Naked alpacas just in time for summer

Our alpacas received their summer cut last Friday. Good timing, as it seems like our lovely spring temperatures are winding down and heat and humidity are arriving. I am always surprised how skinny the alpaca look without their fur. We end up with eight bags of fleece– two from each alpaca. The “seconds” from each one is used for animal enrichment. The “first cuts” are quality fleece that we typically sell. Anyone interested? I wonder if you can make aRead more

Alpaca shearing complete

Shearing is a critical part of taking care of our alpacas. Alpacas are native to South America. Their fleece helps keep them warm in the cold climate of the Andes Mountains. However, we live in a different climate and shearing our girls is important for their health and wellness. With our hot and steamy summers, removing fleece (as well as providing pools of water, misting fans, and shade) is critical. We typically shear annually in April and this gets ourRead more

Update: Frog Eggs

A few weeks ago, I wrote up a post about some frog eggs we found in the alpaca pool and the tadpoles they hatched into. I’m sorry to report that none of the tadpoles made it into frogs. However, only a few days after the last tadpole disappeared a whole new batch of eggs was laid in the alpaca pool during a night of heavy rainstorms. I collected the eggs up and the new group of tadpoles have already hatchedRead more

Frog Eggs

The alpacas found themselves with quite a number of visitors in their yard one evening last week. I was in the farmyard with Jill and Kent when they called over to me to come see the frog eggs in the alpaca pool. I rescued as many eggs as I could and moved them to a 5 gallon bucket. I say rescued only because we drain and scrub the pool daily and these eggs were soon to be “thrown out withRead more
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Alpaca Hair 2014

Will it be a re-run of 80s themes, fancy up-dos for everyone or something a little weirder?   In roughly 3 weeks, our fluffy foursome will be getting a new hairdo! The exact date’s not set yet –we’ll let you know when that is– but now is the time to get your vote in on what the girls’ hair should look like. So add your ideas to the comment section however funny or serious your idea is, we’ll consider themRead more