One hundred babies have arrived, with only nine more pregnant Blue Herd mothers. There is enough milk now to feed the newborns and to begin making cheese this week. We will have a couple of weeks to catch our breath - and bottle-feed - before the next clutch of babies arrive. It’s been our smoothest season yet, with only tiny Sunshine, born frail and half-blind, needing special care. Happily, our friend Sande has not only cooked for us every day but nurses Sunshine with love and massages.
Sande keeps us and baby Sunshine nourished
Sunshine, who may need a splint to walk comfortably
Blue Herd mummy Bernadette had the prettiest babies, with white, brown and black coats
This baby will have an unusual wavy coat
The baby girls who can drink from teats on a bucket are in a line of little pens at our Big Barn. As soon as the oldest group learn a new game, like hilariously running at top speed into the plastic wall you see at the end of this pen, the next group copy them, and so on. Until all forty baby girls are running into the wall!
Kevin, who is raising our baby girls in his off season, points out the obvious joy of working with mammals rather than his birds. The kids love to be touched and respond very happily to attention
Dirty boys. We have a new water tank, so Jake and Sean Og shovelled out a river of mud from the old redwood tank this week