Abma's Farm Market & Petting Zoo: Hillsborough — Attraction in Hillsborough Township

So this was my second time here... First time was nice enough to warrant a return. The positives were the variety of animals to feed and pet. This weekend, however, was our last time visiting after seeing an absolutely obnoxious staff member handling and "tough talking" the animals. It actually made me sick how she was not only speaking so rudely to the animals, even calling one a "jerk" - thanks for the language around my kid, lady. But then she was rough holding the cat for the sake of getting a picture, in which she placed it high over a sign and it's crying from discomfort and falls from a high distance. Then she felt the need to take down a donkey for no reason. Apparently the donkey had bit another staff member's face earlier. Okay, your staff shouldn't put their face in front of a donkey. And taking down the donkey a very long time after the incident doesn't teach the donkey anything. She sat on the floor with the donkey for a long time on her little power trip until another staff member came over and asked her what she was doing, in which she processed to stand back up. What punk bullies defenseless animals and models this handling to the younger staff member here? And keeps using negative language in a "family friendly" place. I've visited a bunch of farms out here in NJ, and never saw someone so rude and disrespectful to animals. And that was her treatment in front of visitors. Can't image what it looks like when the spot closes up. Even my daughter told me "She's not speaking nice to the animals. I don't like her being mean." You either respect animals or you dont. And this lady does not. Don't want to leave a bad review based on one staff member, but to keep someone around like that and not having better standards of care does convey a...

What a wonderful new farm in town!

1. we bought the petting zoo tickets online. Check-in was smooth and simple. The kid working the booth were very well trained - courteous, professional and well mannered.

There was another boy (presumably a member of the family as well) who was so kind to my toddler - he even went into the rabitat to pickup a bunny and let my son pet the rabbit up close. He was kind enough to give us a short tour too of the petting zoo area.

2. We loved the variety of animals. From rabbits to pigs to donkeys to emus and alpacas, there were so many types of animals to look at and read about on the signage.

3. the market store itself isn’t large but it has plenty of stuff to browse. We loved the strawberries (taste like candy!) and the sugar plums are delicious too. We noticed they also have freezers with their own meats- we’ll have to try that another time.

My only feedback would be this - it would be nice to have signs at each animal pen reminding visitors what animals can be fed / not fed. Maybe a sign like “visitors: please only feed me _ (pellets, carrot tops, crackers) as a reminder.

In retrospect, maybe we should have photographed the sign at the check in booth and kept it on our phones as a reminder.

Overall, we had a great experience during our first visit with friends.

One unique aspect that I enjoyed and wanted to highlight was the bucket of pellets we paid for. We got to keep the bucket —- which makes sense on their signage that there’s a $3 refill cost, meaning on our next visit we can pay for a refill using the same...

We recently visited Abma’s Farm on October 31st. We do not celebrate Halloween and wanted to do something fun for the kids. Upon arrival it wasn’t busy at all which for me was nice. We booked our tickets online for $18 per adult or child. The market is so cute. It was really nice and clean. The produce was reasonably priced and fresh. I love how they have pasture raised eggs fresh daily. The petting zoo was sooo fun. It was $8 a bucket to feed the animals. I did feel like that was a little much but I do not know the cost of feeding farm animals so it may very well be reasonably priced. Nonetheless the experience was great. The animals look well taken care of and loved. The staff was nice. The hayride was nice to see the actual farm and all the effort they put into it. We got to go through the corn maze and pick pumpkins, which they had a huge variety. There were really cute photo opportunities with the scenery and decor. I’d rather visit a farm like this than a zoo where the animals look miserable. The only feedback I have is maybe having someone on the Hayride telling us about the farm, how it’s maintained, and the history of the farm. Someone like me is interested in those details and would have enjoyed an overview of how a farm runs. But the staff there did answer the questions we had. In all we will...