Alpacas In The Field And Chickens In The Coop!

Meet Dolores and Winifred!  Names compliments of Hannah.

Yes it's true.  We now have chickens.  Thank you to Joe!  These two chickens are Isa Browns.  That's about the extent of my chicken knowledge.  Sad but true.  What I do know is that I'm excited for my first eggs from the girls!  Dolores is a smidge larger and darker, I think.

Nesting crates.

As you can see I went all out in providing them with luxury nesting crates.  I also gave them a top of the line roosting perch!

A little left over lumber and some dead branches and voila!

 We'll see how they like it and how it holds up.

Hanging feeder.

I'm finding that I'm becoming quite adept at utilizing "found" materials to create the latest feeder, perch, wind block, etc.  There seems to be a never ending list of livestock accouterments that require my resourcefulness or money.

Squirreling In For The Winter

In the midst of all the higher alpaca learning Jeff and I are soaking up, we have also been like the industrious squirrel, readying the farm for winter.  We've stocked up on hay and straw.  Though I'm convinced we won't have enough of either and I would like to get more.  We built a wind and snow block on the girls side of the barn so the barn door into the stall can stay open 24/7 without the southwesterly winds howling through the whole barn.

Daisy Mae modeling the new girls windbreak.

Jeff organized the shed and the work bench in the basement.  He also moved and stacked all the left over lumber from the barn build under the deck.  He's put away the outdoor table and chairs.  I've been busy painting the house and barn exterior doors red.  I've put my garden to bed and put away all the flower pots.  I still want to line the lower third of the stalls with plywood to prevent any accidents.  I also set up the heated water buckets.  This morning there was a good 1/4" of ice on the outside water buckets.  We've been fortunate that the first weeks in November have been so mild.  So sad that it can't remain that way.

I've also been busy skirting and washing the paca fleeces that we a acquired from this springs annual shearing.  That has been an enlightening lesson.  Alpaca fleece is dirty, very dirty.  After spending an hour painstakingly extracting bits of hay, straw, burrs, and sometimes dung from each fleece it is then "washed".  

Notice the clump of hay.

I keep each fleece separate by putting them in mesh laundry bags.  

A fleece ready to be washed.

Washing the fleece.

Then they are put in a the utility tub with a mild detergent and water and soak for at least 20 minutes.  Each fleece bag is then put in the washing machine and run through the rinse/spin cycle three times.  Then the fleece is spread out on a drying rack made of a 1x2 frame stretched with hardware cloth.  It takes several days for the fleece to dry.  Then I bag each one separately in a plastic garbage bag. Next stop will be the mill, where the fleece will magically be turned into rovings (precursor to yarn for hand spinners), or yarn. 

This is Rafael's and Comanche's fleeces on the rack to dry.

From front to back these are Andraya's, and Caroline's 2nds and prime fleece.

This is Birdie's fleece.

I am fortunate that I have a wide variety of the 22 alpaca colors available.  The next step in the process is to deliver all these fleeces to the mill.  There they will be processed.  First they'll be carded (2 metal brushes pull the fleece strands apart as they are brushed in opposite directions) creating separate strands of fibers that are light and airy.  Then they will be turned into rovings or yarn.  Rovings are basically just strips of the carded fleeces rolled into a ball.  Hand spinners create yarn out of roving.  The mill is not located around the corner, unfortunately.  It is in Wolverine, which is located north of Gaylord, but right off of I-75.  It will be about a two hour drive.  I'm thinking it will be cheaper to drive the fleeces there instead of mailing them.  I have about 40 pounds of fleece.  A chore to be completed soon.

I created a hay feeder recently out of a large pvc barrel I had acquired from my sister.  I've been wanting to feed the hay off the ground.  The alpacas step on it and drag it around.  They also seem to waste a lot of it.  I'm hoping by containing it and elevating it there will be less waste and it will be more sanitary for them, reducing parasites.

Blue barrel donated by my sister Karen.

The barrel cut in half.

The "plastic hairs" that needed to be filed off.

The finished hay feeder.

