Local Farm Spotlight - Cooper’s Ark Farm

SCHOHARIE — Nestled in the Town of Schoharie, in Schoharie County, sits a farm named Cooper’s Ark.  Cooper’s Ark, roughly about 15 acres, is owned by Phil and Pamela Metzger, since 1999, has given the local farming economy a big bang for its buck!  

Cooper’s Ark is a poultry farm.  Year after year, Phil and Pamela, have strived to build an inventory of different types of poultry to serve the community and beyond.  Starting with White Pekin ducks, white Muscovy ducks, BB white turkeys, brown egg laying chickens and Cornish Cross meat birds.  Let us not forget the most special bird that annually graces the table of many an American, the turkey!

And so the inevitable question among farmers continues,  which came first?   The chicken or the egg?  That question has never been fully answered and of course, it may never be answered.  With the help of Google, we can lay down some basic facts.  The opinions of most farmers were never proven but when asked, they always seem to bring a smile and a chuckle to our hard working farmers.  If they know the true answer, they are not sharing it!

To help us walk the miles to get answers about the chicken and the egg, we rely on our local experts, Phil and Pamela.  Currently, they have a flock of over 100,000k that pass thru in a year and 325 tons of their own custom feed annually with the secret ingredients to raise healthy poultry.

To be successful in this line of work, with such large amounts of poultry, there are requirements you need to be successful.  High quality vaccinated birds,  good feed, decent pricing, and the willingness to do the work year after year are needed.  This is exactly why Cooper’s Ark has been so successful with the farm. 

Years ago, a most popular activity in farming country was creating farm  tours.   Adults and children alike would come to visit a live working farm in which all could experience the touch and feel of life on a farm.  These tours would run through the summer months and the children and adults could experience bottle feeding the goats, picking chicken eggs direct from the hen house and then cleaning them via the egg wash machine.  But no more…The realization of today is that most visitors to the farm, adults and children alike, do not see the connection of the eggs in the store and the eggs picked fresh each day on the farm. 

Things change. Years ago, Cooper’s Ark farm even had a custom designed handicapped hay wagon that held up to 6 wheelchairs at a time for their special guests.  This special hay wagon awaits at the farm for the special timing when the economy and the world become a bit more together.  Nowadays, Farm Day is narrowed down to just one day in the summer, August 29. 2026.   

If you would like to find out more about what Cooper’s Ark has to offer, feel free to contact Phil and Pamela @ 518-231-3858 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. or send them an e mail philark47@gmail.com.  

Captions—Turkeys that travel in tour bus style like these gobblers make happier birds!