The following post is an archive of our GoFundMe campaign which began in 2020.
Hello everyone,
We hope you all had a relaxing holiday season in good company, with delicious treats and filled with happy stories and big smiles, followed by a good start into 2026.
While this new year is well on its way, I would like to take a moment to look back onto 2025 to reflect on selected happenings from our year with the animals. It’s always difficult to decide which events to put a spotlight on for you as there are so many facets to just one year at the farm.
Every spring we have new co-workers join us to strengthen and diversify our work team. This past year several new farm workers became part of our awesome team and we all work together to provide daily care to the animals as well as take care of visitors and volunteers. We also welcomed our new Business Manager Diana who manages a lot of the administrative and office duties and also greets visitors and school groups in the goat petting area. She has now also officially joined this fundraising campaign and some of you might already have received Thank You messages signed in her name.
Last spring before the farm opened we had a bunch of renovations and improvements done: lots of clean up, scrubbing and painting, and getting everything back up and running smoothly to open our gates for visitors again. The biggest update from 2025 is our “goat-only-area” in the petting area. All the staff were so excited to introduce this new feature to the goats and visitors. This is something we had talked about for years, never making it past the brainstorming stage as we didn’t really know how to implement it. The main idea behind it is that our goaties should have a choice and decide for themselves if they feel social and like to be with humans or if they like to have some quiet time.
We are very pleased with the outcome, from our stand point this goat-only-area has been a full success. The goats like it and understood right away its purpose. It has been interesting to see which goats are spending time there – maybe regularly – and which of them barely ever go in. It gave us an even better perception of their unique personalities and all the more important a feeling of being able to respect them and their needs more as they can now easily communicate their preference. We are very grateful for the many positive comments we received from visitors about this new “off limit area for humans” and for understanding the benefits it has for our goats.
Every year at the farm is special, but 2025 was made especially so as we were able to celebrate our 40th farm anniversary – that felt like such a milestone. The preparations, the festivities on the day and the activities we continued through the summer were a real team effort and it gave our season this additional sense of being and remembering together: meeting old and making new friends, having visitors learn farm facts during the scavenger hunts and when collecting stamps, teaching small audiences during our animal info talks and reading farm stories to kids. It all made us feel very connected with the community and for all of us being part of something meaningful.
40 years of Beacon Hill Children’s Farm really means: 40 years to be grateful for working together with these incredible animals (and there have been so many over all these years), 40 years of meeting people from all over and sharing our passion and story, 40 years of teaching staff and volunteers what we do here, 40 years of smiles and tears, 40 years of welcomes and goodbyes, 40 years of pouring our heart and energy into this little farm and thanks to all of you 40 years of community support. This farm would not have turned 40 without you! THANK YOU!
We are honoured to be able to welcome new animals to our farm family this past year and provide them with a loving lifelong home. Among them are
- Two beautiful alpaca girls
- Eleven colourful chickens (including 2 roosters)
- Six quacking ducks (forming a little patchwork family)
- A pair of magnificent turkeys
- Two cute little guinea pigs
- Twelve chirpy budgies
We are very grateful for the trust their former owners are putting in us by deciding our farm will be their new forever home and we’ll do the best we can for each of them. They are kind and curious creatures and have settled in well and made many new friends – of both the animal and human kind.
Unfortunately a year never goes by without some sad goodbyes and we will forever be grateful for the time we were allowed to spend with the animals we had to let go this season. No matter if they are large or small, if they spend a long or a short time with us, every goodbye hurts. We care for them as best as we can, and when we can not do that any longer, we mourn them, remember them together, shed many tears, but memories also bring lots of smiles. We just wish that they could have stayed with us longer – even just a little bit. RIP our friends – we’ll carry your memory forever in our hearts.
At this point I would also like to say another much deserved Thank You to our amazing vets who are always there for our animals and provide them with the best expert medical care. They are also there with us in those darkest moments and I’m truly grateful that they accompany us through those too and allow our animals to pass with dignity, without suffering and in the company of trusted friends. And without our vets we would not have been able to treat many of our animals successfully and provide them with all the care for a happy and healthy life.
The planned spaying procedure for our piggies was postponed several times due to the weather, but then the big surgery day finally was last Friday and on this very stressful day for the pigs the staff team gave everything to keep the daily farm chores and animal care on track and at the same time support the pigs through the day and the aftercare at the vet hospital. It meant several long days for everyone – too much to tell here now – but the surgeries were successful and all 3 piggies are recovering at the farm. Each of them dealt with it differently in terms of stress level, medications, complications and behaviour afterwards, they are still closely monitored and on daily meds while we are all hoping for a smooth recovery. Please keep Punk, Petunia and Poppy in your mind and send them good vibes. I’ll share more details in the next update.
We would still like to say a big and heartfelt Thank You for all the donations we have received after the last update over a month ago. It is really heartwarming to experience how this community supports the farm and how our plea for help gets such a positive response. We have also learned – and looking back at the history of this campaign it doesn’t surprise me – that Victoria is the most generous city in all of Canada in 2025. And we are really living proof that this fact is true. THANK YOU!
Your generosity and ongoing support has brought us a big step closer to our goal. Still some distance to go, many amazing animals to provide ongoing care for and projects to tackle before the farm can open again, but we are on a good way.
I would like to close with our best wishes for the New Year. We wish for all of you to:
- Welcome every day like Chick Jagger the rooster
- Eat like Cupid the goat
- Strut like Dwayne the turkey
- Kiss like Sweetie Pie the alpaca
- Play like Mango the conure
- Sing like Poppy the pig
- Speak up like Rosemary the guinea pig
- Float on top like Han Solo the duck
- Snuggle like our baby goats
- Relax like Elsie the cat
- Express yourself like Opal and Taffy the donkeys
- Love like Rosie
Have a GOAT 2026.
Claudia
