OUR SMALL HERD

Our original four boys came from Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire. We are not alpaca breeders and have our boys purely as pets. Our experience is that you don't need to be a breeder and that a 'batchelor herd' can give much pleasure to the owner. We have 5 acres including our big garden and grazing for the boys, 15 miles north of Inverness, Scotland. I spin, knit, felt and crochet with the fleece from the boys.

Clicking!!

Just a reminder that clicking on (most) of the photos will show them greatly enlarged.

Saturday 1 October 2011

A generous visitor

'Nosey Parker' Wee Eck knows when there are visitors around because he reckons he will get some tit-bits as well as having his photo taken.
We had contact from Heather in Inverness who wanted to come out, see the boys but also find out about spinning fleece.    She very kindly brought with her a large bag of apples and carrots for the guys and here is Faro looking for more apples which are his favourites!  Heather rides her friend's horse Henry so is used to feed times but this is the first time she has been up close and personal with alpacas.
Fyta next, always keen to smell the hand that feeds him!
And Fergus of course who will lick the very last morsel out of any food bowl around!  Thanks for the apples and carrots, Heather, they are going down a treat every day.  I was able to show Heather what I get up to with the fleece, through spinning, felting and knitting so I hope there was a bit of inspiration.  Good luck with your plans for spinning lessons! 
Fyta, never shy to have his photo taken, with Rufus in the background.
We've had some good weather this week so we penned the boys as we particularly wanted to trim Fergus's nails.  He and our other white boy Fidget need their nails cutting regularly, especially Fergus as he has the type of nails which grow curled, and if not trimmed would grow under his pads.  These are Fergus's front feet and the nails on the left of the picture show how they quickly curl under.  One of his back feet also has curly nails so this is the second trim since James and Kym the shearers were here at the end of June.  For a pleasant change Fergus was very well behaved and nails on all 4 feet were trimmed. 
And finally, Nerines growing nicely in the autumn sunshine earlier in the week.   The south of the country is basking in hot sunshine today again whilst here it is ..............pouring with rain!

4 comments:

  1. I think we all have a 'curly toe' alpaca...they always seem to have white toe nails too!

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  2. It seems the nails of whites grows much faster than the nails of the coloured alpacas, and our certainly follow that trend - on a recent Camelidynamics course, Julie declared that there was no such thing as the need for 'emergency nail clipping' - no-one looked for clarification of that, but perhaps I should. Yes Shirley, had probably the last barbeque of the year tonight, sat outside in shorts and tee-shirt until it got dark - not a breath of wind.

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  3. Looks like Autumn....is definitely here....that fine dry spell....has came to a sudden end !.....just got the hay done in time !!....and now its back to rain.....ans ofcourse the good old mud !!.....the boys look like they enjoyed their visitor !....Jayne

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  4. I contacted Julie for clarification and this was her reply:

    "Even if you see them broken and hanging off there is still time to plan to do things calming and safely.

    So what I mean is that even if they are looking a bit long, but your animal hates being toenailed by leg lifting, try doing it on the ground, in a minipen etc etc.. Just doing one foot or one nail at a time can really help your animal get over their fear of it. "

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