Husbandry

Yesterday was our monthly herd health day. All our alpacas – except the youngest crias – received their deworming injections. The advantage to this monthly routine is that it forces us to put our hands on every alpaca every month. We can check body conditions and keep our eyes open for other potential health issues.

The weather is brisk this morning – it feels like fall is on its way!

It’s another beautiful day in the Kingdom!  Cold nights and warm sunny days are perfect for sugaring, skiing and drying up muddy roads.   The ‘pacas are happily eating hay out in the sun and we are starting to eliminate hay bedding and, hopefully, getting their fleeces cleaned up a bit before shows and shearing.

It’s about time!  It’s been such a wet, gray summer. But the last few days have been lovely, if a bit cool. Today is starting out sunny and dry – a perfect summer day.

It’s been a busy week here. We sheared some of the crias, weighed and body scored all the alpacas, trimmed the boys’ toenails and moved the chicks out of the brooder and into the coop.  Next week we’ll finish up shearing crias, trim more toenails and trim some teeth.  Hopefully, Star will have her cria next week. She’s at day 338 today, but she went over a year last year.  We’ll see…not much we can do to rush the process.

Yesterday we held an “Introduction to Alpacas” workshop on the farm.  We had a great group of people – some who currently own alpacas and some who are considering alpacas. We talked quite a bit about alpaca husbandry and participants had a chance to give an injection, trim toenails, fit halters and check body condition. It’s always a pleasure to work with people who want to learn more about alpacas and how to properly care for them.

We did a full day of shearing today and will do the same tomorrow.  Except for one alpaca that is going to a show next weekend, that should finish up our shearing. We’ve had some exceptionally warm weather for April, so the shorn alpacas are pretty comfortable. Of course, that will change when the temps drop down into the 20′s tomorrow night!  Oh well…a cold snap is a lot less dangerous for their health than a hot spell.

Many thanks to our shearing helpers this week!

Ron finishes up shearing Casie

We sheared five of our “big boys” yesterday.  They were warm when we sheared them, but the temps dropped last night and they were shivering this morning.  That’s the way it always goes.  It’s OK; we worry about them being too hot, but not about them being a bit chilly. They were warmed up by afternoon. We’ll shear the rest of the herd next week.

Newly shorn male alpaca, Zephyr Moon, owned by Nu Leafe Alpacas