Shearing again

Another attempt to post the rest of the shearing photos.

Shearing Day Part 2

Well, it seems that the pictures have come out in reverse order so you have to look at them from bottom to top, then I lost the blog and I cannot get the rest of the photos to upload, so I am logging off now and will try again on Monday. Have a lovely weekend. Surprise surprise I am off to a dog agility comp.

Shearing Day

We booked Colin Ottery, the Alpaca Shearer, at the end of last year and as arranged he arrived yesterday to shear our herd. We had fewer numbers than booked as we have sold some, and some are away being mated.

The weather forecast was mixed and so we took no chances and prepared the barn so that the alpacas could come in overnight to keep dry. They cannot be sheared wet and it would have been a mini disaster if they had been caught in the rain. Who knows when Colin could fit us in again. He is very busy and travels the length and bredth of the country and even flies over to France.

We managed to fit all the females into the barn but had to get the males into their field shelters and pen them in. It worked pretty well and in the morning we let them out in the sunshine until Colin arrived.

Today's photos show one alpaca being sheared.

They are sheared on the ground, although Colin is thinking of getting a hydraulic table so that he can shear at a more comfortable height. They are stretched out with ropes for their own safety. They are too big to be held like sheep and most will not stand still enough to be shorn standing. With sharp electric shears passing over their bodies and given that they have quite thin skins it is quicker and less stressful to tie them down. Even though some scream and spit, they all get up very calmly once they are released, and often try to come back into the barn to be with their friends. So they are obviously not too upsetby it all. They must be relieved to get rid of their huge fleece in the heat of the summer.

Colin shears about five alpacas an hour and it is my job to bag the fleece and keep the shearing area clear so that he can work properly. The mat is swept clean after each animal to avoid colour contamination from one fleece to another. We also take the opportunity to cut their toe nails and administer any injections that are needed such as vaccinations, worming etc:

Today all is back to normal, although there is still quite a lot of clearing up to do in the barn.

We allocated a new paddock to the females which is bigger than the one they were in. When we opened the gate they all galloped in. The cria starting pronking round and round and many of them rolled in joy. They probably feel light hearted at losing their heavy fleece and having such lovely fresh grass.

New Arrival

Coral has finally given birth to a lovely baby boy. He is a beautiful deep brown and his fleece is very curly and soft. He has some white on his head which means that we will not use him as a stud male but he will be very easy to sell as pet and/or fleece bearing alpaca.

The main thing is that Coral had an easy birth and the cria was on his feet within half an hour and when I went out half an hour later to make sure that he was trying to feed I found him plugged in solidly and I have seen him feeding several time since, so we feel sure that he has had his mother' s colostrum which is vital for stimulating his immune system and gives him some protection straight away, although he will still need to be vaccinated when he is a little older.

Millie, our smoke collie just loves the cria and will lie by the fence for hours just adoring them. She knows she is not allowed too near and the alpaca mums do not seem stressed by her.

We are expecting another seven births this year - although we have two females who were scanned as not pregnant who keep spitting off (i.e. rejecting) the males, so the jury is out on them. If they give birth in August we will know they were pregnant from last year's mating, if not, they have been remated and will produce next Spring. Maybe alpacas can have phantom pregnancies like dogs. We will have to investigate. One of them, Moonstone, comes over to the fence if we are moving the males past her paddock, almost beckons them over and then spits in their faces. Is she pregnant or just a miserable b....?

The Waiting Game

Well, we are gradually arranging for all our females to give birth in the Spring which will give the cria time to grow up and be well set up to withstand the winter. July is going to be a busy month and we have one mum-to-be who is now overdue. She is the brown one in the pictures.

We have them in a separate paddock so we can keep an eye on them. After July we have the whole of August free of births with a few stragglers in September. The plan is that next year all birthing will take place by the end of June, leaving us free to go to every dog competition from then on!! That is assuming we can find volunteers to farm sit!!

