Starting Cria Watch, again

We are basically starting cria watch on Kateri. The ticker down there gives her just over a month (1 month 5 days). I generally start watching a month in advance (since the window of delivery can be a month early to a month late). Last year Kateri delivered on day 341. Victoria on day 346. (based on some quick computations I think those are accurate). The tickers below are based on 350 days, so likely it will be close to a month yet, but we'll keep a closer eye on Kateri just in case it's earlier. I do know she's getting more ornery. When I brought food out to the girls last night she started spitting because she was so concerned she might not get a bowl. She always gets a bowl of grain, and spitting makes it hard for her to eat (that stomach acid in the mouth does not work well when they try to eat). But, I think it has more to do with pregnancy ornery hormones than anything else.

Kateri is bred to SHVN The Buccaneer, who is now owned by Full Tilt Alpacas. He's a true black and the 1/2 brother to our own Victoria. Their mom, Hana, has produced some incredible award winning cria. We hope the combination of Kateri's lineage and The Buccaneer will create one awesome cria.

Here's Buc:


Kateri is a light brown alpaca. Given what we've learned about color genetics, every alpaca has 2 main color genes (there are also dilution genes and spot genes but for simplicity, all alpacas have 2 main color genes). One color they exhibit as their color, the other color they can pass on to their babies, but they do not necessarily show it (some show a secondary color in ways like having black tipping on their extremities, but often times you do not see the secondary color at all). For the most part whatever is the lighter color is the one they exhibit, they carry the darker color that they can pass on. We believe Kateri carries the brown gene and a black gene (her mother is true black). A true black has 2 black genes, so her mom had to pass one on to Kateri. The Buccaneer is true black, so in any case he will pass on a black gene. We have a 50% chance of having a true black cria (if Kateri passes on her black gene) or a 50% chance of a brown cria (if Kateri passes on her brown gene, the brown will be exhibited and The Buccaneer's black gene will be it's secondary color). I have a feeling this cria is going to be a boy. I base this solely on the fact that Kateri is carrying this baby differently than she did last year. She had a girl last year. We found Sancha carried her girl different than a boy, but who knows, that may have been luck ;) I'm predicting a true black boy, but we'll see.

Exercise?

Who needs a gym membership or workout equipment at home? Not when you have a farm. There are always big chores to do that will work you out like no workout can. This weekend has given me a workout like no other.

This weekend our big project was starting our garden. We had already ordered seeds and seedlings that we had started in pots. When we put up the fence in our backyard, we sectioned off a big part for a garden. We are new to gardens, so it will be an adventure how this turns out.

We are growing: several kinds of tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cucumber, summer squash, cantaloupe, pumpkin, beans, snow peas, sweet corn, and herbs (garlic, chives, coriander, sweet basil, rosemary). J also got some concord grapes but I fear they did not make the transplant.

Our weekend chores started with J raking and mowing the garden section. Because I'm not fond of machines, I did the poop moving. Alpaca poop is the best fertilizer. I've heard people rave about it, and we've seen the miracles it can do. We've managed to grow grass on pure sand soil. Put down alpaca poop and work it into the ground a bit, add some grass seeds, cover with straw, water everyday = grass. We decided we needed this miracle fertilizer for our garden. One problem, it's in a pile about .12 miles away. A little far to walk it in a wheel barrow, but not quite far enough to justify renting a front loader. Last year (I know I blogged about this), Emma and I took buckets and filled the back of the truck with the poop and moved it back by our house. It worked, but was a lot of hard labor. J suggested this year we use the trailer and he set up a ramp so that I could wheel a wheel barrow right into the trailer. No reaching up dumping buckets, though, still quite a bit of intense labor.

On Saturday we got a late start and I had to get other chores done, so I only managed to get 1 load of poop (I think about 8 wheelbarrows full). On Sunday I did 2 trips, each with 9 or 10 wheelbarrows full of poop. I collected the poop up at the poop pile, hauled it back to our place in the trailer, and then put it in a wheelbarrow again and spread it on our garden.

