Starting our petting zoo in July

[Marnie]

and be critical. I want the best it can be. If you would look at the site, tell me anything good or bad, if I missed something, I'd like to know. If you have any good idea's, I'd like to know too. We're having a grand opening July 11th so I have to be ready, have a few things to do yet. But please, if you have time to look, help me out, tell me what you see.

http://www.barneysbarnyard.com.

 

[Rebecca]

What a wonderful way for kids to learn about animals.!

I remember going to petting zoos as a kid and LOVING it. However, I would get worried that if you let people feed the animals, they will not get the right amount of feed they need (too much for some, too little for others, etc.) and they may become nippy.

What a great idea though, we always have the neighbors' kids here saying hi to our horses. They love them and it teaches them to respect the animals and bond with them. Kudos to you!

Rebecca

Edited to add: After going over your site, you have obviously put a TON of thought into this. Again, I applaud you. You have the best interests of both animals and people at heart.

 

[loveminis]

What a great idea, sounds like fun !!

Your site looks good but the fonts are way to big, and they make the captions go off the picture.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Very nice site! The font was fine on my monitor; I know that is a tricky thing to get just right. I really enjoyed all the photos of children and animals. You have obviously put a lot of work into the site!

Offering a photo of the child with an animal is a great idea!

I'm sort of a stickler for grammar. Not sure if you feel that is an issue. On the farm party page there is a sentence about feeding from "there" hands instead of "their". There were a couple of possessive pronouns that needed an apostrophe. But will anyone notice?

I also like that you use "children" so often instead of "kids" all the time.

You surely do have a fine assortment of wonderful animals! I'm sure you will get lots and lots of visitors! That donkey is totally adorable!

If your farm was close to us, we'd be there for sure!

Good luck at your grand opening!

 

[mydaddysjag]

I too would make the font smaller. I know you want to appeal to children, but you may want to use a more "business correct" for lack of a better word, font. Maybe times new roman? Their parents will be reading it anyway, not the kids.

On your main page, under where it says barneys barnyard I would add a picture, before where it tells about your grand opening. Maybe an inviting picture of the front of the barn? I always like to see a centered picture of someones barn, its very welcoming. You may want to make a seperate page with your contact information, for example, a contact page that has your name, email, phone number, and address, but also have your email address as a link at the very bottom of every page. Some websites even give directions from the closest major roads.

I love all of the pictures. For one, it shows that all of the animals are well taken care of, which isnt common with a lot of petting zoo's. It also gives a preview of how much fun the kids have on their "visit" with you and your animals.

Its also great that you mention to leave dogs at home, an please dont bring treats. Its better to bring it up upfront than someones child bring snacks for the animals, then have their feelings hurt that they cant feed them to the animals.

Another group you might appeal to is the girl scouts. when I was young I think we went on a few trips to petting zoos, and it was lots of fun. The only other thing I can think of, but dont know how to word it cleaverly is that you might want to say to wear shoes or boots, not flip flops. Dont want anyone getting their toes smashed.

 

[nbark]

Looks like you put a lot of thought into what you want to do. I did not see mention of you having liability insurance. I hope that has been taken care of.

The animals all look clean and healthy. Have you checked with the Dept. of Agriculture (Federal). You have to be licensed by them to transport animals for hire such as a petting zoo. Might also check with your state agencies to be sure you are legal there as well. Keep a copy of all vet records with you when you travel in some kind of binder.

Being from an Animal Control background, I would also suggest that you keep in your vehicle several containers of water where you will be doing this in the summer. It is more of a precaution so the animals would have water if you broke down and had to wait somewhere. I use cat litter jugs that have the screw on lids. I rinse them out good before using them to keep water with me.

I once had to catch two lion cubs that the monkey let out of the bus and believe me, I checked every scrap of paper the owner had before releasing his animals to him.

Hope some of this helps you out, it is a wonderful idea and I hope it goes well for you. Good luck!!

 

[eagles ring farm]

Hoping its a huge success Marnie

wonderful idea about contacting the girls scouts and add schools to the list and 4H.

I know they are out for the summer but they will be planning their trips when they return

Make some brochures, you can leave at feed stores, TSC, and hand out around town.

The font is very big here too though.

I know your animals are your passion so no doubt on

the care they get compared to most petting zoos.

Enjoy

Lori

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Marnie, I love it! Excellent wording and graphics and the pics! You will do so well! Congratulations!

 

[Marnie]

Thanks to everyone who has replyed so far. My knowledge to do my own site is limited, I don't know how to put just one picture in the center of the page so on the introduction page, instead of just one of the barn, I put 3, I have to use that table method and it's the only way I know. I did think the page looked boring without any pictures, I like it better this way.

I always have trouble with their and there, I tried to fix them the way they should be and I do hate bad grammer so if you see any more, let me know.

I do have on the one page that we are fully insured and USDA liscened which we are, what's the Dept of Ag, isn't that the USDA? We have the horses and donkeys coggins tested and goats have their papers to travel.

When I asked the guy who helps with my computer about the fonts, he'd said theirs nothing I can do to make it look good on everyones browser, if it looks good here, it's good, I don't know what else to do.

If anyone else has idea's, please post them. We have a lot of money invested in this, including the new barn, we sure want it to work out for us. Plus it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of work but a lot of fun too.

Oh, I forgot, for feeding the animals, my girlfriend whom I'd gotten the dispensers from said what she did was use plain oats and keep a close eye on who was being fed, when she thought enough was fed, she put the dispensers away, she said a very small amount comes out of it but that is definately a concern.

Editted to say, you guys are right, I have put so much thought into this adventure, I got laid off last August and this is going to be our retirement income and something we can handle and still have our lives, if you know what I mean. I even bred some goats for June/July/August and we had twins today, for the petting zoo. And we are setting up July 4th for Buffalo Citys bicentenial and animals will be watched like hawks but these baby goats will be a couple wks old and can go along. That's why I want the site to be as good as it can be too and I really do appreciate any advice.

 

[Littleum]

The issue with fonts is that if the person on the other end doesn't have the font you've declared, their browser just picks something else. Comic Sans (what you've chosen) is fairly safe as it's standard on Windows boxes and I think Mac, but my Debian and Ubuntu boxes (LINUX) don't have them.

One way around it is to declare a font family, and not a specific font. The browser will choose a font from that family based on what the person's computer has to use.

<p align="center"><b><font face="sans-serif" size=7>Barney's Barnyard</font></b></p>

Will choose a sans serif font (ie, Arial) There are several different font families. You can just google "font families" and it should come right up with what your options are.

 

[Marnie]

What you just said is Creek to me, like I said, I'm not to sharp with the web site things but I"m going to copy and paste what you said and send it to my buddy Kelly and see if he can help me. I know I hate a web site that has the writing all over on top of the pictures and you can't even read it so thanks and I'll see if I can get it changed.

 

[chandab]

Thanks to everyone who has replyed so far. My knowledge to do my own site is limited, I don't know how to put just one pOh, I forgot, for feeding the animals, my girlfriend whom I'd gotten the dispensers from said what she did was use plain oats and keep a close eye on who was being fed, when she thought enough was fed, she put the dispensers away, she said a very small amount comes out of it but that is definately a concern.

If you can get them where you live, you might consider straight grass hay pellets, if they'll fit your dispensers, they are safe for everyone. I've seen them in timothy, orchard grass and bermuda. Just another thought.