NICKERSON — When you think of livestock on a typical Kansas ranch or farm, cattle immediately come to mind. Maybe horses. Occasionally sheep.
Then there's the Hedrick Exotic Animal Farm near Nickerson. The menagerie there includes giraffes, zebras, camels, kangaroos and a little of everything else.
Hallie Godfrey is the fifth generation of the Hedrick family to offer Kansans a different kind of farm experience. Her great-grandfather created the legacy.
"I've heard stories of him having like trained bears and things like that here in Nickerson back a long, long time ago," Godfrey said. "And then, my grandma and grandpa had a small, traveling circus.
"That took them up through … maybe the '60s, '70s. So, around there, they had gotten out of the circus business and moved into rodeo specialty acts."
The Hedrick family supplies the petting zoo at the Kansas State Fair, the pigs at the fair's pig races and camels for Living Nativity scenes for churches around the nation during the Christmas season. That includes the one performed at Wichita's Central Community Church.
The farm's current owners are Joe and Sandra Hedrick, Hallie's parents. Joe was a bronc rider and rodeo clown for many years; Sondra was a barrel racer.
They initially worked with rodeo stock, but their menagerie of exotic animals took off in the late 1970s and '80s.
"So, my nephews grew up riding ostriches, just like my brother and I did," Godfrey said. "We've traveled with the petting zoo in the summer and get to do a couple of fairs.
"The petting zoos really give a sample of everything we have here on the farm. … We carry kangaroos, the big land tortoises, usually at least one porcupine, different varieties of cattle, a young zebra and a young camel … sometimes a miniature horse."
While many of the family members travel the state fair circuit, others stay on the farm near Nickerson to manage the bed and breakfast, where visitors get a chance to interact with animals.
After the state fairs end in the fall – including stops in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas — the Hedricks change seasons, Godfrey said.
"At the end of October, the crew … pack all of the trailers and we switch into Christmas nativity work," she said.
"We have Santa's reindeer — we take them to shopping centers, banks, schools.
"Nativity sets, we bring camels, sheep, donkeys – all kinds of stuff."