Now some might hear this and be a bit grossed out. I know, it is poop. But, of the poop that I've run across, alpaca poop is the least offensive. Bunny poop is a very close second. The benefit being that alpacas (and rabbits) only eat veggies, no meat. Their poop has little to no scent. If there is a scent, it's usually because it's fresh and urine is mixed in, or it is composting and there are scents to various stages of composting. Another nice thing about alpaca poop is that it's in little beans, sort of likeraisins , small and compact, easy to work with. Since they are this awesome fertilizer, I like to call them composting alpaca miracle beans. That sounds so much better than poop.

Other issues with poop are around spreading infection/germs. I'm not a scientist but my understanding is that this is not a risk to us from alpaca poop. Especially poop that has been sitting and composting for a couple (or more) months. Also, some animal poop is so strong that it can burn plants if it doesn't have time to compost. This is not a problem with alpaca poop. It can be used fresh from the poop piles in the pasture (we have done it).

While I was moving miracle beans, J not only mowed down what was growing, but then rented a rototiller to till up the ground. We live on very sandy soil. If you peel back the layer of woods on top, you have pure beach sand. So we are going to put a very big layer of composting alpaca miracle beans onto our garden area. J spread and worked these miracle beans into the soil.

It's Monday and we got about 1/2 of the garden covered in miracle beans. It's enough we can plant what we absolutely have to plant. But I foresee more miracle bean moving in our future.

Fiber Update

First, we have new bags of fiber from this years shearing. Since we still have last years and some from the year before, we have plenty to sell. I'd offer to skirt it, but I'm terrible at skirting, though I will do my best and will wash it. Our cria fleeces (the softest fleece) come in white (Lightning), fading fawn (Tehya) and brown (Shelby's). Other fleeces we have: white, various shades of brown (from a reddish brown to a golden brown), black and gray (light silver gray). Email us if you are interested in fleeces. It can be spun from raw or sent to the mill to be made into rovings or yarn.

I've started a "fiber room" in our basement, where the new fleeces are now residing. I still need to sort the fleeces from years previous and get them in there too. I have a *new* to me sewing machine (ok, it's a 1963 model, but it was given extra care by my grandma until it came to our house). And all my spinning gadgets are in there - with the exception of my spinning wheel which continues to be kept on top of the TV (so no dog can decide to do something to it) and where I can get it easily when I have some time to spin.

I'm almost done spinning Tucker's fiber from last year (our silver gray alpaca). I alternated between spinning the fiber and knitting. There are times I can't spin (like sitting at a child's baseball practice) when I would knit. But I managed to find enough time to spin to supply enough yarn to keep up with my knitting. I am over half way done with my sweater out of Tucker's fiber. I have the back of it complete and am almost done with the front left side. It's my first spun yarn and it's my first sweater so it will definitely have an artist look, but I'm excited to have a product from our own animals.

My next project is going to be a handbag. I promised one to my mom (past present). She picked brown for the color, so now for me to decide which shade - reddish brown of Victoria or the golden brown of Kateri? I've never made a handbag before so this is also new teritory.

Birth Day Pictures

Our newborn Snow Lily and her mom, Sancha. J found Snow Lily already walking and drinking off mom. We missed the birth, though it appears it was not a difficult one. Welcome to our farm, Snow Lily!







Mom and baby out walking around, Lily already can run! Notice our other two moms not to far away (both are brown):



Here are pictures of just Lily (though mom can be seen lingering in the background).



Sancha is a good dotting mom. When Lightning Bugs was born, we had to assist due to a dystocia. Sancha let us help and let us tend to him after the birth. This time, she did it all on her own and does not want us near her baby. When we weighed her, she stood by screaming the entire time. Baby and mom appear to have a good bond.

Beautiful Baby Girl

Today we came home to a beautiful newborn cria! Sancha finally had her baby, a white girl, named Snow Lily.

I was at work today. J was home, fed the alpacas their morning grain. He had a feeling Sancha was going to deliver (but then there have been other days he thought so too). He said she barely ate and was humming a lot. He decided to go golfing, because of course, if he stays home she won't have that baby. When he arrived home, he found a baby girl, already feeding on Sancha.

It appears this delivery went smoothly. Sancha did it all on her own. J found the baby eating and the placenta in one piece in the pasture. Lily is alert and we cannot believe how well she is walking around already! All looks well.

