Meet our goats and ducks!

July is an exciting month for us… we will be moving into the farmhouse at Quantock! Us and all the animals (4 goats, 4 ducks and our cat).

The goats and ducks will be moving onto the paddock in front of Quantock Barn and so you should be able to see them whilst you are having your morning coffee out on the patio. Let me introduce you to everyone….

The goats

Our goats are wethers (boy goats that have been castrated) and we rescued them from a farm that was raising them for meat. The farmer got in touch and said that there was one goat that she couldn’t send for slaughter as he was very special. Skip to a few months later and Thug arrived to stay with us, shortly followed by Cam, Ru and Arthur from the same farm.

Thug (brown and white, is the largest of the goats)

Thug is a Toggenberg and is 3 years old. Whilst he is the largest of the goats (weighing almost 90kg), he is also the most sensitive and the softest (with humans). It is no surprise that he is top goat of the herd, but he is a gentle giant with us, often falling asleep on our laps. Thug loves climbing fences and will be very interested in getting fuss.

Cam (black and white)

Cam is a British Alpine Cross and is also around 3 years old. He loves balancing on his hind legs to get to branches and to nibble, so please be careful of your fingers! Cam is second in command after Thug but him and Ru are best friends.

Ru (white with a beard)

Ru is a Saanen and is the oldest of the group (by 1 month). He loves to lie down in the field and watch the world go by. He is also a little clumsy and really likes back scratches. Ru never used to like fuss and was always a little shy. He has since learnt to love attention and in particular likes a good brushing.

Arthur (smallest white one)

Arthur is another sensitive soul with a bit of a devil streak to him. He causes a fair amount of the trouble within the herd and likes to headbutt the others at any opportunity. He may be small, but he does put up a fair fight. Arthur also loves people and will be very interested in getting some foot scratches. When he was younger, he used to sit on our laps and fall asleep. Nowadays he is a bit heavy for that, but he still loves to get fuss.

Things to be aware of

• Please do not feed the goats – despite the phrase that “goats will eat anything”, this is not the case. They have extremely sensitive stomach systems which can be easily disrupted if they are not fed the correct food. Their main source of food is hay, as technically goats are browsers (not grazing) animals so they shouldn’t eat much grass. We stick to a strict diet so please do not feed them any food including veggies or plants from the surrounding area.
• They like to nibble – All the goats do like to nibble clothes, hair and on the odd occasion fingers. Cam is a bit of a biter so please be careful of your clothes and hands!
• They do have horns— all the goats have large horns, so please remember to not get too close.
• Please keep a close eye on your dogs around the goats — the goats aren’t particularly keen on dogs, especially when they run up to the fence as this can startle them. If your dog is particularly interested in chasing other animals, then we would really appreciate keeping them on a lead around the paddock area. There is also a tie out stake available to use in the barn. This can hopefully allow your dog to be outside but securely attached (also good if you have a bit of a flight risk pup!).

The ducks

We have four ducks, 2 male and 2 female. All of them are German Pekin and were again raised to go into the meat sector. We got them when they were only a week or so old from a school that was doing a hatching project. Instead of sending them back to the farm to be raised for meat, we decided to rescue them and take them home with us. They even lived in our bathroom for a couple of weeks until they were old enough to go outside!

As we have two males, we keep them separated as they do like to fight plus chase the females a little too much. We do get eggs from the girls, but they aren’t the most prolific layers due to the breed being raised for duck meat.

These ducks are around 2 years old and can live up to 10-12 years of age!

Pushkin – the cat

A recent addition to the family, Pushkin was a stray that chose us when we lived in North Devon. After months of visiting us daily and venturing from the doorstep to the living room, she finally settled with us. It has been almost a year now and she has been sleeping on our bed every night ever since. We don’t quite know how old she is, but we think around 3 or 4 years. She is a little skittish around people, but you will probably see her hunting in the field or sunbathing during the summer.

Hopefully when you come and stay at Quantock Barn you will say hello to all the animals!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram as they will likely be the centre of attention on there too.https://www.instagram.com/quantockblackdownhills/