New Year at Laurel Farm

 Having recovered fully from his heart surgery Mike went to Shepton Mallet to have his hernia repaired and unfortunately had an allergic reaction to one of the pre-operation drugs, ending up in Resus at Musgrove hospital and a 5 day stay during which it was touch and go for a while.  He was home  for Christmas and is getting back to normal, but still has his hernia and no prospect of having it fixed in the forseeable future as his heart needs to get over the shock.

Today we had the hardest frost of the winter so far, and definitely the hardest in 2017.  The alpacas are looking frosted but happy.

The cria are now all about six months old and I have started halter training them.  We only had five last year and they are all males.   I have been handling them on a regular basis for some time so putting a halter on them is not too stressful.  Once they are walking nicely on a leading rein they will be tagged and microchipped (a job I really really hate doing) and then, unfortuntely they will have to join the big boys and leave their mothers.

It is good that there are five of very similar ages as they will form their own little herd with their friends and if all goes to plan will soon settle in with the big boys as the juniors for the time being until they reach adulthood and start finding their place in the herd.

All the animals are doing well.   The hens are fed up because they are not allowed to free range at the moment due to restrictions during a bird flu scare.   They are due to be let out on Friday unless the restrictions are extended.

www.alpaca-stuff.co.uk