I'll try to get pictures up on Thursday. Sorry for the delay (a technical difficulty with our computer and camer set up).

Shearing Day 2009

For shearing this year we took all our alpacas over to Ashton Stone alpacas, where the shearer came to shear all of our alpacas. On Friday night we made 2 trips, first brought over the girls, then the boys. We could have fit everyone in on one trip, but decided it best to keep boys and girls separate. Ashton Stone has a nice big barn and could fit everyone. We were worried because rain was predicted for Friday night, but we got everyone in the barn fine. Of course, then it didn't rain.

Sancha was due with her cria on shearing day, and we had hoped shearing might induce her. No baby yet. Ashton Stone had one due a couple weeks before shearing day, and she also did not deliver (though she may be doing so today - I hope!).

This shearer has a rope set up that lays on the ground. Last year we used a table so this was a different set up. I thought the ground would be worse but we found it to be even better. It was much less strain on our backs and it seemed to hold the alpacas better (no fear of them slipping since they were already on the ground). It was a huge help to have Ashton Stone there too, so there were more adults around to help (last year we counted a lot on the kids and our nieces, who were a great help but not quite like having other adults there).

Everything went well and everyone got shorn. I got some pictures of Shelby strapped up and in process of shearing:





During shearing one person holds the alpacas head. All legs are pulled in ropes so that they cannot move. Some alpacas really hate this and scream the entire time. We had a couple who spit (a sock over their mouth prevents spit from getting all over everyone who is there to help). Other alpacas lay there and just let us do the shearing without a sound. The alpaca does need to be flipped over so that all sides of them can be shorn. If they are very pregnant, like the 2 who were due on or before shearing day, you have to be careful flipping them so it does not create uterine torsion. For the girls who are less far along in their pregnancy it doesn't matter. Some alpacas need more holding, the squirmers do. Others are fine with just one person holding their head. Other helpers pull the rope and loosen the ropes as needed, and there are people gathering the fiber and putting it in bags.

We decided to weigh our alpacas before and after shearing so that we could get a total weight of what was shorn. We also weighed their prime fleece to find out how much blanket weight they have. You can trim their nails and teeth while they are strapped down (might as well do all those things you can). We had the fighting teeth on both Tucker and Apollo trimmed. You can also give shots, and any other herd health thing you desire.

Here are all the alpacas outside after being shorn:

Pregnant Ladies - before and after shearing

Victoria Full Fleece:


Victoria Shorn:



Kateri Full Fleece:


Kateri Shorn (after she laid in the leaves):


Sancha Full Fleece:


Sancha Shorn (it doesn't seem like their narrow neck should be able to support their big heads):

Maiden girls - before and after shearing

Our four maiden girls in their full fleece:


Shelby full fleece (I love all that face coverage):


Shelby Shorn:



Tehya Full Fleece:


Tehya Shorn (her mouth is hanging funny because she was just spitting, we call this "spit lip". When they spit, they bring up stomach acid that burns in their mouth):


Sommerfield Full Fleece:


Sommerfield Shorn:


Maddie Full Fleece:


Maddie Shorn:

Boys - before and after

Lightning Bugs Full Fleece:



Bugs Shorn


Tucker Full Fleece


Tucker Shorn


Apollo Full Fleece


Apollo Shorn


Snowstorm Full Fleece


Snowstorm Shorn

Shearing Day

Shearing Day is this Saturday. I plan to do before and after pictures like last year, so stay tuned.

Cria Watch Continues

no baby, yet. Everyday we take a good long look at Sancha. And it seems everyday she does something that seems like it *could* be impending birth. No baby yet. She has 4 days until she's due and last year she went over that by 6 days so I'm thinking we have about 10 days to go ;)

The votes are in on the baby. Emma says it will be a white girl, Zack says a white boy who looks just like Sancha, I say a fawn boy and J says a fawn girl. We all agree it will be big. Lightning bugs was 21 pounds and I'm guessing this one will be close to that.

