an Army veteran jack of all trades and a work-from-home designer - neither with farming backgrounds. We started the farm immediately upon moving back home and buying our property. We had been living elsewhere for several years following our careers both separately and together. We had decided we wanted to settle down and “plant roots” (pun intended) where we wanted to be (vs chasing our careers around the country/world) and build a more sustainable lifestyle for ourselves.

In our first year, we added 13 highly productive layer hens with one resident rooster, 100 cornish cross meat chickens, 6 Katahdin hair sheep, and 2 giant angora rabbits with 2 livestock guardian dogs to keep the farm safe. Resulting in a dozen eggs a day, freezers full of broiler chickens processed on the farm, and 7 lambs born from our first 4 ewes. We raised one bottle-calf and decided cattle are not for us, and that sheep and chickens are where our livestock interests are. We are in the process of establishing gardens for annual and perennial purposes.

In our second year, we continued our growth. Growing from 4 ewes to 11 and bringing in a registered ram, we tripling our breeding operation, bringing us 19 lambs for our 2023 lambing season. We also brought in many more chickens, totaling 50 chickens, with a small flock of Bantams (small chickens) included - to expand our egg production.

These numbers continue to grow in our third year. We will be going into the 2024 breeding season with two breeding groups (with the addition of a second registered Katahdin ram purchased at the KHSI Expo) with 16 ewes. We are also up to 85 chickens (bantams included) as we continue to increase our egg production. We will be focused on pasture improvement and investing in infrastructure to support our growth in 2024.

As we grow, we want to ensure that we stick to our goals and expand at a rate that is manageable to support both ourselves and our pastures. See our homepage to watch these numbers grow.

‘About the farmers’ last updated 10/24/23