Spring Has Sprung

 

New Friendships  "Hey Man, Wanna be pals?"

Spring has created many new adventures and opportunities for us.  We had our alpacas sheared for the very first time (ours not theirs).  We were told by a knowledgable alpaca breeder/exhibitor that our male cria Oliver is of extremely nice show/breeding quality.  We had no clue.  We simply thought he was cute.  I rood my first yearling wether (Chandler).  It was a pretty simple and fun experience.  I'm sure I didn't do it up to standards, but the wool ended up in the bag.  That was my goal. 

We are done lambing as of April 7th.  With only 3 bred ewes, lambing goes by quickly.  We ended up with 4 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs.  One of the twin boys is comfortably resting in a dog jacket in our living room.  He has gotten off to a rough start, and we are feeding him with an eye dropper hoping to move onto the bottle soon.  He just can't seem to suck hard enough just yet.  He has improved throughout the day.  All other lambs are healthy and energetic.  

We are still kidding.  We have 2-3 nannies left to kid.  We are a little unsure about Charlotte.  She's a heavy gal.  At this point, we have 2 sets of twin girls, 1 single  boy and a set of all boy triplets.  They are super fun to watch in the lot.  Their moms are worn out, but watching them popcorn around is a pretty good stress reliever.  Pygmy kids have to be one of the cutest babies out there. 

At this time, we also have baby chicks.  We have duck, guinea and chicken eggs in 2 full incubators.  We also stumbled across a duck nest in one corner of our barn.  Spring has brought a lot of new life to our house.  We have one litter of puppies, with hopefully another on the way in May.  We are starting to introduce our LGD puppies to the livestock.  They are so spoiled that they just want back with the kids.  It will be a challenging adjustment for them.  We would have started them sooner, but...Sheldon needed some serious TLC. 

After lambing this season, I am really looking forward to adding a couple more ewes into next season's line-up.  We have 2 yearlings at this time.  I do believe that we will be keeping one ewe lamb from this season's babies.  Now, time to shop around!

If we can figure out what to do with multiple bags of alpaca fiber and sheep wool, life will be good.

March...March...Fall in Line!

Wow!  Did February just happen???

March brings a lot of new surprises for us.  We have both Shetland lambs, Pygmy kids and Chihuahua puppies on the way.  Joining us soon will be our new LGD puppy.  We had a few predator issues - mostly with our guineas, but we don't want to chance having issues with new babies hitting the ground.  We always intended to get a LGD, but we just never found what we were looking for.  With some patience and some guidance, I think we made our match.  For awhile, I thought maybe my desire to get a LGD was simply because I thought they were so beautiful, but...I did notice that one of our goat raising neighbors also has one.  We mostly have had trouble with large bird predators, but I do know that our area is full of coyotes.  Better safe than sorry!

We are slowly placing some of adult Chihuahuas in loving pet homes.  That has been a rewarding challenge.  It's a bittersweet moment to send them off, but nothing feels better to hear back from the new owners about how much they love them.  We have new Chis to add into our breeding lines, and we cannot keep everyone.  We have welcomed 4 new littles ones since November, so we are busy potty training and learning doggy house rules.  We should be able to start raising litters again this Summer.  Very exciting to us! 

Last but not least, we SHOULD have incubator eggs hatching this weekend.  I was determined to be useful and did not purchase an egg turner, so I have been turning eggs multiple times a day for 3 weeks.  Yikes!  Something better hatch!!!  Honestly, if anything hatches, I will be happy.  I've been using the guess and check method this time around. 

If I don't develop an ulcer or have a mental breakdown, I look forward to reporting back on the births of lambs and kids.  One could say, I'm a little nervous. 

January in Iowa

A lot has gone down since my last post.  We have a total of 7 Shetland Sheep, 13 Pygmy Goats and 6 Alpacas (5 adults and 1 cria).  The Spring should bring many changes for us.  We are expecting lambs and possibly kids.  We will have cria as well, but not until Fall.

This weekend was dedicated to deworming, body condition checks, bringing in new hay and putting new straw in our sheds and barn.  As much "fun" as this sounds, it was actually pretty rewarding.  The animals even left grain uneaten because they were so excited about the new straw.  I guess, it's the little things...

We have been extremely lucky to have mild Iowa Winter weather up until this point.  Other than one skinny Alpaca (that we are handling), everyone seems to be doing well.  Our ducks are being little troopers.  The Guineas are pretty upset about being shut inside, but an evil predator bird was killing them off left and right.  I actually witnessed the end of one murder as I flipped on our front house lights to see a large bird carrying off a dead Guinea.  Needless to say, I was not pleased. 

About a week ago, we added a Pedigreed Netherland Dwarf Buck to our rabbit line-up.  We will be mating our pair of ND's soon.  This will be our first breeding, so we are fairly excited.  We continue to breed Chihuahuas on a limited basis.  We had a run of bad luck over the last year, so we backed off.  We have 2 newcomers to add into our breeding lines when they are grown.  We hope this will help repair and excel our breeding program. 

Work, Work, Work...
It was actually nice spending extra time outside with our livestock this weekend!!!

Alpacas Are Faster Than They Appear

Chad and I entered the pasture today to do a little pre-winter planning.  We needed to remove a couple of halters and neck chains from our alpacas, as everyone is settled in now.  This is what we learned:

1.  The only Alpacas willing to be caught are the ones you don't actually need to work with. 

2.  Sheep are NOT good helpers.  (especially Forseti)

3.  Alpacas can and will run at a much faster rate than we expected.

4.  Catching Alpacas in an open pasture without any type of holding pen is not really a good plan. 

5.  We have a lot left to learn about Alpaca care. 

With that being said, we still have halters and neck chains to remove.  We did; however, have a great opportunity to pet and chat with all of the other goats, birds and sheep in the pasture. 

Rabbits

My 2 rabbits Rayne and Nova.  Nova looks completely different now; however, I do not have a new picture of her.  She is really stunning.

Stefan

Stefan is our first Alpaca.  (another sale barn purchase)  He needs some serious TLC, but we adore him.  He has such a gentle nature but a very animated and outgoing personality.  He is standing by our little nanny, Luna. 

Twyla and her little girls Londyn & Lily

Twyla was a sale barn purchase that was not "part of the plan".  She was dirt cheap and her girls are so adorable.  Lily is one of my favorites (but don't tell the others).  Twyla seems to love her new home, and we are thrilled to have her with us.