Alpacas at Home

We arrived home from our holiday on Saturday evening - a day earlier than planned.  We had a lovely break including two Agility Competitions.  One in Northamptonshire and the other in Suffolk. 

Son, David, and family looked after the farm whilst we were away but as they had only just returned from holiday themselves before taking over, I think they were quite glad to go home, even though they enjoyed their stay.  David had to kill one of the white hens as it was obviously failing.  I had noticed that she was not getting on her perch at night with the others and was looking a bit lack lustre in the field, so I was not surprised.

Maddy, our older lurcher, had stayed on the farm and unfortunately her shoulder was injured in some way.  Jane took her to the vet who thought it was a strained ligament but by the time we got home on Saturday her shoulder and both sides and underneath her chest were very swolen and her left leg was very thick and swolen, so I took her back to the vet on Monday and saw Tessa.  By the time we got there late on Monday afternoon the swelling had subsided a lot but I was still concerned about her panting especially as she has a heart murmur.   Although usually a murmur is nothing to worry about, I though perhaps something had changed.  Tessa seemed to think, as I do, that she had received some sort of trauma to her shoulder - possibly a kick - which was also my feeling especially as Maddy is always poking her nose in where it is not wanted.  Her heart was not a problem so probably the panting was because of pain or worry about her injury.  The lump on her shoulder was firm and was likely to be bleeding under the skin - i.e. a wacking great swolen bruise.  She prescribed some more Metacam (pain killer and anti-inflammatory) as she will need it for quite a while.  Maddy seems pretty bright and happy now and mooches around quite happily so she is obviously making a good recovery.   Let's hope she has learned her lesson and stays clear of the back end of alpacas - or perhaps goat horns!!

It looks as though there had been a lot more rain here than we experienced.  The grass is looking green and inviting and all the alpacas and goats seem in good condition.  There were a few jobs which we did not do before we left - as usual running out of time, so we got on with them almost straight away.  My main job of course was taking care of ten days' worth of washing - the ironing still staring at me!

Several of the cria needed vaccinating and although Tony, our helper, had struggled valiently we felt that we should give him a hand to catch up with paddock cleaning etc: on Monday.  We also have two alpacas with ongoing skin problems despite many attempts by ourselves and the vet, so we applied iodised salve to their ears and legs and checked the eartags of some cria who were tagged last.   All was well and they obviously did not miss us at all!!

Yesterday Nick and I spat off all the females (i.e. presented them to a male alpaca for mating. ( Pregnant females will reject the male  by spitting, kicking and running away.)  Most seemed to think they were pregnant and we mated two who had recently given birth, remated another and today we remated a second one whose pregnancy had not held. 

As the weather forecast was not very promising Nick and Mike replaced a very hefty gate post as both the gates it supported were dragging on the ground and very heavy and difficult to open or close.  Mike used his new digger and he was pleased with the results.  Nick did quite a lot of the digging as he has used the same model before.   It took a long time because the ground is so hard with lack of water and naturally stony.  It was about 7 p.m. by the time they finished and Mike will still have to hang the gates which is apparently quite a big job in itself.

In the meantime I mowed the "lawn" in an effort to beat the incoming weather but as it has turned out it has not been too bad at all so there was no panic.  Famous last words!!  I expect we will pay for it later.

We are waiting for the shearer to come and shear the goats in the next few days.

Showdown

We were at a dog agility competition for the first part of the week, coming back in the evening of each day so the animals were only left unattended for a few hours.  Mike stayed at home on the Tuesday to work with Nick and also to have a tooth removed - not by Nick but by a more qualified person in a white coat.

On Thursday we were due to go to the Honiton show with with seven alpacas to show, but the females had been remated and were not far enough into pregnancy to risk driving them around,  two of the males rolled in an old bonfire, getting covered in ash, and as the Judge was wearing cream trousers I had a feeling that he might not appreciate handling them, especially as when we got back from agility we decided to take a chance and leave them out in the paddock over night.   Bad move as the rain was torrential and we ended up taking four very bedraggled animals to the show.  So we only showed the two young males in the end.

