At long last, we had the vet come to the farm to do ultrasounds on several of the girls we bred last summer.  With shearing coming up this weekend, we really needed to know which girls are pregnant and which are not.  Unfortunately, the results are not what we had hoped for.  
Destiny, it turns out, is not pregnant.  Nor are LadyBug and Ava.  And while we didn’t really think she was, we had Lotus tested as well, and confirmed that she is not pregnant either.
Mariska might be pregnant – we are watching her.  Ultrasound testing at this late stage of pregnancy is difficult because the cria should be rather large, so the equipment only sees a small part of the cria at a time (making it difficult to tell if what is being seen is actually a part of a cria or something else).  If Mariska is pregnant, she should deliver very soon, so we will just keep watching on this one.
But the most exciting news is that Leilani and Damaris are both confirmed pregnant and due to deliver mid-August!  Leilani was bred to our boy, Manny; while Damaris was bred to Triumph.  Both these boys are getting up in years so we are so thrilled to know that we are getting one more cria from each one of them.  Both girls were bred on the same day, so should deliver around the same time in mid-August.

Damaris is 14 years old and this will likely be her last cria, but with the breeding to Triumph, we think this has the potential of being one of her best crias in terms of fiber quality!

​Leilani is 5 years old this summer and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this cria.  Bred to Manny, we think this will be a great genetic combination.  Manny has sired many lovely cria including our own Janey (daughter of Lilah) and Alonzo (son of Mariska), and we think this pairing with Leilani has the potential to produce another aweome cria!  And if we are really, really lucky, there is even a slight chance the baby could be black!  Regardless of color, we can't wait for this delivery!

Little Lilli delivered her cria yesterday!  Big (20.4 pounds), healthy and active; we are delighted!  Did I mention beautiful?  This baby really is...  Or maybe handsome is the better adjective as it is a boy!  Meet Ranger!

We are almost always present for births on the farm, but this one we missed.  Little Lilli was at 346 days gestation, so we knew we were taking a chance, but we had an appointment off island in the morning that we could not cancel.  So we left her  unattended for a few hours, and wouldn't you know it, that's when she delivered. We last checked on her at 8:00 am and all was quiet, but when we got home at 1:30 the new baby was there to greet us!  Delivered, dry, on his feet and nursing!  Great job, Little Lilli!

We are so happy with this little guy - and thrilled to see the very first offspring of Alonzo!  Way to go Little Lilli and Alonzo!

We love Lily and her babies, but there is always a bit of stress the first week or so after she delivers her cria.  Lily tends to be a bit lackadaisical in caring for her cria; and her cria tend to be independent and friendly followers of  other alpacas in the herd.  Turns out, baby Clarissa is no different from any of Lily's other crias in this regard!
So we are constantly checking...  Are mom and baby together? is baby nursing? is baby too hot/too cold? and on and on it goes!    So, we are happy to report that little Clarissa is doing well!  She is gaining some weight, getting stronger, and behaving like a healthy cria!  Look at her go!