Meet the animals
We place our animals at the heart of everything we do at Walby Farm Park and invite you to meet the animals, groom, handle and enjoy our farmyard favourites… and some more unusual additions!
As you play outside you will be surrounded by our Animal Paddocks while the Animal Barn offers an opportunity to get even closer and meet the animals. And in our demonstration area you might even get the chance for a cuddle with one or two of our cuties, the rabbits and the guinea pigs. We also run regular activities throughout the day including sheep/goat racing, the ferret show, pony grooming and seasonal feeding sessions with the lambs (or the goats once the lambs get big enough to pinch the bottle!).
Seasonal tractor and trailer rides allow you to get up close to our resident Red Deer and also to learn more about the stewardship of our family farm.
We love every one of our animals but which ones will become your favourites when you meet the animals? Use the sections below to find out more about them all – including their secret habits and some fast facts that you can use to impress your friends!
ALPACAS
We have three Alpacas at Walby Farm Park, Amber (Mum), Inca (daughter) and Alvis (son). They’re a firm favourite with our visitors and can be quite quirky in their habits – for instance, if you listen closely you might hear them humming!
CALVES
We usually have a mix of beef calves and youngstock, usually to be found in our Animal Barn or along the Tractor and Trailer ride depending on the time to year.
CHICKENS
We have lots of hens here at Walby Farm Park, they produce delicious eggs, you can see them in the Rooster Run and also during our egg collecting activity. All of them enjoy pecking the ground to find something juicy to eat, they even have a chicken swing! They also try to hide in their laying boxes and pretend they are laying so that they don’t have to go outside in the morning!
DUCKS
Walby Farm Park is home to half a dozen ducks. There are Indian Runner ducks and Silver Appleyards and you will see them in the Rooster Run and the Animal Barn. They spend most of their time looking for a great spot for a swim but you might also see them filtering mud for tasty treats!
GOATS
We have over 60 goats here at Walby Farm Park including West African Pygmy goats, Golden Guernsey goats along with some dairy breeds. Our goats are a real favourite with our visitors due to their cheekiness. Their funny habits include escaping, hiding in strange places – and from the rain – climbing, and eating hedges when they have perfectly good grass to eat!
GUINEA PIGS
We have about a dozen Guinea pigs at Walby Farm Park, and you will see lots of different colours! They love to eat carrots and a special food mix with extra vitamin C. You might hear them squeaking or see them trying to steal more food, but you’re sure to spot them trying to be more cute than the rabbits!
HORSES & DONKEYS
We have lots of ponies, horses and donkeys at Walby Farm Park – even a miniature Mediterranean donkey called Flint! You will see them in our Animal Barn during the day and out grazing in the fields at night, you may get chance to meet some of them in our pony grooming sessions.
We have cheeky Shetland ponies who can sleep standing up and like to roll and eat hay and grass. Micky-Nick likes to play tig and eat the occasional handbag when no one is looking and Miramar likes to look beautiful at all times.
Listen out for a loud hee-haw noise from the donkeys, especially when it’s feeding time…oh, and nibbling when people are not looking!
Our Clydesdale horse is Lady Alice. Clydesdales used to work on the farm here before tractors started doing their jobs, now they enjoy an easier life.
PIGS
When you come to us to visit the animals you can also see our pigs here at Walby Farm Park and they are British Saddleback, Duroc, Berkshire and Pietrain breeds. Napoleon is a boar (Daddy pig!) and Spot is a sow (Mummy pig!). You will see them in the Animal Barn and if you come at Halloween you might notice that they enjoy a pumpkin or two to eat! Otherwise you will notice that they are very keen on sleeping and that Spot (Mummy pig) is in charge!
RABBITS
We have between 20 and 30 rabbits at any one time here at Walby Farm Park. They really love eating cabbage and carrots, and you’ll notice that they spend much of their time trying to be cuter than the Walby Farm Park Guinea pigs!
REINDEER
We have 4 reindeer living at Walby Farm Park, Spruce our male or ‘bull’, Anja our female or ‘cow’, Prancer and Salka, who was born in Cumbria. You will see them in our Animal Paddocks or in the Animal Barn depending on the time of year, and you can hand feed Santa’s Reindeer when you visit him as part of our Winter Wonderland experience. Our Reindeers love snacking on lichen and moss and have a funny habit of clicking when they walk – see if you can hear it when you visit!
SHEEP & LAMBS
We have more than 350 sheep here at Walby Farm Park, including North Ronaldsay, Zwartble, Jacob, Texel, Suffolk, Poll Dorset and North of England Mules. You will see them in our Animal Paddocks and for bottle-feeding in the Animal Barn seasonally.
There are lots of interesting facts about our sheep – Poll Dorset sheep can have 2 sets of lambs in a year! And North Ronaldsay sheep can survive on seaweed on their native island off the north-east tip of Scotland.
Each year we invite you to take part in our ‘Lambing Live’ both onsite and via a live stream to meet the animals from the comfort of your own home, we lamb our sheep in February and also in March / April, sign up to our e-newsletter to get first news of ‘Lambing Live’.
