Monday, January 26, 2009

Starting the weaning process

On Saturday we separated the Cria from the dams to start the weaning process. The cria of course are quite vocal in their separation with lots of humming and a few attempts to climb the wall between them. The moms while concerned at first poked their heads over the wall. Saw all was fine and went back to eating hay. The below normal cold weather (around - 20 celcius) is both a blessing and pain. It forces the separation in a contained area which lowers the risk of a Cria trying to jump our interior fencing which is suspect due to all the hard pack snow on the ground. The pain is that the pipes to the waterers are frozen again so we have to cart water from the house.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Another first

The weather warmed up enough to tackle the job of implanting a micro-chip into the hind end of the last cris that needed identification.

The appearance of the needle used to insert the chip is enough to put fear into a novice. However, having some experience in administering the worming shot we "plunged" forward.

Really the process is no different than the dewormer: run some alcohol over the area and slip the needle in. Rob had a good hold of the cria, and it was all over in a jiff.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wyonna and Sweet Dreams return

This weekend past, my neighbour and I went down to Alpaca House Farm near Berwick to retreive Wyonna and Sweet Dreams who were taken there for breeding last September. Craig my neighbour used his horse trailer to bring them back. This was much better method than using the van we had borrowed before (I am not sure the Mcdonalds have forgiven us yet). My thanks go out to them again. Wyonna only spit a little bit and then settled down nicely on the bed of hay with her cria Callebaut. The trip home ended up being in a snowstorm but all arrived safely.

Thanks for driving and the use of your trailer Craig.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Another snowstorm - shoveling out the barn

New Year 2009 has arrived with a wintry blast of a blizzard.

The girls spent most of the night tucked under their favourite trees at the back side of the pasture, and returned to the barn only when the storm turned nasty.

Because we have not yet built doors for the boy's entrances to the barn considerable snow had drifted in during the night. A carpenter is sorely needed! Fortunatley the snow was light and dry making it easy to shovel it out of the barn.

WWOOF

We are now members of WWOOF Canada, willing workers on organic farms. If you are interested in learning about alpacas hands-on visit www.wwoof.ca.