Callibaut - update

Callibaut is doing well - he is up 6 pounds already. He already is tricky to catch so we can weigh him. Hopefully the ground level scale will arrive this week.

Pictures of our newest guy - Toblerone

These pictures were taken about an hour or two after birth. He had just had his first feeding after a couple of attempts. We have been lucky so far with problem free births but a little unlucky that we have three males for our first three births. We still have three more babies to come so hopefully mother nature will even things out. At these early stages you want more females to grow the herd and have more revenue potential.

Toblerone's mother is Karmelita and sire is Ceaser.

New cria

Our second cria arrived on the farm at about 9am today. Sadly it is another male, bringing the total count to 3 male crias this year. He was still wet when we found him in the pasture at 9:30. Mom is very protective, but allowed us to handle him enough to complete the basic cria care of taking weight and disinfecting the navel. He weighed in at a healthy 16 lbs.

The new wee guy is brown, lighter than Callibaut, almost the colour of milk chocolate, and is from a different sire. Should we call him Toblerone to continue the chocolate theme?

Time to order some females to help grow the herd. At least the males will provide stock to sell in a year or so.

Breakthrough!

Pirelli has made a huge breakthrough. He is the male that is very skittish around humans. If he thinks he is going to be caught he is gone in a flash.

Pirelli now will eat sweet feed from a pail if you stand verrry still, and don't dare look him in the eye.

I'm not sure if he will ever eat out of hand, so I am happy with the pail.

Haying, fencing and gates

We have found a bit of an issue with the access gates to the main pasture. The farmer down the road will hay for us, and has advised that our 12' gates are not wide enough for the haying equipment. Oh my, what to do...he wanted to cut the gate post and fence to get through.

On second look, we simply undid the brackets that held a section of the fence to a main post, and had the farmer roll back the fence with out cutting it. He was able to pull out one post that was in his way. Once the haying is finished we will likely have a 20' gate installed instead of re-securing the fence.

Yet another lesson learned: find out how big haying equipment is before you install the gates.

Sweet Dreams

We arranged for the first breeding of Sweet Dreams this past week to the unproven male Icelander. She was reluctant at first but eventually caught on to the whole thing. A second session is scheduled in 14 days, and if Sweet Dreams "spits off" Icelander the first breeding will be confirmed.

Callebaut part 2

Little Callebaut is doing well. running and jumping in the pasture. Surpisingly, the only maiden female in the herd, Sweet Dreams has taken on an "Auntie" role with him. She appears to be quite taken with the little one and can be found with him and his mother most of the time. We assume this is a sign that Sweet Dreams may be ready to breed.

Our newest cria - Callebaut

Our newest addition - Callebaut is a little brown boy. Wyonna and her son are doing well. The sire is Nevada.

Constructing the Barn storm porch

Building the frame. Lumber only landed on someones head once. No thumbs were broken.

Even the help are allowed a little fun.
Standing by our finished product. The entire project only took 2 half days. Now the test will be the next windstorm.

More barn renovations & male bonding

Family has arrived to visit for a week. This affords a great opportunity for the guys to spend some quality time with each other and some power tools.



First up was strengthening and re-siding the cover to the barn entry on the "Girls" side. This consisted of digging half way to China to remove a shaft of concrete in order to remove a rotten post which was attached, replacing old wood, strengthening the structure and re-sheathing with steel siding. A solid afternoon's work.



The second job was a bit more involved, as an identical structure needed to be built from scratch on the "Boys" side of the barn. The project involved much thinking and planning.



At time we had all available bodies on the project, holding ladders, lumber and nailing.



Lessons learned: don't assume an old barn is square, and don't assume the ground you are standing on is level.

Shearing lessons learned

You can read about it all you want, but nothing really prepares you for your first shearing day.



Lessons we have learned:


You can't have too much help. 3 guys to assist the shearer, and at least 3 more for fleece work.


The skirting table and shearing table are worth it.

Have everything ready well before you start.


Wrap the fleece in white paper because there is no way you can keep up with the shearer. When you prepare the paper, when you think you have more than enough, go get a lot more. There's no such thing as too much paper.


Label every package of fleece right away. You will never remember what came from each animal, or what area it is from.

The more space for shearing the better, we were a bit tight. The sheraer recommended 10 X 20 minimum. He was right.

Alpacas can spit while laying on their sides....

What are they? Aliens?

Well here are our results from a morning of shearing. They are certainly gangly looking with out their thick coats.

Shearing day June 8th

Wow this was a lot of fun and hard work. Another local farmer named Bill came to help us out and later another neighbour Mike also showed up for the last 4 shearings. Lucas our shearer had been shearing for 5 years and used an overhead kit. He was also able to trim nails and teeth. While these are two pictures from when we sheared the males on the floor, we used the shearing table for the girls. Much prefer the table as it is much easier on our body. Definitely need more people next year. 3 guys plus the shearer is good for the shearing of the alpaca but Caroline would like help collecting and organizing the fleece. With the potential of 15 animals next year we will have our work cut out for us. Learned lots and will use Lucas again .

Day before shearing - Saturday June 7th

Saturday morning and the shearer called. Said he could come Sunday at 730am. Going to be an early start. Even more so for him as he has a 2 hour drive from Luneburg. Our challenge for the day is to herd the alpacas into the barn so they do not get wet from any rain plus put on their halters for ease of handling tommorrow. Also need to find some additional assistants which could be a challenge given the time and a Sunday with many of our neighbours going to church. Here are a couple of preshearing pictures.

Our first Cria - Oreo

This little Black boy was born on May 31. He is pictured here with his mother Sedona. His Father is Technicolour. Sedona and Oreo will arrive in Nova Scotia in September as both are currently on the Benuiks Farm near Sherwood Park Alberta. Karmelita is the first female we are expecting to give birth which according to our math should probably be this week. Wyonna will not be far behind.

Icelander gets friendly

So far both males, Icelander and Pirelli have been skittish when we approach them. In their new quarters they seem to have relaxed a bit. For the first time, Icelander enjoyed some Alpaca ration offered from a frisbee. This is the first step in getting them to eat from the hand.

Shearing challenges

We have learned that it is hard to get a shearer in this area and is he ever busy. We have exchanged messages and brief conversations over the past 3-4 weeks, but the shearing is still not done. When he does arrive I will book him for next year.

As the days become warmer the animals remain in the barn where it is cooler during the day. They will feel better once the fleece is off.

We sprung for a shearing table to reduce stress on the animals and are anxious to put it to use.

Switching pastures

Now that the fencing is done and things are becoming routine we decided it was time to put the girls in the proper pasture and the boys in their section. The males paddock is only about an acre and the girls were really starting to mow it down so by switching it will give the area time to recover and still keep the boys satisfied. Moving the boys was quite easy. Herd them into the barn and close the door behind them. Then move the girls through the connecting gate and then lead the boys accross the barn to the other side. These first step went seamlessly as planned. The problem came in that the connecting area I am trying to keep the animals off so that the seed put down over the recently landscaped area could grow. Getting the girls off of this half acre proved the challenge as they were not in the mood to be herded or led and with the now poring rain we end up leaving to openings for the girls so they could get in the barn at their own leisure and discovery. Caroline and I must work on our communication for the herding the animals although the girls are very food motivated so the often come quite easily.