On that note, Kateri, who isn't due for about 2 months, looks huge! I mean, huge! This is only our second year with cria, so I don't have a lot of experience, but she seems like she is carrying a really big baby this time. I think Tehya was 15 pounds, so there is room for a little bigger. It also could be that Kateri is carrying it very differently this time. I say that means we are getting a boy from her. We'll see.

Spot

Spot is our guardian dog. His job is to keep any other animals out of the alpaca's area. In our location the biggest threat to alpacas is loose dogs. A bark from Spot will send just about any dog running. We've found he also hates birds. If a bird lands in the pasture he will bark and run.

Zack loves to go out and play with Spot, they are good buddies.



This is Spot's favorite spot to lay down, right by the fence near our patio and dinning room. He uses his sad eyes to entice us to let him in the house. Nice try, Spot. He's a working dog, not a house/pet dog. But we do give him attention as he needs that too, we go out there to him though.


Here is Emma giving Spot some attention. He loves it when the kids come and play with him. The kids say their favorite thing to play with Spot is "follow." This is where they walk around and Spot follows them everywhere. I find he does this to me when I'm out there doing chores.


It has been interesting to watch the alpacas accept Spot. Initially when the alpacas came back here Spot was an outcast. Slowly, I've seen him sleep closer and closer to them. This past week we had a lot of rain and they even let him in the barn with them. It's as if he's one of the group. We've also found that when there is a danger issue (Spot barking at something) the alpacas let him deal with it and they do not appear nervous like we use to notice before Spot came here.

We have been very happy with our guardian dog. He's a big help on the farm and he's fun to have around when I'm working on my chores alone.

New Alpaca Area

Last summer we started working on the new shelter and pasture land right in our own backyard. Early this spring, we finally had it all set for the pregnant girls to come back here. It's so nice to see them right outside our windows. Being on cria watch is easy when all you have to do is glance out the window.

This picture shows the pasture land (minus the snow). The first enclosure is our immediate backyard which is fenced in for Quinn (our family pet, American Eskimo). Beyond the first fence is where the alpaca's land starts (including the kids swing set as seen in the 2nd picture - the alpacas don't mind it at all but they do tend to watch the kids when they are out there playing).



The shelter is the steel tool shed in the distance. While not fancy, it's an inexpensive way to house the alpacas. Sure a barn is ideal, but they only require a 3 sided shelter with a roof. Alpacas are inexpensive to house and feed in comparison to other animals. This last picture was taken from inside my dinning room.

Ohio Show Pictures

Here is our stall all set up with fans and our farm signs. We usually hang their ARI certificate on the stall also (show's their name and their dam/sire). We have a shelf with our sales book and business cards set out.



This picture shows better how much room they have (that first picture made them looked cramped but they really aren't). Also you can see our chair, which we never seemed ot have time to sit in anyway.


This is a picture of J standing in line before Tehya showed. They have you line up so that when the class ahead is done, the next class can come in.


This is near the end of judging Tehya's class, note she's in the 2nd place spot. Next the judge gave out the ribbons.

Cria Watch

We start cria watch about a month before their due date of 350 days. There are different ways of deciding when to start cria watch, but for us, this is what we have decided on. Some farms set the due date at 335 days, and watch from that day on. There are as many different ways to do this as their are farms out there. However, no matter when you start your watch, everything seems like a sign of impending birth.

Sancha is on cria watch (see that ticker at the bottom of the page moving closer and closer to due date). The ticker due date is set at day 350, but full term could be a month before or even after that (yes, after!). Lightning was born on day 356, and I like to believe moms tend to have their babies near the same gestation day (though I have no stats to back up that theory). There are many theories out there, like spring babies go to a longer gestational day than fall babies. This fits in my mind with survival, you want the spring ones to stay inside until it's warmer out. For fall, you want the babies up and moving before the really cold weather hits. So I'll buy into this theory also. I've heard the mom won't eat on the day they deliver (this we can strike out as false, all our girls ate the day they delivered last year). I've heard they cush more near delivery. But the big thing is that the baby will come when it's ready, signs or no signs.

So what happens during cria watch? Not much. It amounts to the alpaca owners watching and waiting and insisting anything that mom does must be a sign of impending birth. Last weekend Sancha stayed in the barn more than she has typically so we thought that might be a sign. This morning Kateri and Victoria were walking and grazing while Sacha was cushed down - that's a sign, right? Any unusual behavior must mean the mom is in labor or preparing to be in labor, or so cria watchers believe. This morning Sancha ate her grain while in a cushed position. Now that is something I have never seen before! I've seen dogs do this, but never an alpaca. Is this a sign of impending birth? Or just that she's extremely pregnant and large and that felt right to her this morning and birth is still a few weeks off. When you witness these "odd" or "atypical" behaviors you think this has to mean she's in labor. But, then hours later you realize, no, she's just a very pregnant mom doing what she wants when she wants.

So cria watch continues. Last year we found once we gave up on reading the signs, then Lightning bugs made his appearance. I also found once our last cria of the year was born, it was a let down that cria watch for the year was over. After all those "signs" we watched for, then there was nothing to watch for. So I'm trying to enjoy cria watch, but really, it's still a matter of waiting and wanting to see those new little babies.

The great alpaca escape

We haven't had too many problems with alpacas escaping. They don't generally challenge fences (there are a few who's personalities are such that they do, but of the ones on our farm, we don't have any who do. And I'd say the typical alpaca does not). Fences are more to keep predators out. Alpaca do tend to run from people, it's their only defense (spitting is a last resort if running doesn't work).

Well, this weekend I was lax while doing my barn chores and accidentally left the gate from the boys barn open. I was getting water out of the girls barn when I noticed Snowstorm strolling out of the barn into the driveway. I yelled to the kids who were playing nearby. Zack instantly saw the issue and screamed "alpaca loose". This is one time children running to the barn from the direction of the alpaca is ideal. They chased him right back to the barn. However, as I was trying to get him into the barn, Apollo and Tucker jetted out of the barn, past the children and into the wooded area between the pasture and the road. Now this is a bigger issue. I had to make sure they did not get into the road. A vehicle driving by at 55+ mph was not going to stop in time.

I got Snowstorm and Lightning Bugs locked into the pasture so that I could leave the gate to the boys barn open. This way, once we got Tucker and Apollo to the barn, they would walk in.

I decided we needed a plan to get them back into the barn, using what I know of herding dynamics. I'm not a great herder, yet. And with only children under 10 as my helpers, I was a bit nervous if we could pull this off. I had told Emma to call J, but somehow in all the activity, that message didn't get to her.

Basic herding is that you need to be on the other side of the alpaca of where you want them to go. For example, if you want them in the barn, it needs to be you, the alpaca then the barn. You walk towards the alpaca, they flee from you and end up in the barn :) In our situation it was alpaca, us, then the gate to the barn. Somehow we had to get on the other side.

I decided to have Emma and Carlie run around the barn and pasture to get on the other side. That way the alpacas would be between E&C and the barn. Perfect set up. Once they are on the other side of the alpacas, if they start walking towards the alapcas, the alpacas will walk towards the barn. Emma and Carlie did a great job running around the entire pasture and meeting the alpacas. Apollo and Tucker started walking. I was standing with herding sticks parallel to the road so that they did not run into the road. Zack was positioned so that the alpacas would not keep going past the barn, but turn into it. All was on track, it as working. Then, just as we got them to the barn, it is discovered the gate to the boys barn is closed! (no one ever fessed up to who did that). When I tried to open it, the alpaca boys got scared and ran right back to where they were in the wooded area! Since the plan had worked, we did it again, this time with the gate open.

I had fears I would never get those two boys back into their barn. It was not easy with only children under 10 to help, who really don't understand how to herd well. But we did it, and I would have never done it without the kids' help.

That was my hard lesson on the need to make sure gates are closed.

(I editted this because my first version was not writen well - sorry! must have been in a hurry that day)

Exactly 1 month to Sancha's due date

and that due date is set at 350 days. I've heard farmers who set their due dates at anything from 320 to 250 days. Last year we went with an earlier date and it was so frustrating waiting for the little one (born on day 356). So this year we are setting the due date at 350, but will start watch and be prepared a month ahead. It's a month ahead!