 I had created a screen to sit on top of the feeder out of left over fencing and lumber but it needs to be tweaked a tad to operate properly.


We have been busy, with more left to do.  I still have the other half of the barrel to turn into a 2nd hay feeder.  I still need to line the lower 1/3 of the stalls with plywood.  I'm sure there are other "chores" lurking in the shadows that haven't made themselves known.  I'm just sorry the warm weather has fled!  

Figuring It Out

Beautiful Morning!

Since Sweet Caroline's demise I've been concentrating on raising the alpacas we have.  I've spent the last month getting to know these eight strange but wonderful creatures. They are graceful when they run and are beautiful to watch.  They are curious, never too bored or nonchalant to not check out a Linus cat silly enough to wonder into their pasture, bounding up to and after him with unbridled passion.  Good thing Linus can run fast!

Home, sweet alpaca home!

They issue an "alert" when they notice something out of the ordinary (like a Linus cat or a deer) sounding short high pitched squeals to put the rest of the herd on their toes.  They are enthusiastic about eating and the queen and king have first dibs, usually snatching bites out of each kibble bowl before allowing the rest of the herd to commence eating.  The queen of the girls would be Miss Felicity.  The king of the boys would be Rafael.  Some of the herd are non-stop "talkers".  Rafael is famous for humming, grunting, squealing or just making noise.  The guy never shuts up!  

Rafael -  Even though he never shuts up he is quite the handsome boy.

As they have gotten used to me I can now walk in between and around them without having them flinching and running off.  Twizzler and sometimes Daisy Mae will allow me the honor of touching them.  My hope is that they all will eventually allow me to touch and halter them without any drama.

I've bred three of the "girls", learning important lessons each time.  Like, always have a halter on the male and female.  Don't breed in the paddock with the other females.  If the other females are available they may lay down next to the one you're trying to breed making it hard for you to direct the male to the correct female.  Too many choices! 

Rafael and Miss Felicity having a moment.  Notice they both have halters on and they are separated from the rest of the girls in the small catch "pen" I constructed.

Especially don't breed in sight of the other "left out" males.  They get a tad competitive and start fighting amongst themselves.  Much spitting, squealing and general mayhem may ensue.

Whoever said alpacas don't spit was confused.  I've been spit at for putting a halter on an alpaca (Birdie) and asking said alpaca to walk with me.  I've been spit at for not allowing more than the chosen male to breed with the females (Comanche).  How dare I be so exclusionary!  I've been in the cross fire between alpacas "expressing" their displeasure with each other. The good news is that it isn't painful just kinda stinky and gross.  Fortunately it does wash off.

Their daily care is easy.  Feed hay, alpaca kibbles and fresh water morning and night.  I like to also clean the stalls and clean up the paca poo piles daily.  Did you know alpacas all use the same area for their bathroom?  It makes clean up so much easier than cleaning up after any other type of livestock.  They do generate a lot of manure though, or maybe it's because I have eight of them?  No matter, I'll just have a generous amount of paca poo for the garden in the spring!

Andraya working on creating that paca poo!

When the girls get to squabbling, they tend to spit and squeal and wrap their long necks around each other.  The first time I observed this I was ready to throw a bucket of water on them.  How would they ever unentwine themselves from each other?  After having an altercation, the two combatants will walk around in a daze with their lower lip hanging down for several minutes.  Silly animals.

For the record, the females tend to be messy.  They have decided they need three paca poo piles.  One in the pasture, one in the paddock and unfortunately one in their stall.  Cleaning the stall is the most cumbersome because I keep it bedded with straw.  Since their poo resembles large rabbit pellets, it is sometimes challenging to extract just it and leave the straw behind.  The boys only have one pile and it is located in their paddock. To date they have not soiled their stall.  Good boys!

The females also don't like to be out in the rain.  The boys are much hardier and don't seem to care.  It will be interesting to see how they handle the snow.  Also the girls like to eat their hay lesiurely, often laying down while they chow down.

Birdie and Felicity having a lesiurely hay snack.

  
It has been quite the tutorial learning their habits and personalities.  I'm excited to learn more.