Baby Animal Days are back at Andelin Family Farm in Reno.
Nothing says spring like a downy chick or woolly lamb cuddling against a child’s cheek.
These and other young ones are what guests will see and experience during Andelin Family Farm’s annual Baby Animal Days, April 7 – 30. It is part of Andelin’s spring festivities, along with the Tulip Festival and Easter egg hunt. This is the eighth year of this lovable event.
Baby Love
The Andelin family has been holding its ultra-popular Fall Festival for years but also wanted to do something to celebrate spring. What better idea than to let the public in on the newborn action?
“There is such a draw with baby animals,” says Natalie Andelin, the matriarch of this Reno family farm. “When that’s your life, you just think that’s the natural process of spring, but then you realize that not everyone gets to see this happen every spring. We didn’t know what to expect the first year, but there was a great response, and every year it’s a very popular activity. People really love it.”
Pens with piglets, kids, calves, and lambs will be available for both adults and children to visit and pet. Other activities during Baby Animal Days include the chance to hold baby chickens and turkeys.
For an additional cost, visitors also can bottle feed lambs, calves, and kids. Some of the babies (such as bummer lambs) come from other farms where they have been rejected by their mothers and need to be bottle fed.
“The bottle-feeding portion is really special,” Andelin adds. “Bottle baby animals are more attached to humans, and it’s a loving place for the babies to be.”
This spring, the farm also will feature a two-acre field planted with more than 50,000 tulip bulbs. The 12 varieties of flowers are available for picking and some very colorful photographs. An Easter egg hunt is scheduled for the weekend of April 8 – 9.
Andelin recommends buying tickets on the website early as Saturdays can fill up quickly.
Spread across about 150 acres in Spanish Springs, this busy family farm also raises pigs and cows for their meat and chickens for their eggs, and it grows produce such as spinach, kale, summer squash, and tomatoes. A regular lineup of family-friendly events includes the popular Fall Festival taking place throughout the month of October.
Got a case of spring fever? The renewal of life and springtime joy you’ll experience at Andelin Family Farm’s Baby Animal Days might just be your cure.
Freelance writer Christina Nellemann’s favorite baby animals are a perfect pair of kissable kids.
SIDEBAR
Baby Animal Days at Andelin Family Farm
April 7 – 30
10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Thurs. – Sat.
For tickets and details, visit Andelinfamilyfarm.com.