Honiton is unusual in that it is a Shorn Fleece show as by this time of the year most herds have been shorn.  This means that the judge cannot make a very good assessment of the fleece given that it is only about an inch long.  He can assess conformation and other traits.

Jose and Pepe did achieve second and third place but the judge remarked that they were lacking in substance for young breeding males, which is OK as they have already been sold as quality pets.  I am not going to put a non breeding restriction on them, though, because their sires are great hefters.  Pepe the younger one was an orphan and so shared an adopted mother which has probably delayed his development a little.

We had quite a lot of interest in the alpacas including an interview with a reporter on one of the local free papers and two enquiries from people who actually have some land already and live fairly near to us.

Alpacas

We checked the does udders and found that they are fine.   They seem quite happy to share a paddock with Alario (the lone male) and the chickens or what is left of them.  Even Number 7 kid has stopped bleating and they just look like a contented herd of small goats.

Because the grass is not as good as we would hope at this time of year we have opened up all the paddocks on the North side of the farm so that the alpacas and their babies can graze a bigger area rather be confined to a small paddock and then moved on to the next small paddock.  They are also grazing in the race which is the lane which runs down the middle of the field dividing the paddocks on either side.  Its main use is for driving the tractor through, herding alpacas from paddock to paddock or up to the barn,  or for us walking around the farm without having to open too many gates on the way.  It also helps to form catch pens when we need to gather animals in a small area to carry out husbandry or check their condition.

Alpacas

Our grass is very disappointing.   We put fertiliser down again just before the last time we had rain but the ground is still like concrete and the grass is not as good as we would hope at this time of year.   We have opened up several paddocks to give the alpacas more room to graze and they are actually eating hay which is unusual at this time of year.  We could do with some prolonged rain.  I expect it will come when we are on holiday.

The kids and goats seem to have accepted their lot and really have been very civilised without too much bleating.  I will have to check the does' udders tomorrow to make sure they have not got mastitis which is a risk when the kids are weaned.   Number 7 seems to realise that I am not going to give her any more milk from a bottle.  I miss our few minutes of a morning but I suspect all she misses is breakfast.  

We are taking some alpacas to the Honiton Show next week so we have been catching up on halter training to remind them how to behave when we get there.  It is a bit hot and humid but it's a job that needs doing.

Murder Most Fowl

Last night I was reading in bed having arrived home from a pub meal with my friend, Pauline, just in time to put the dogs to bed in their kennel.  Jax, my son's dog who is staying with us while the family go to Portugal for a couple of weeks, decided that she wanted to sleep in the kennel.  As she had made herself comfortable in Jake's bed I decided to let sleeping dogs lie, as it were, and let Jake sleep indoors.

A couple of hours later I thought I heard the scream of an animal being killed but assumed it was a rabbit or other small mammal, but it seemed to be accompanied by a lot of noise and unusual sounds which made me think that maybe a fox had got in with the chicken.   By this time Mike was also awake and we both shot out.  Jake dashed out too and started to bark excitedly.   We opened the garden gate and he and Romie galloped off at top speed barking as they went.   We then saw the fox cutting back across the paddock where the chickens live.   He just disappeared.

Shining the torch around we saw one of the Black Rock hens gasping her last and so after making sure there was no further sign of the fox we went back to bed.

About an hour later I heard the same sounds again and sure enough he was back.   This time he had killed a further three hens and Mike found the  Cockrell sitting traumatised in the middle of the paddock.  He survived being attacked by a fox once before so we did not give much for his chances of pulling through once again.  Mike, however, put him in the hen house and we crossed our fingers.  Amazingly this morning he was up and crowing loudly at about 4.30 a.m. bless him!!

We had a final scout round trying to work out where the murderer was hiding when we heard a rustling in the hedge and Jake and Romie got very excited.  Then a fox ran towards me and ducked under the wire netting heading for the hedge where the rustling was coming from - presumable to join his mate.  He nearly ran over my feet at high speed and I was so taken by surprise that I screamed suddenly and loudly.  He ducked away and disappeared into the night, and I discovered that if I scream in the middle of the night nobody will hear me!!

