Our Family

Rainbeau Ridge is home to more than twenty breeds of animals, including goats, chickens, sheep, cows and other poultry.  Specific information about our family follows.  For a photo gallery of the livestock, click here.

Goats
At the heart of the livestock on our farm are our Alpine goats. Our herd is made up of milking does, breeding bucks, wethers (neutered males we just couldn’t part with) and this year’s doe kids.

Beginning with two milkers purchased from a herd in upstate New York in 2002, the herd has grown exponentially as the emphasis on cheese making has become a cornerstone of Rainbeau Ridge. Named like all the does after singers, Jewel, one of our oldest does, keeps company with Whitney, Carly, Ashanti and many others. Their delightful personalities entertain us daily as we begin each morning on the farm by milking the goats and repeat the chore at the day’s end.

Yielding about a gallon of milk each, these intelligent creatures weigh in at as much as 130 pounds. Both males and females can sport horns and beards. They range in color from brown to tan to black to black & white—solid, striped or spotted. Their diversity and winning personalities make them one of the favorite breeds on the farm!

Sheep
Also ruminants, sheep came to RR when a herd of Cotswolds, a rare breed from England but in this country for hundreds of years, was being dispersed. Wanting to highlight rare breeds in our conservation efforts, taking in the Cotswolds seemed like a natural extension of our mission. Although we don’t milk them for our cheese production, we do shear their fleeces and convert the fiber to spun wool. Adopted from a neighboring farm, Kobi, a Southdown dorset cross became well-known for her survival skills—she was a runt abandoned by her mother and saved by the many ‘mothers’ of RR who adopted her. Now a mother herself, Kobi is a great addition to our herd. Jacob’s sheep also find themselves on the threatened species list—so a pair—Rachel and Leah—was added to our farm so we can build out our spinner’s flock, representing important elements in our own Noah’s ark of fleece animals.

Llamas
Indy and Mercedes, our llamas, are popular for their regal appearances. Despite their reputation as spitters, they reserve that only if they are threatened and are important to us for their fiber and their skills as guard animals. Indy, in particular, takes care of our baby animals after they’ve been separated from their mothers and keeps them safe from predators. Our visitors enjoy the opportunity to get close to Indy and Mercedes by offering small breaths to prove they're not a threat!

Kerry Cows
Another important rare breed is our Kerry cow, Destiny. A dual purpose breed brought to this country 200 years ago, this compact, horned all black cow is gentle and the perfect size to serve as a family cow. We hope to milk her for cheese production but until that happens, her May-born calf, "D.C." will happily oblige by nursing.

Poultry
The poultry consist of our flock of laying hens—mostly heavy breeds but include the blue egg-laying Arucanas and other fancy breeds, the chickens lay about 3-4 eggs per week. After spending the morning in their roomy coops and pens, the chickens get let out to free range on the farm. The benefit of their lifestyle at RR pays off handily in the quality of wonderfully fresh, yellow and omega-3 rich eggs.

Other Fowl
Guinea hens and peafowl roam the grounds freely, performing their insect eating jobs and serving as alarm systems, honking loudly as they announce visitors! Fred, our rare breed turkey, and his son, Fred, Jr., are Bourbon Red turkeys whose feather color is dominated by a bronze-red and tipped in white. Fred and his son love to strut for visitors and proudly show off their beards, wattles and feathers. Fred is a fine example of how turkeys are meant to be rather than the "butterball", large breasted varieties that we’ve engineered, incapable of breeding on their own. Fred was purchased as an egg on EBay and hatched here at Rainbeau Ridge!