WELCOME TO FIVE HENS FARM

Our names are Zac and Katie Bonnema.

We live in Dorr, MI with our four daughters.

In 2022 we were presented with an opportunity to buy land that connects to my parents farm. We sold our home and moved into a camper on the land while we prepared to build our house. We had big homesteading dreams and didn't want to wait on a house to get started.

In July of 2023, while still living in the camper we bought our first milk cow. We dove in head first and started a small herd share. We soon added two more cows and a heifer calf and before we knew it we were providing raw milk to 70 families each week.

In January of 2025 we made the hard decision to scale our herd share back, sell some cows and switch to once a day milking. It was hard to feel like we were letting our herd share members down but we knew that's what was best for our family. We now have just two cows and even though it's not on the scale it was before, we are honored to be able to provide our community with fresh nutrient dense milk!

In January we also launched our beef tallow skin care with our Whipped Tallow Balm. Tallow is amazing for your skin and we've fallen in love with all of the benefits! We're really excited to bring you more tallow products in 2025.

OUR WHY

While Zac and I have always wanted to raise our girls on a hobby farm with animals, at first we really had no deeper motivation than to give them the childhood we envisioned.

I (Katie) grew up on a small hobby farm, raising animals for 4H and tending a garden with my family. We wanted to give our girls a similar experience.

Things changed when we adopted our 3rd daughter Piper, who has multiple special needs and shortly after that, our daughter Halle was diagnosed with autism. In doing research on how to best support the girls in their development, I started learning about food and specifically the negative impact of processed foods. I had previously shrugged off warnings about things like preservatives and food dyes. It seemed overwhelming to try to do things differently and it didn't seem like a big deal. Oh how I wish I could go back and tell myself what I know now!

Reading the book "The Whole and Healthy Family" by Jodi Mockabee is what gave me the push to research raw milk. I couldn't believe how many benefits we were missing out on by drinking pasteurized milk!

We slowly swapped our sugary breakfast cereals for fresh eggs from our chickens and raw milk from our cows. The difference in how we all felt was immediate. Since then we've slowly but surely made more and more changes to our diet and lifestyle. We have a long way to go but it's been rewarding to try new things and find replacements for things we used to think we couldn't live without. Especially when the healthy alternative ends up tasting even better!

We're excited to provide our community with access to raw milk, fresh eggs and other foods and products that we love.

Thanks for being here!

-Katie