Jake gave a final display of bravado and barking and then we noticed that Romie had disappeared.   We called and whistled to no avail and Mike was just setting off to investigate in next door's field in case she had accidentally gone through the hedge and could not get through when he saw her standing at the yard gate.  Luckily she has a white chest or he would not have seen her.   She had obviously run all the way round the field and come to a dead end when she reached the gate.   She did not have the sense to bark or squeak to let us know she was there waiting to be let in.

We think that when the automatic pop hole closed for the night the cockrell and the hens which were killed must have been roosting in the field shelter.  In future we will make sure they have all gone to bed in right place.   A bit of a nuisance because the point of the sheds closing automatically is to save us having to do a late evening patrol.   Up to now the chickens have been quite reliable at putting themselves to bed.

After a cup of tea and some mindless television we finally went back to bed for a much shorter night's sleep than planned.

This morning Mike has had the horrid job of disposing of bodies and clearing up feathers with the hoover which is really designed for cleaning up poo in the paddocks.  We would have been upset if the fox had caught one hen for his dinner but at least you could say that was reasonable but why do they have to go on a killing spree when they cannot possibly eat the kill?

Alpaca Clothing

Had a phone call from the Valuation Office this morning.   Apparently when we got our planning permission the council notified them that we had a farm shop and so we might have to pay up to £1000 per year business rates.

When we set the shop up we checked that we did not need planning permission but did not think about rates.   The Valuer is coming when we get back from holiday.  We will probably close the shop and just sell online and at shows and fetes as the turnover of the shop is not big enough to warrant any more expense.

Alpacas

Yesterday I wanted Nick to help me trim toe nails of all the alpacas as they had not been done since shearing in May apart from the alpacas we had shown.

We set up the barn as usual and decided to get the boys in first as that includes Ben, the gelding who really hates having his toe nails trimmed.  Mike would be around to help to hold him whilst I cut his nails.  We normally blindfold him with a towel as this keeps him calmer.  We put him on a halter and covered his eyes and he was actually quite relaxed and co-operative but when I came to trim the nails they were rock hard and instead of the quick snip snip which I usually do I had to gradually pare them back to a reasonable shape.  In the end I had to give up.  See photo of Ben below.

Although we have had some rain recently the ground is still very hard and I suppose the lack of moisture in the ground has meant that the nails have become very dry too.   We did manage to trim all the males' toe nails but I had to hand over to Nick a couple of times because my hands were aching so much trying to close the clippers and achieve a cut.

We have decided to do the rest of the herd in batches on consecutive Tuesdays so that we do not have too many to do at once if they are that tough.   If we have some rain it might well be a different story next Tuesday.

We also weaned the kids - i.e. separated them from their Mums.   All except number 7 were fairly accepting of the change.  I expect they had been gradually suckling less and eating more grass.   We put their Mums in a shelter where they could not see them but of course number 7 looks on me as her source of milk as she has been bottle fed so she is finding it more difficult to get on with life without her Mum and me.

Two chickens have died - I think they were both quite old and probably found the heat a bit much.  There were no signs of illness or parasite infestation of any kind.  This morning I found the remains of a third one - or at least a pile of feathers.   We think she must have been shut out when the automatic doors on the chicken shed shut last night.  Alario is in the same paddock but the murder took place behind the sheds so perhaps he did not see.

David and Jane with our grandchildren Zach and Tara came down yesterday evening as they were dropping off Jax, their dog, for us to look after whilst they go to Portugal for a couple of weeks.  When they come back they are going to look after the farm so we can go away on our annual dog show holiday.   We had a BBQ supper and some champagne to celebrate our planning permission to convert the barn into a house.  So that was very enjoyable.

The grass is looking a bit sorry for itself - we could really do with some prolonged rain, although it would spoil holidays for a lot of people.