Although our log cabin is a temporary solution until we build a normal house on our farm, we are making an effort to make it as attractive and habitable as possible. Mike and I visited Chard Garden Centre in the week and bought some shrubs to make the "garden" a little more visually attractive. We were impressed with the garden centre, which is quite a small enterprise but with plenty of choice and lovely staff. I had to take Mum to the dentist yesterday and could not resist another visit - so now we have about ten small shrubs which will eventually be big ones. We are very pleased with the results. I also managed to buy some marigolds. I really like the traditional English ones but they only had Africa Marigolds. Still at least they are the right colour.

Don Chale of Laurel (known as Charlie) is the latest addition to the herd. We imported him from Chile to replace Don Julio, a very handsome male who unfortunately died about eighteen months ago from ulcers. Charlie has already mated two of our females and as he has a fleece expected to meet SRS (soft rolling skin) criteria we are hoping his offspring withhave better fleece and therefore even better wool than we already produce.

We are supposedly retired but seem to have a very full day every day, so we decided that we would divide our working day between farm (alpacas) and home (everything else). We are trying to get all our farm jobs done by 1 p.m. and the other jobs, such as mowing the lawn as we optimistically call the hilly grass area outside the lodge, making new jumps for the dog agility course, sitting around (in our dreams) training the dogs, cooking the dinner are done in the afternoon. It is working quite well really. Although we are just as busy, because all the non essential jobs are scheduled for the afternoon, we can actually stop when we like, knowing that the alpacas are fully cared for. The other jobs are wannados and not mustdos.

I had a bit of a doddle working morning this morning. Lynsey Skinner of Dreamfield Alpacas has sold one of our males on our behalf. He is a lovely black boy but more suitable as a pet than a breeding male. He did not agree and was exhibiting all sorts of testosterone fuelled behaviours. He paid the final price when Tessa, the vet, arrived on Lynsey and Ian's farm with scalpel at the ready. I went along to help hold him down whilst she removed his maleness. It is not quite a brutal as it sounds. He was doped to start with and then had a local in the dedicated area. He felt no pain and when I left he was still looking quite happy and sozzled.

Of course it was only right that I should fulful the social niceties of being an alpaca breeder so I had to stay for coffee and biscuits and had a mini tour of the herd. Unfortunately I arrived home just after Mike and Pam had finished clearing the paddocks. Oh dear - I was really gutted.

Bikers meet alpacas

Well a beautiful sunny day dawned today. The Salisbury Motor Cycle and Light Car Club were out on their motor bikes and using us as a lunch time stop over. At about 12.30 eight of the bikers arrived, parked up and we all went to our friendly local pub for lunch.

It was a very sociable event and we did the usual farm tour, which also enabled us to check the animals and put out some of their supplement. Everyone enjoyed themselves and took load of photos. We are looking forward to seeing them on the club website.

Tomorrow is destined to be a busy day as we have to administer the second Blue Tongue vaccine to our herd as well as visiting some alpacas who have already gone to their new home. They had one vaccination before they left and we are going to give the second one and show their new owners how to do the injections and give them some other husbandry tips.

The Day after the Night Before

We went went to a charity ball last night organised (the outing, not the entire ball) by Lynsey and Ian Skinner from Dreamfield Alpacas. We actually managed to be ready on time and amazingly were the first to arrive. First of all the guests, not just our party. This is definitely going down in the history of the Thomas's because it have never been known before.

We arrived at 7 p.m. instead of 7.20 p.m. Mike says I planned it as we sat and listened to the Archers on the radio - a banned programme in our household along with East Enders and Coronation Street!! I do sometimes sneak a quick listen to the Archers if there is noone (i.e. Mike about).

We had a lovely evening but decided to be a bit lazy this morning, and as the weather is rather miserable and wet I took the opportunity to tidy up the shop, order new carrier bags and sew on some more labels to our hand made garments.

I also browsed the www to find someone to make me a stencil for the carrier bags as the minimum order for printed ones seems to be rather large for our fledgling business.

Mike is busy tidying up his workshop - a job he has been trying to get round to for ages. He has been spurred on by the expected visit from Salisbury British Bike Club tomorrow. Mike is an ex member and they are going to ride down on their vintage machines and stop here for a lunch break and to frighten the alpacas and the neighbours!!