We used to be ”normal” people with a couple of dogs and few cats. Then we thought, ”Hey, chickens sounds like fun. Let's get some laying hens so we can have our own eggs instead of buying them from the store!” Nothing unusual about that; we were living on a farm with plenty of room, a large granary and a big bank barn. So we bought 13 chicks from our local feed store in July 2009, then added a few more chickens and our first roosters in 2010.

All was quiet except for the occasional crow until the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry OSPCA called us in February 2014 to ask if we'd adopt a pig. ”Sure!" we said, ”How much trouble can a pig be? We just need to whip together a pig pen.” Little did we know that the innocent-looking pot-bellied porker we adopted and named Ophelia would surprise us with a litter of adorable piglets on Easter Sunday in 2014. Suddenly we had seven pigs. Things grew from there.

Bee Meadow Farm is run by me, Natalie Rowe. We're located near Apple Hill in eastern Ontario. My husband Gordon and I were both born in Toronto, and have lived in four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Nova Scotia. We moved to the farm in 2007, a year after crossing Canada for the second time with a Mazda Protege full of pets. I said I got all these animals so that we would never be able to move again!

The farm was founded by "Big Angus" McDonald over 160 years ago, and was sold out of the McDonald family when we bought it. The majority of our animals are rescues (except Roo, Flash and Sandy the horses, Monty the Maremma, and some of the chickens and ducks) and they are ALL pets. Most of our rescues were adopted through the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry OSPCA in Cornwall, but some were adopted from other places, or were dumped here. We do NOT encourage dumping of animals! 

WE ARE NOT AN ANIMAL SHELTER, and we are no longer taking in additional animals. I used to foster and adopt out cats, but stopped doing that in 2022.

Here's who we currently have in residence: thirty-four cats (in the barn, granary and house), three Jampups (rescued Jamaican streetdogs) named Chloe, Dodger and Gigi, a livestock guardian Maremma dog named Monty, a livestock-guardian dog in training named Mia (mostly Marema with a dash of Akbash and Great Pyrenees), two ponies named Finney (chestnut) and Jimmy (blue roan Shetland), two miniature horses named Katie and Dante, a chestnut Quarterhorse named Roo, a Fjord horse named Sandy, a bay roan Quarterhorse named Gen, a palomino Paint horse named Flash, two donkeys named Saul and Simon, a Belgian horse named Samson, a Percheron named Ella, a Clydesdale named Whisper, a young horse named Apollo, oodles of chickens, many Muscovy ducks, Khaki-Campbell ducks, Saxony ducks, Rouen ducks, Runner and Runner-duck crosses, Guinea fowl, two turkeys, eight sheep named Theodore, Eleanor, Elizabeth, Mary, Shelru, Kyle, Tony and Lily Gothmog, and twelve incredibly awesome rescue pot-bellied pigs named Ophelia, Olivia, Cordelia, Dahlia, Button, Luther, Jersey, Rudy, Gertrude Swine, Patrick, Wilbert and Gracie.

And let's not forget the 16 rescue goats (Boer, Nubian, Boer/Nubian crosses, Saanen, Pygmy and more!): Genevieve, Squiggly, Geoff, Pierre, Emmeline, Grace, Hawkeye, Bert, Cindy, Diego, Pepper, Salty, Lloyd, Olive, Elsa and Anna.

We also have four rabbits: Gus, Fernando, Albus Percival, and Winnifred. Gus came to us after his owners moved to Mexico; the other three rabbits were adopted from the OSPCA, and they all sharing a stall with Squiggly, and use him as a heated bed in winter.

I grew up with many animals; Gordon grew up with a budgie. I have succeeded in bringing out Gordon's inner animal-lover. She once made Gordon a pillow with a very apt Nora Ephron quote stitched on the front:

You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets.

Gordon has embraced the madness.

Welcome to our wonderful, pet-filled world! We hope you'll share the feelings of amazement and love we have for our furred and feathered friends.

PS: Our whimsical logo was designed by our talented graphic designer friend Sarah Elder, who kindly donated her services for free!

Check out this beautiful aerial video of our farm and the animals, made by our friend Lloyd: