It's not so much the heat....

...it's the humidity. I so agree with that statement; and for alpacas, it's even more so. They don't handle humidity well. Imagine wearing a knit stocking cap all over your body in the summer? Miserable!! Even though they are shorn, they still have some fiber (fur) on them.

We have shade, and the alpacas take advantage of that. Here is Tehya, Copper, Twilight, and Maddie resting in the shade of the trees:



We also have barns, with fans going (all day, every day, during the spring/summer/fall, and on the hot nights, we keep them on all night). Another nice thing about the fans, is that it will keep bugs off them on days/nights when the bugs are bad. Our older girls tend to hang out in the barn. Here is Kateri, Sancha, and Victoria standing in their barn (the fans are way in the back behind them):



I also hose them down about three times a day on the really hot days. Usually they will stalk me during each feeding time, and get a hose down when I try to fill up the water buckets. Then at least once in the middle of the day (or right after work) I will hose them off. They regulate their body temperature through their chest area, between their front two legs, so that is where I aim the hose. I know they are really hot when I barely turn on the hose and they gather. On the day I took these pictures, the hose had been sitting under the swingset, so the girls gathered there:







I aim for their front chest, but also get all over under their belly and into their arm pit (not sure it's called an arm pit on a four legged animal, but I'm not sure what else to call it).

The maiden girls like the water hose too. Here is Pocahontas enjoying a spray down:



I missed getting pictures of the other young girls. The funny thing with them, is that they like to sniff my hand when I hose them down. I tried to get a picture of this, but holding the hose and the camera and trying not to get the camera wet and taking a picture all myself is more than I can do to multi-task.