Kids were everywhere at Round the Bend Farm on Saturday — both the four and two-legged varieties.

Saturday saw the first Open Farm Day of 2022, with dozens of families coming to the Allen Neck Road property to tour the farm and play with the latest group of goats that were born this past February.

Dartmouth resident Angela Brodeur said when she heard that families would be able to meet the kids, she immediately thought of bringing her daughters Callie and Kenzie. Brodeur said her girls volunteer at a rescue farm in Fairhaven where they rarely get any babies.

“Seeing those babies, you could tell [the girls] were in Heaven,” she said. “This is really such a great farm.”

Six-year-old Jonah Waters Haskell was also a fan of the goats, although he had one problem with them.

“I did not like their teeth,” he said. “They chew so much.”

This year, the farm saw nine kids added to its goat barn. 

While a smaller group than the 16 born in 2021, this litter had the benefit of having more females. Farm worker Juliette Terry noted that with the additional females, the farm can now have an increase in milk production and births in the coming years.

“It’s just useful to have more females,” Terry said.

Terry added that the group was initially going to have 12 goats, but three ended up stillborn, including two from a mom named Dottie. Her only living kid was a male the farm staff named “Survivor.”

Since he was the remaining kid from his litter, Survivor has quickly become the biggest of the baby goats.

“He doesn’t have any competition,” Terry said. “His mom has enough milk for three and he’s getting it all.”

So far, she said, this group of goats has been a calmer one compared to the 2021 kids, who themselves now spend their time playing on the rock outside the barn or doing goatscaping — landscaping, but with goats.

Even with the calm group, Terry said there was a bit of a scare early on.

She noted that one of the kids, Bunny, was not getting enough milk because her mother Peaches kept feeding some of the other goats — including those that were not her own.

“This is pretty unusual for a mom — usually they stick to [feeding] their own,” Terry said. “But Peaches was pretty much like, ‘Sure, drink from me, any goat.’”

Thankfully, she said, Bunny was able to get enough milk from her mom after a couple of bottle feedings.

According to Terry, the kids will remain in the barn for the next few weeks as they get weaned off their moms’ milk. Some, she said, are already starting to eat hay.

“Eventually, they’ll start to get milked,” she said.

The next Open Farm Day will be Saturday, May 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.