This past weekend J was concerned about how Sancha was acting. We got her into the catch pen and he felt her abdomen. He said he could feel baby parts and there was some movement. I have noticed less movement this time than when she was pregnant with Lightning. I've heard theories that there is more movement with boys. J also pointed out that for the most part, Sancha has alternated between boys and girls (holding that 50/50 % to a tee). Also, it seems like Sancha is carrying this baby further up in her ribs than she did Lightning. So is it a girl? Or all those things just myths? I already put in my guess of a fawn colored boy, but I also thought Shelby would be a black colored boy LOL I was right on with Tehya. J said that Sancha did not seem to be bagged up yet, but her teats are starting to swell and her ligaments are quite loose (I compared them to Kateri's and Sancha is much more loose). We estimated about 2 to 3 weeks (from this past weekend), based on the fact she still needs to bag up and we remember how low and loose she got last year. We'll see how accurate that is when this cria makes it's entrance. The reality of it all is that this baby will come when it's good and ready. I'm ready :) and eager... but that's not what matters.

Show Results

The first one we showed was Shelby. After all the attention she got at the Best of the Midwest show, we were anxious to see how she was going to do here. Unfortunately, she was very hot and sweating which does affect their crimp and bundling of their fiber. We also get the impression the judge has a preference for zipper crimp. As I've stated in the past, I wasn't sure how Shelby would show because I have heard zipper crimp is prefered. At the Best of the Midwest show it didn't matter. That judge looked at how uniform the crimp was, not what kind of crimp it was. There she placed 2nd. Here in Indiana she took a 4th, out of 12.

To back track a bit, let me explain a bit more about how the show works. Each alpaca is put in a class to show based on the type of alpacas, their age and color, and fiber length. Shelby was in the Huacaya Full Fleece Medium Brown Juvenile Female class. Huacaya is the type of alpacas (all of ours are Huacaya, the other type is Suri and those are in separate classes). Full fleece means that she has more than 2 inches of fiber (I've talked about the shorn class before, look to our fall show posts to see my vent on that). Shelby is Medium Brown in color. And she is under a year so she is classed as Juvi (over a year is "yearling" and over 2 is "2 years and older" class). They are put into classes based on these criteria. A class can have up to 14 before they split it into 2 classes. In Shelby's class there were 12, not enough to separate into 2 sections of her class. They give ribbons up to 6th place, all other ones "get the gate" (no ribbon and no feedback from the judge). Tehya's class was separated, as was Lightnings. If they do more than one section of the class, they separate by age. The alpacas in each class are listed in age order with the oldest first. That way the judge knows right off the bat who is older than who (so you can see the size comparison). If the class is split into two sections, then the older 1/2 goes first, then the younger 1/2.

Shelby got a 4th out of 12 in her class. The judge's comments on her include: she has a good frame and is proportionate (meaning her neck isn't too long or too short, her body is confirmationally correct), her fiber is uniform, but was less fine and had less staple length than the one who placed above her.

Tehya was our next to show, but did not show until Sunday morning. Sunday was our busy day! We had one animal show right after the other. Tehya was in ring 2, Lightning in ring 1, and Tucker in ring 4. I was worried I might have to show one of them, but as it worked out J did all the showing *phew*

Tehya's class had 17 alpacas in it, so it was split into 2 sections. Tehya was in the second section, being almost in the middle age wise in that 2nd section. Sometimes it is thought there are advantages to being older or younger in a class. For example, the older ones have the benefit of being bigger. The younger ones may be a bit more immature. Being in the middle balances that all out. Tehya showed in the Huacaya Full Fleece Light Fawn Juvenile Female. She placed 2nd in her class! That is a 2nd out of 8. We are very excited about her placing there. The one who beat her is from Sunset Hills, out of their Seena's Goldilocks, an alpaca touted to be extremely good. We are very excited to be a small farm completing with the big farms so closely. The judge said she gave first to the other one because it was the finest. The judge said all the top ones had dense top knots. Tehya was said to be more dense, and to have longer staple length.

Because Tehya placed in 2nd that meant she got to stand in the Color Championship (I explained in my posts from the Best of the Midwest show how the color championship works). So this meant another time J walked an animal into the ring.

