From Rescue to Resilience: How Bee Wings & Fuzzy Things Uses Farmbrite to Stay Organized and Focus on What Matters
- Joshua Brock
- 14 hours ago
- 5 min read
Running a nonprofit animal rescue isn’t just a labor of love, it’s a constant balancing act between care, coordination, and cost.
For Tori Masters and Bryan Spoon, founders of Bee Wings and Fuzzy Things, that balance is something they live every day. Their 5-acre farm near Indianapolis is home to a wide range of animals, including livestock, exotics, and everything in between, and all of them are there for one reason: they needed a place to go.
“We take in the animals that nobody else wants,” Tori explains.
But building a rescue operation from the ground up comes with challenges that go far beyond animal care. Our conversation with Tori covered a lot of ground. Let's take a look:
Table of Contents:
A Mission Bigger Than Profit
Bee Wings and Fuzzy Things operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with a clear goal; not specifically to turn a profit, but rather, to become self-sustaining.
That’s easier said than done.
Both Tori and Brian fund the rescue largely out of their own paychecks, with Tori as a developmental therapist and Brian as a truck driver. To help support the operation, they’ve built additional income streams through Green Star Fiber Farm, raising sheep and alpaca for fiber, along with hosting:
Nature preschool programs (April–October)
Birthday parties and field trips
On-farm educational experiences
Even with all of that, profitability isn’t the focus. “We’ve never made a profit,” Tori says. “The goal is just to get to the point where the farm can sustain itself.”
The Breaking Point of Spreadsheets and Notebooks
Like many small farms and rescues, their early recordkeeping was a patchwork system. They tried spreadsheets. They used notebooks. They tracked medications, births, and adoptions wherever they could.
But the system wasn’t built for the reality of farm life.
“Excel just wasn’t convenient when you’re out in the barn,” Tori recalls. “So we ended up relying a lot on pen and paper.”
That created a familiar problem: information scattered across multiple places, hard to access when it mattered most. And in a rescue environment, where animals often arrive with unknown histories and urgent needs, that’s not just inconvenient, it’s risky.
The Shift to Farmbrite and a Single Source of Truth
After trying Farmbrite, the difference was immediate.
“We switched over after the trial because we could track everything we needed and actually access it on our phones.”
Instead of juggling notebooks and spreadsheets, they now have a single, centralized system for:
Veterinary records (you can give your vet access to your animals' records!)
Daily care notes
Tori takes a hands-on approach to ensuring the data is accurate and complete.
“I manually add everything...medications, treatments, post-vet visits...so it’s all there when we need it,” she says.
That means no guessing when an animal needs care.
“If I need to check when a sheep is due for a CD&T shot or when hooves were last trimmed, I can just pull it up.”
Real-Time Data When It Matters Most
One of the biggest advantages has been mobility, especially during high-pressure moments.
Take lambing season, for example. With 10 new lambs arriving, Tori needed to capture critical information quickly: birth weights, ear tags, parentage, and more.
“Being able to input everything right there on my phone was huge,” she says. “That’s probably my favorite feature...the mobility and how easy it is to read and use.”
Even Brian, who Tori describes as “not technologically inclined,” is able to use the app comfortably, another testament to its simplicity in real-world conditions.
Managing Costs Without Losing Focus on Care
In a nonprofit rescue, every dollar matters, but animal welfare always comes first.
Farmbrite helps bridge that gap by making cost tracking part of the daily workflow.
They track expenses like:
Surgical procedures (including a recent C-section for a ewe)
“It helps us understand what we’re actually spending,” Tori explains. “The animals come first, but it’s important to see the numbers too.” Looking ahead, they plan to expand that tracking even further.
“One of our goals is to start tracking feed costs...we just spent $700 at the feed store.”
That kind of visibility is critical for moving toward their goal of financial sustainability.
Bringing Others Into the Operation Without Losing Control
As the farm has grown, so has the need for collaboration.
Recently, they brought on a bookkeeper, and with Farmbrite, they were able to grant access to specific accounting features without opening up the entire system.
“That was a really cool feature,” Tori says. “They can go in and do what they need, without risking anything else getting changed.”
It’s a small detail, but one that makes a big difference for a growing operation that relies on both internal and external support.
Built Around Real Farm Life
Unlike many tools that struggle outside of an office environment, Farmbrite fits naturally into the rhythm of the farm.
With strong cell service and added Wi-Fi in the barn, Tori and Brian can access records anywhere on the property, whether they’re checking on animals, updating records, or reviewing data. They even track care for their household pets, keeping everything in one place.
How Farmbrite Can Help
For those without cell coverage or Wi-Fi access across all areas of your operation, you can make use of Farmbrite's Scout Mode. Check out our how-to article, "Using Farmbrite Offline".
Getting started with any new system comes with a learning curve, and Farmbrite was no exception. But when questions came up, support was there.
“They were really responsive,” Tori says. “Amazing communication, and they addressed things right away.”
That early experience helped build confidence—not just in the tool, but in the team behind it.
Advice for Others Starting Out
For anyone considering a similar path, whether it's farming, rescuing, or both, Tori’s advice is simple: “Never stop learning. We learn something new every single day from our animals.”
She also emphasizes the importance of community.
Find mentors (they rely on experts for alpaca and Valais sheep)
Collaborate with others
Avoid a competitive mindset in rescue work
“There’s no reason to compete; we’re all trying to help the animals.”
More Than Software, It's a Way to Stay Focused on What Matters
At its core, Bee Wings and Fuzzy Things isn’t about systems or software. It’s about giving animals a second chance. But having the right tools in place makes that mission sustainable.
By replacing scattered notes and spreadsheets with a single, accessible system, Tori and Brian have created more space for what really matters: the animals in their care.
And for a rescue that’s “still full” and always growing, that kind of clarity isn’t just helpful, it’s essential!
Joshua, his wife Jenn, and their dog Rooster live in PA. Joshua is the owner and operator of Hoffman Appalachian Farm, where they grow Certified Naturally Grown hops. Joshua has over twelve years of experience in growing crops, including growing in an organic system. In his spare time, he enjoys trail running, backpacking, and cycling.