The babies are doing well and Now the Boys are fighting

Today started of quite cold, but this afternoon has been lovely. But I hate to say it BUT!! we need some rain!! The grass could do with a drink, especially the over seeding we done the other week. I'm afraid my hose pipe wont cover 5 acres!! The babies are doing really well, and have settled well into the smaller paddock, they have been introduced to the last years babies who have been away from their mummy's for three weeks now and they are all very happy and settled. We did have a bit of a scare last night with the little boy, some how he managed to squeeze through the slip rails and got into the big boys paddock!! Luckily being on site and able to see all the paddocks and fields from my mobile home window I noticed before he came to any harm, phew!! As one of the big boys was taking quite an interest in him, so it was very useful that I could open the bottom rail and get him back in - so it has now been blocked up so the little rascal cant escape again. Spring is in the air and the big boys now realising as two babies have been born, there are a couple of future matings and they are now doing lots of posing, pushing and shoving. They have been together all of their lives, and have generally got on very well. They have had their fighting teeth seen too, so there shouldn't be any harm done. But again the benefit of monitoring everything from my window, I noticed that the youngest of the three was getting quite a bullying, there was lots of screaming and spitting and he was down on the floor, so I had to intervene and get him out of the paddock, luckily it was made easier by the slip rails, again I could open the lower rails and push him out into the main field, while the top rails stopped the bully from getting through at the same time. He is now on his own in the main field, but this is surrounded by the smaller paddocks so he can see all the girls and the other boys, hopefully he will be happy, will just have to monitor how it goes. Never a dull day down on the farm, but thankfully we are here on site to keep an eye on everyone and sort problems out before they become to difficult or dangerous. Well that's it for today, all the alpacas are happily grazing and I must get the tea!!

Water troughs and Poo Picking

Well another very busy day, cold this morning, but warmed up in the afternoon. We have been busy installing some automatic water troughs in the fields, not sure what the alpacas think of their high rise troughs that hiss at them when they have had a drink!! But needs must and they are well out the way of any intruders drinking from them (sorry mr fox and mr badger - no free water here for you!!).

Then it was on to the lovely job of poo picking!! But how lovely is to see nice clean and tidy paddocks.

The two new cria seem to be doing well after the hairy start and are now bonded with the right mummy!! Although the little boy seemed to be rather lazy and kept being left behind in the big field, so we decided it would be better to put him, his mum and the other mum/baby into a smaller paddock, this seemed to work and mum is now usually not very far from him.

Here's the proud daddy looking to see what all the fuss is about.

He now the proud daddy of a lovely little light fawn girl, and a lovely little white boy (who follows his mummy in colour)

We are very pleased with him, last year he produced a lovely dark fawn girl and a lovely white boy.

But being Suri, they are not so well fleeced as the Huacaya, so they will need to keep their coats on.

Our first cria of the year

What a day!! What a lovely warm and sunny day. Watching the alpacas out of the window while carding and spinning, my idea of heaven.

Having two girls due at the end of the month, I have been watching them more intently, and notied both girls seem very restless this morning, sitting down, then getting back up, down again and rolling, both girls are the same age born within days of each other and have a very close bond between them, and this was their first baby.

I decided to walk over to see if anything was happening, yes I was right both of them were in labour within feet of each other (how close is that!!) I have never heard so much humming and moaning, they were definately in labour, it was a race to see who gave birth first.

Bonnie was first giving birth to a light fawn little girl, five minutes later Cleo gave birth to a white boy, so one of each. Both birth were perfect, then the problem set in!!

As they were so close together, they got confused to who was their baby!! And decided they wanted the same one!!

Watching from little way away, it was apparent that they were both convinced the little girl was theirs, we decided we needed to step in and split them up. We moved the little girl further away from the little boy so there was some distant between them, but still the mums were still wanting the same baby. The little girl was on her feet first and ended up trying to feed of the wrong mum!!

We decided we need to split them up completely, so getting them into the barn, we made sure both mums milk was coming through and put each mum and baby in seperate paddocks, with some of the herd with each of them. Some of the other girls werent too impressed with being split up, but we had no choice.

Thankfully this worked and both mums have now bonded with the correct baby, phew that was

a bit hairy!!

Sunshine and Grass Overseeding

What a lovely day it has turned out to be, was very damp and dull first thing, but the sun is shining now and its turned into a beautiful day.

All the alpacas are enjoying the sunshine, lying around and chilling, really nice to see after such a hard winter.

The weanlings have now settled without their mums and are happly grazing and playing, being watched overl by our two expectant mums who are acting a aunties and keeping thgem all in-line.

We are expecting rain tomorrow so thought I would make the most of the damp ground this morning and get some grass overseeding done in the main field, it was looking quite sad and patching. But had to sort the spreader out first!! the chain had come off, what a pain of a job to do!! But eventually got it fixed and off we went, all overseeded, just need to roll now, ready for the rain tomorrow.

We live not far from the Cheltenham racecourse, so the roads are very busy with race goers, after a very misty day yesterday, today sunshine is sure to pleased the punters.

Well thats it for now, better get on a roll the field.

Our very first official visitors

Well today was a big day for me, we had a visit from 15 students attending Evesham college studying animal care. Having never done anything like this, it was quite a challenge for me, but with the help of my daughter Natalie the day went extremely well. We packed two hours with alpaca information, care and handling, which flew by. (I think our love and ethusiasm show through)

Our feed display.

Our Fleece and goods display