The next to show was Tucker. There were 5 in his class, so he was sure to place, but a 5th out of 5 doesn't mean a whole lot. Farms are less likely to take older alpacas to the shows, as usually they make a name for themselves as juvi and yearlings. Tucker had never been shown, so we don't have that background on him. He was a stinker there at the show too. The farm who's pen was next to us was getting a bit annoyed at Tucker's constant climbing the fence. I had visions of him getting loose and running free around are the arena. Thankfully he never did get free, but he sure provided entertainment for all around. It was fun to see him catch people's eye, and they would have to stop and talk to him. He showed in Huacaya Full Fleece Gray 2 Years and Older Males. Because there are less alpacas that show at the older ages they did not separate out Light Silver Grey and Dark Silver Grey, etc. They put all the 2+ greys males together. He was the oldest in his group, which can make it harder because as they age their fiber loses some of it's qualities. Ideally you want a male that does not lose their good qualities, but sometimes the younger ones do have an advantage there because it is unknown how they will hold up as they age. Tucker took 2nd out of 5! We were thrilled with that result. The judge said all these males had good bites. For Tucker she said that he was not as dense as first place, but he has a soft handle and uniform crimp. We are very excited to start his breeding career this year. With a 2nd, this added another color championship for J to show it. Thankfully Tucker's class was the last to show, and the color championship was right after.

Last to show was Lightning Bugs. It was said that there were 60 juvi white males there! Of course they were split into group, each section had 11 or 12 in it. Bugs was in the first section to show because he is an old juvi (birth date in May, he is almost a yearling). Being that 5 in his class got the gate (no ribbon) we were happy to have him get 4th. We had hoped for more, being that the judge pulled him up to the placing line first, but then she moved them around. White is said to be the hardest class to show in. There are many reasons for this, part of it is because white fleece was improved upon the most in Peru because that is what the European textiles wanted. It also has happened that farms in the US specialize in white and have invested a lot improving the white fleece. Given how colors work, white is dominate, which increases the number of white ones born. Also, given there were 60 in his class, you can see how much more competion there is in that then that 12 in Shelby's class. With that many more of them, there are bound to be some very good ones. Bugs got 4th out of 11 in his class.

Overall we had a great time at the show and are excited to brag about our wonderful babies. Those hard decisions on which alpaca to buy is coming to fruition in how these cria are showing. Given that the reason we bought the moms had to do with these little ones (and their sire), we are excited to see our choices play out in the show ring.

Lightning Bugs is going to go with Ashton Stone Alpacas to show in the spring Michigan show. It is a level 2 show, much smaller than the 2 shows we've done this spring. We wanted to get our alpacas out to some very competitive shows, and have been able to do that. Males seem to benefit most from more exposure. Girls only produce 1 alpaca a year so some exposure and ribbons is great, but males need that background to help when it comes time to sell breedings. For this reason we wanted to get Bugs to another show, and one in Michigan is great because it's easiest to do drive-by breedings with local farm. Exposure to Michigan breeders is ideal. Bugs has at least a year before he starts his breeding career, but it's nice to have some ribbons and exposure beforehand, rather than the situation we are with Tucker having had no previous exposure. That will be it for our spring show season. We are sad to see it ending, as we do enjoy the shows.

Now onto waiting for crias to be born :) I'm watching those tickers at the bottom of the page very closely. Sancha is already considered full term, so any day now. Though, given Bugs was born on day 356, and the ticker is set to day 350, I think it will be a bit before she delivers (the ticker gives us about 5 weeks). J wonders if she might deliver earlier this year because we have Sancha's weight up. We have been feeding her a lot more and making sure she won't be as thin as last year. We will see. I'm eager to see our Lord Stanley baby. And now that the moms are back by our house, we will be able to watch those cria all the time.

