07/05/11 — Frank is  born!  Mum is Beatrice and  Dad is Bingo. Frank looks like he will be chestnut brown, but has a black overlay—very pretty! He’s a good size (18.3lb at birth), although three weeks early by my dates.

So how did he get his name—A friend and I went to see some camels a while ago and their stud boy was called Frank. Our new baby looked so camel like just after birth (which she saw), we just had to name him Frank! So Debbie—thanks for the name!

12/05/11 — Judy is number two. She was born in about 10 minutes flat to Esmeralda. Bingo is her dad. She is the most gorgeous chocolate brown with fabulously long eyelashes! Noticeably less chestnut than many of our others.

She weighed 14.1lb and was on her feet and following mum in about three hours. My first impression is of quite a feisty little girl. (Takes after her namesake?) Esmeralda is as calm as anything and clearly a very proud mum.

26/05/11—Filius arrived when none of use were watching. His mum (Chloe) is the most protective of our alpacas and so we waited until they had gone into the barn for the night to check him. He is very lively and was playing with the other cria at 24 hours old. He is slightly lighter fawn than Judy and his fibre looks more curly. His dad is also Bingo.

His name came from Filius Flitwick (Harry Potter) as we met the actor who plays him the weekend before he was born.

No photo yet—I don’t want a green camera lens! (Mum spits when you approach her baby)

27/05/11 — Hard on Filius’ heels came Willow. She is daughter of The Cow. Willow had a troubled birth as her mum had a partially twisted uterus a couple of years ago and this year it prolapsed. (Mum is now fine)

Willow has the longest legs of any baby alpaca I have seen and we had seen her kicking inside her mum right up until the birth (poor mum!) and she carried right on kicking once she was born.

Why Willow—because its a nice name!

09/06/11 — Duchess arrives to proud mum Pinky. Yet again dad is Bingo. She was born in about 10 minutes from first sign of a leg and then up and running in about 30 minutes. This is the first time we have had Pinky with a cria and she is just as friendly as ever (thankfully — as she is a big powerful girl!)

I have spent the week working with a friend Dean Holland, known as Dutch, and he suggested she is called Duchess. She going to have to learn how to be a bit more dignified to live up to this name!