Beacon Hill Children's Farm

Beacon Hill Children's Farm www.beaconhillchildrensfarm.ca Our goal is to help children develop a respect for animals that will remain with them for life. Enjoy your visit!
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The Beacon Hill Children’s Farm, located within beautiful Beacon Hill Park of Victoria, B.C., is pleased to bring the farm animal experience into the city. Operated since 1985 by the Koenders family in conjunction with the Beacon Hill Farm Society, the Beacon Hill Children’s Farm takes pride in providing both an educational and economical form of entertainment for the whole family. The hands-on ex

perience, particularly with the most popular feature that is the goat petting area, encourages children be compassionate toward living creatures.

Happy Labour Day long weekend!We’re open 10am to 5pm all weekend, Labour Day Monday included. The goat stampede is twice...
09/04/2026

Happy Labour Day long weekend!

We’re open 10am to 5pm all weekend, Labour Day Monday included.

The goat stampede is twice a day, once at 10:10 in the morning and again at 5:10 when we close for the day.

Fall hours start on Tuesday, September 8 once the long weekend wraps up. We’ll share those soon.

Come by and spend some time with the animals. They’d love the company.

09/03/2026

Princess Belle is five weeks old and she is figuring out hay.

Goats have four stomach compartments and Belle was born with all four, but they are not all working yet. The rumen, the chamber that will eventually do most of her digesting, is small and basically dormant. Milk does not need it, so milk skips it. A kid is not born a ruminant. She becomes one.

Two things have to happen for that.

She has to pick up microbes. Kids are born with a sterile gut, and every microbe an adult goat digests with had to come from somewhere. For a kid, that somewhere is her mother: colostrum, skin, saliva, shared feed, shared air. Some of them can only be picked up through direct contact with an adult animal, so a kid raised alone on a bottle can go without them indefinitely.

She has to start eating. The rumen does not grow on a schedule. It grows in response to what is fermenting inside it, so the eating comes first.

Belle is working on both at once, badly and enthusiastically. She copies Cinderella at the feeder, which is how young goats learn what counts as food.

This is why our kids stay with their mothers and why we only bottle feed in an emergency. A bottle can deliver calories. It cannot deliver a microbiome or teach a kid what hay is.

09/01/2026

Meet Punk.

She has the longest, most luscious bristles of the three little sister pigs. Despite her punky name, she is very sweet and timid, and on the inside she is hiding a gentle soul.

What she does not tolerate is bad weather. Punk is the most weather sensitive of the three sisters and she takes it kind of personally when the weather is bad. She gets grumpy about it. On dark, grey days she does not like to get out of bed, and she will stay there as long as she can.

Come say hello. Sunny days are your best bet.

08/27/2026

This is the Flehmen response. The name comes from an old German word for baring the upper teeth, which is funny because goats don’t have upper front teeth. They do curl their upper lip, though, and that is what they are doing here.

A goat does this when it catches a smell worth a deeper analysis. Usually, you can see this when they are smelling another goat’s p*e. Curling the lip holds the scent against the roof of the mouth, where a small organ called the Jacobson’s organ picks it up. It lets them know things like how healthy their goat friend is, whether that goat is related to them, and other goat information.

Have you seen goats or other animals doing this?

08/25/2026

Meet Chick Jagger, our gorgeous little rooster. 🐓

This tiny guy is quite the gentleman with a fancy background: he's a “Belgian Bearded d'Uccle Bantam”, which explains his small size, fluffy “beard”, and fancy feathered feet. His spectacular colouring is called “Mille Fleur”, which is French for 'a thousand flowers.'

Big feathered shoes to fill for such a little guy? No problem for Chick Jagger!
He proudly struts through the yard with lots of purpose and confidence. During most days he can be spotted roaming the farmyard instead of staying cooped up in the chicken pen - usually in the company of some chicken ladies. He likes to spoil his hens by helping them find food like digging up a bug and sharing it with his favourite girls.

Despite his small size, Chick Jagger’s crows a strong, loud cock-a-doodle-doo, and between his good looks and confident attitude, he easily impresses hens twice his size.

🌟 VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: Meet Scott, Ruby and Isla! 🌟This amazing trio has been bringing their hard work and smiles to Bea...
08/24/2026

🌟 VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: Meet Scott, Ruby and Isla! 🌟

This amazing trio has been bringing their hard work and smiles to Beacon Hill Children’s Farm for four years now. They even won the farm’s Volunteer Extraordinaire award recently. We are so grateful for everything they do.

Here is what makes volunteering at the farm special to them:

Ruby
"I have been volunteering at the farm for four years now. My love for the animals just grew bigger with my time at the farm. I love animals no matter how different they are. Every single one of them deserves to be unique. My favourite animals are the donkeys, pigs, guinea pigs, goats and the chickens. I especially love “Chick Jagger", a snazzy chicken who walks out of his pen with style. This farm has been a wonderful experience for me and I can’t wait for my next shift."

Isla
"I love volunteering at the Beacon Hill children’s farm because I get to meet so many nice people from different places. I love all the staff there! It’s a real community, and I’m so glad I get to be a part of that. I used to come to the petting zoo all the time as a kid and I always wanted to work there and now that I’m volunteering it’s like a dream come true!"

Scott
"My granddaughter, Ruby, got us started at the farm. After a couple of shifts she asked me “ Grandpa, do we get paid for volunteering?”. I explained to her what volunteering was all about and she said “ Okay, I get it.”, and we have never looked back. I love that the staff are so helpful and eager to share their knowledge. I enjoy grooming the donkeys and I get a kick out of the goats with all their quirky personalities. Thanks for a great experience."

Thank you, Scott, Ruby, and Isla, for being such an important part of our farm family!

🐐 Happy World Goat Day! 🐐Every day is goat day at the farm, and we’re always looking for reasons to celebrate our herd. ...
08/22/2026

🐐 Happy World Goat Day! 🐐

Every day is goat day at the farm, and we’re always looking for reasons to celebrate our herd.

People have been raising goats for over 8,500 years, making them one of the oldest domesticated animals on the planet. Today, there are nearly a billion goats worldwide. So many goats to love!

We are so very lucky to have this awesome goat herd living right here with us - every member is GOATally special and unique and we love them all. 🐐❤️

Come for a farm and goat visit - we are open daily 10am to 5pm with our farm- tastic goat stampedes every day at 10:10am and 5:10pm.

How to Tell if a Budgie is a Boy or a GirlLook at the cere, the small patch of skin right above the beak where the nostr...
08/21/2026

How to Tell if a Budgie is a Boy or a Girl

Look at the cere, the small patch of skin right above the beak where the nostrils sit. Once a budgie is grown, this is the easiest way to tell males from females.

**Males** usually have a blue or purple cere.

**Females** have a cere that's tan, brown, or pale, and it often gets a bit crusty during breeding season.

One catch: young budgies under about four months old all have a pinkish or purplish cere no matter what s*x they are, so this trick only works once they're adults.

Next time you visit, see if you can spot the difference in our aviary.

Address

815 Circle Drive, Beacon Hill Park
Victoria, BC
V8V4Z8

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

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