Show set up

Every show has a slightly different set up. Most of them have panels already in formation, you are then assigned a number that matches a pen that is for your animals. Some shows require that you bring panels, but that is less common. The ones we have been too have all provided panels. They also provide a bag of cardboard shreads. The idea is that you put the cardboard shreads down for your animals to lay on, and it will soak up urine etc. The Michigan fall show usually has sod laided down, but all the other ones we've been to have the shreaded cardboard. Many farms also buy matts to put down in their pen too. The first show we went to we had sod, then put our matts on top of the sod. This was a dissaster. We came in the next morning to our alpacas laying in poop. It was horrible! After talking to some bigger farms, we were told that putting straw down is best because it will cover the poop and the straw falls off the alpacas on their walk up to the show ring. Some venues do not allow straw due to fire hazzard issues. At the Best of the Midwest show in Ohio, straw was allowed. There we put the shreaded cardboard down first, then a matt, then a bale of straw. This worked great! The urine went through the straw and mat and was soaked up by the shreaded cardboard. The poop was hiden by the straw (we did scoop up what we could, but we did not come in to find our alpacas laying in and covered in poop). At the Indiana Invitational straw was not allowed. There we put our matt down first, then the shreaded cardboard, using it like straw. We bought an extra bag of the shreaded cardboard so we had 2x as much. This worked well, not as good as the straw set up, but we didn't walk in to find poop covered alpacas.

We have also found that the earlier you sign up for a show, the closer your pen stall is to the show ring. The prime pens are for the farms that sponsor the event, but the next nicest ones go to the early birds who sign up fast. We were not one of the first to sign up so at the Indiana show we had a pen near a back corner. However, we were by the photographer, and we did seem to get quite a bit of traffic.

We've found that shows vary greatly in the amount of foot traffic. I don't know if some venues advertise to the public more or how this happens. At the Best of the Midwest we saw very little foot traffic. At the Indiana Invitational we saw a lot of foot traffic. Even though our stall was near the back corned, we had Tucker there who is taller than most of the other show animals and his face is striking so we had a lot of people stop and look at him.

I'm a great-grandma

That's what Emma tells me anyway. Her cat, Fluffy, had kittens this past weekend. We came home from the show to find 2 little kittens in a box safely tucked behind Fluffy. This is Fluffy's third litter, but none of the others have survived. This time Fluffy is being very careful not to leave their side. I'm a bit worried about her because she won't even leave the box to eat or drink. I've been putting food up next to her to get her to eat. She needs her strength.

April 15th update:
I'm sorry to have to say that neither of the kittens made it. I really thought this time they would. Fluffy was so attentive. On Sunday we found one of them in the box with Fluffy, but taking her last breaths. We don't know if there was a fatal birth defect, or if she suffered some injury (could she have fallen out of the box and hit her head?), we don't know what happened. J tried to revive her but it was not to be. I wanted to move the box with the remaining kitten in case it was an injury from falling. I did not want to risk that happening again (the box was set on top of a stack of hay bails). However, when I tried moving the box, Fluffy refused to go into it with the kitten. That remaining kitten would not have survived even a few hours without it's mom. So, knowing that Fluffy was already mourning the loss of one baby, I kept the box in it's place in hopes she would not reject the remaining kitten. Fluffy did get back in the box and I prayed it would be ok. The next morning I found Fluffy in the box and the one remaining kitten doing well. I waited a day, then moved the box to a lower location. Fluffy went into the box with the kitten and it seemed ok, however, the next time I came to the barn, the kitten was missing. Fluffy cries and cries when I come into the barn, but I have no been able to locate the missing kitten. I assume it has also passed on. Without Fluffy's constant care it could not make it on it's own.

This is one reason why having barn cats isn't the best idea. I know there are dangers out there, and there are consequences of having a barn cat. We do need to have Fluffy fixed so that she is not going through this. I hate to see the loss of life.

I have wondered if Fluffy passes on a type of genetic birth defect that account for why none of her kittens survive. There has to be some reason none of them survive. I have read that maybe 40% of all kittens born do not make it to weaning, but for none of Fluffy's to make it seem rather harsh odds. I also find it odd that her litters are all very small (first litter was only 1, the next 2 were litters of 2). If not a birth defect, it may be some other issue at play. I've read things like Feline leukemia virus infections can cause stillbirths and fading kittens (sort of like SIDS in humans). We have never seen Fluffy give birth, it is possible there are stillbirths along with the live kittens. It seems there are a number of reasons why this could be happening. Sad none the less.