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.

Sunday 2 November 2014

Swede time.

For several weeks now the boys have been enjoying Swedes which we grow in the garden for them.  One or two of the boys would eat lots more if they were allowed to but we ration them to a lump each.  This is Gully enjoying gnawing on a piece.
Not content with eating his own ration Gully then tries to get his head through the bars of the gate to pinch a bit being chewed by Fyta.
Gaucho always keeps a low profile when there is any squabbling going on and here he is enjoying getting his teeth cleaned as he eats his Swede.
Rufus is also partial to his 'neeps' and he's managed to get two bits to eat!  He spent part of his earlier life up in      Caithness  where Swedes are popular, so he is probably well used to the taste.
Fidget has a 'take it or leave it' attitude to the Swede - and today he's left it!  This week we penned the boys so that we could do a bit of nail clipping to Fidget and Fergus who is standing behind him here. Being white boys their nails grow quite quickly.  Fidget has big, black eyes with pink eye lids and whilst he may not be the handsomest boy in the herd, he is still a lovely fella. Whilst the boys were penned we took the opportunity of bathing the left eyes of Gully and Faro which had both been 'runny' but are fine now.
Faro is in the foreground in this picture.  We have been encouraged over the past few weeks as the deposits have gone from 'pats' to 'dumplings' to 'hand grenades' but are now very big 'beans.'  He continues to eat well and scoffs his daily supplement so that pleases us.  Perhaps the summer grass had something to do with his 'loose' condition over several months but this is still an odd episode as it's the first time that has happened in the seven summers he's been with us. 
And finally...........the weather has been exceptionally mild this week but also a little rainy.  Friday however was a good 'drying day' with a breeze blowing so we took the opportunity to get the mower out to top the boys' toilet areas where the grass grows so lush.  They are in the rough paddock behind, just keeping an eye on the humans as always.

4 comments:

  1. We are now giving forage beet to the pacas, which I guess is in the same family as the humble turnip. One of our French neighbour grows it and, despite being 80, she digs it out by hand and there's a mountain of it all neatly stacked in her hangar!

    Great news about Faro...maybe those neeps are just what the doctor ordered!

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  2. Nice to see the boys are doing well. Hope you and Shirley are good too Robbie.

    Hello from Al,Tia,and Jeff.

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  3. Yep Boss, all well this end. Hope things are well with you three in the big city. Take care. Robbie

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  4. Swedes have always been incorrectly called turnips in our family. We used to grow field fiulls when we had a sheep and dairy farm. My father now hates them after years of feeding them to the animals. The only thing I hate is chopping them up (we had a machine on the farm) so ours will be sticking with carrots!

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