Helena

Helena, another first time Mum surprised us by giving birth quite late yesterday afternoon. The other females all crowded round the cria and frightened their Mum away so we put them both in a small pen together. The cria was up and trying to feed quite soon but Helena kept backing away. She had obviously bonded with him because she was nuzzling him and acting like an interested Mum but did not understand what to do.

Eventually she got the idea and so did the cria. We notice now that far from backing off she does not even like him to go off on his own to explore. She runs after him to make sure he is alright.

The cria is male with the softest fleece I have ever handled. Hope he stays that way. He is light fawn.

Now that we have discovered the new hiding place for eggs (Alario's hay rack) we seem to be back to full production of 6 per day. We are thinking of getting another half a dozen hens when Nick has some available.

I seem to have lost the edit facility on the blog. Hence the odd mistake in the last post. Hope this one is OK.