Other animals

As well as our friendly champion alpacas there are lots of other fabulous animals that live with us at Turpin’s Hill Farm.

Donkeys

Nellie and Niamh are rescue donkeys we took on in January 2020. After years of donating to the Donkey Sanctuary (Debbie still has her adopted donkey Tiny Tim!) we finally have some of our own. It took a while to convince Paul this was a good idea as he was sure they were in his words “going to eat him”.

This mum and daughter pairing are so gentle and full of character and loved by everyone who visits the farm.

Nellie is the boss, although Niamh does sometimes like to try and push her luck with her mum. The girls love all attention, whether it’s being groomed having their feet picked or just being stroked, in fact they will push each other out of the way to get your attention.

Ava

The deal at Barnacre has become wheels equals legs, Paul as a bit of a thing for his toys!!  Well his last tractor has cost him much more than the cash he handed over for it, because Debbie is having a bit of a midlife crisis and has bought a horse, Ava to be precise.  Ava is an Irish Draft who with her previous owner has competed at cross county and jumps fences well over a meter high.  Hopefully with some refresher lessons Debbie will progress walking, trotting and stepping over poles on the floor!

Pygmy goats

We took on a rescued pygmy goat called Ruff to live with our Angora goats and soon realised they were much hardier than the Angora’s and much more playful, so the switch to Pygmy’s began!

Ruff lives with the bachelor herd of Toga, Turpin, Granite and Graphite. The boy herd includes another rescue Basil, he’s huge compared to the pygmy boys but is very gentle. Then there’s, Thor our pedigree billy and dad to all of our kids so far.

The girlie goats is currently 15 strong including two angora’s, Addison is an old lady now and her last daughter Calico who we’ve never bred from. The Pygmy girls are:-

Tawny – she’s the boss. She’s not a full pygmy and can be a bit of rough with the others but they don’t seem to notice.

Bella – She’s a lovely grey girl (we love anything grey here) and was bought as a friend for Tawny as she was the only girl we had. She is a bit of a headbutter, especially when she’s got kids at foot!

April & May are sisters and will walk on a halter, although to be fair all of our goats follow the bucket so that’s a much quicker way of moving them

Elderberry & Erica are half sisters we bought as kids. They were super skittish when we got them but are very friendly now. Erica is always getting her head stuck in the fence and quite often sports the stick of shame!

Fauna was our first female kid to be born, she’s Tawny’s daughter. She’s a stunning girl although as she’s not from a full pygmy she’s slighter bigger than the average pygmy.

Flora is another of our home bred girls. She’s black and white and has exactly the same markings as her mum May.

Fleur & Flower are sisters and pedigree registered. I promised Paul I’d sell the boys be bred, so I did but bought these two in their place!!

Gale is tiny and super cute. She was the first kid born in 2020 on a very windy day, hence the name! Everyone loves Gale.

Goditia is Bella’s daughter and a lovely grey and white girl.

Gorse is the daughter of Erica and the prettiest of the 2020 kids but the most nervous.

 

We are due to kid in January 2021 and will be selling a number of the kids, so get in touch if you would like to be on our waiting list.

Angora goats

Members of the British Angora Goat Society, we peaked at around 15 of these docile creatures although now have one doe left called Addison. She is from our founding pedigree champion Corrymoor Galileo. Angora fleece is called mohair. 

Basil

Not quite an Angora goat, but adorable and there’s a story to share with you about how he arrived with us that involves a slice of toast and some broken glass…

He’s knocking on a bit now and is suffering a bit with arthritis so be nice to him when you see him please.

Chickens

We have many chickens!
Golden brahmas have feathery feet and are very tame.
Cream Crested legbars (lay blue eggs) are one of our favourites – check out Stanger our
cockerel!
We also have some rescue battery hens. Eggs are in plentiful supply at Barnacre Alpacas!

Wensleydale Sheep

Apparently one of the largest and heaviest domestic and native sheep breeds, our little flock of 7 Wensleydale sheep is full of character and lovely colours! Oh yes and we’re hoping for lambs in the Spring of 2019…

Cats

We have 5 female cats, all rescue cases. In descending order of their arrival into our life:- 

Izzie (One spot). The hunter! She is very friendly and loves to rub against you and cover you in cat hair. Izzie ensures that no rodents exist within half a mile of our house. For the bigger rabbits she enlists the help of her sister…

Tilly (Three 3 spots). She’s very much Debbie’s cat, and generally petrified of anything that moves or might move. She can usually be found sat on the hay during the day watching out for stranger danger.  Very occasionally she takes a fancy to someone. If that is so, you are very honoured! 

Luna (black) very friendly and but not very bright but loves to wander through the alpacas and sit in their hay hecks. She likes to check out all visitors to the farm and be stroked.  Given half a chance she likes to sit on your shoulder and enjoys guarding the farm at night. 

Phoebe (short haired tabby). Phoebe is 99% in our house asleep or eating. You won’t see her outside! 

Twiggy (long haired grey/multi colour). She’s the boss despite being last to arrive!  Debbie went to the vets with a poorly cria and hedgehog and returned with another cat.  Twiggy can often be seen sat on the stone pillars at the entrance to our house, or asleep inside on a chair. 

Mocha the Jacob Texel cross sheep: you lookin’ at me and my lambs?

Frappe and Cino: Rain coat – check. Pile of straw – check. Let’s play!