The following post is an archive of our GoFundMe campaign which began in 2020.
Hello everyone,
Summer is finally here, and with the great weather everyone is spending a lot of time outside. Even though the farm is unfortunately not going to open this summer, we still like to share our daily life with the animals with you and keep you up to date on their care and any new developments.
Many of you have come to visit the animals during a normal season in Beacon Hill Park and now during the pandemic we still see many regulars stopping by at the fence to observe the animals and chat with the staff. However only part of the animals are here in town where you can see them. In order to share the work load for the staff we divided the goat herd and many of our lovely goats as well as our flock of ducks are currently living out on the farm in Metchosin. Therefore this time I would like to give you an inside on life on our so called “winter farm” in Metchosin.
The goats’ life especially is very different in Metchosin compared to their daily routine in Beacon Hill. They live together in several groups composed of goats of the same age or the same gender. Especially our adult girls despite of their different ages ranging from 2 to 13 years are a very tight knit gang. They all have different personalities, everyone of them is really unique. They love to hang out together and some of them form really close friendships. You can usually observe easily who likes to stay close and who has someone’s back. Goats are like us – they need friends, too.
Then there is also a small group of young male goats, who are the perfect mix between cuddly and mischievous. And of course there are some of the babies born last season who are now pretty much teenager goats but who still think they can be our babies – which of course in our hearts they will stay forever. And finally there are our two billies Elvis and Wasabi who this time of year don’t enjoy the companies of their ladies but are instead hanging out in their man caves together with their male buddies. Wasabi has a more shy personality, he and his buddy Billy are rather camera shy, too. But our big boy Elvis is a real showman. He currently shares his quarters with his buddies Arrow and Apollo. Elvis loves attention and doesn’t really understand why we only like to pet him from a distance. But if any of you have ever experienced the smell of a real billy goat, you would agree that you rather want to use a extension to give him his beloved and well deserved scratches. Yet Elvis is a real sweetheart, well behaved, playful and affectionate.
Daily life for the goats in Metchsosin compared to their stay at Beacon Hill presents several differences: there are no goat stampedes and they are much more free roaming – always within their areas of course. Beside having access to their barns as well as to a rain/ sun shelter at all times the different groups of goats have large outside pens and for the adults also big fields to enjoy. They can decide where they want to hang out, be it inside the cooler barn, outside in the sunshine while nibbling on some grass or find some shade under a shelter. They love to huddle against each other, always closely snuggled up to their family and friends. The goats love their herd – that is their family! And of course there are not as many people as they usually meet in Beacon Hill – especially as a consequence of physical distancing during the pandemic. So as much as you miss them, they certainly miss all of you and all the attention, love and scratches you give to them.
The Metchosin farm is a private residence and some of the Koender family are living there constantly. They usually take care of all the animals in the winter as well as tending to some of them year round while they also work in the Beacon Hill location during the months that the farm would usually be open. Now this year – as we are all experiencing – has proven to be quite different. A big part of our goat herd as well as other animals are living in Metchosin and everyone out there is working hard to keep the animals well taken care of. They also provide them with all the individual care and love they need.
We and all the animals hope very much to be back in Beacon Hill as soon as circumstances allow us to safely open the farm again for all our visitor. And we are all looking forward to welcome you back then.
In the meantime we are so grateful for all your support and kind words and are very happy about any donations. Our ability to keep on providing for the animals still relies entirely on the generous support from the public and we can’t thank you enough for all the donations we have received so far. However, we are also aware that there are still many more months ahead of us – with fall and winter usually being a time with zero income and higher costs for feeding and housing the animals as they need more hay and spend more time inside their barns. Your amazing support really helps to carry the animals and the farm through this difficult time. We hope that our updates – be it here or on social media – as well as your visits by the fence bring some joy to your daily lives. The animals always help us smile.
And while you are all out enjoying the great weather and the long weekend, please all stay safe and be kind to each other!
Happy BC Day to all of you,
Claudia
