Spring 2016

Last year’s cria are full of fleece, and mommas are heating up in all their fleece. All are ready to lose their winter coat next week. So ready to see this year’s cria.

Holy fiber Kinross! Look at that coverage! And a gray background to boot.

Kinross, Frankie and Raj

Cute little Flecha

Pretty little Vega

Marigold Smiling For the Camera.

Shiny yetti

Bay black Raj

Chip is growing up. Look at that fleece coverage! He can't wait to get that fleece out of his eyes, and I can't wait to see what's underneath!

Hot boys!

Primrose is due later this month. Can't wait to see what's in there. With her gray background and bred to jet black Jasper.

Praline is due with her first. Bred to Leo as she has a strong gray background

Cute little Marigold

Poor GiGi can't wait to get the fleece off, then yo lose the pregnant belly.

FloJo is expecting her first cria bred to rose gray Leo

Should have a great bunch this  year too.

2015 births complete

What a great birthing year! 9 healthy and beautiful cria born. Didn’t get any grays, but lots of other fun and unexpected colors. Can’t wait to see how they grow. 

Meet Yetti out of Cammie and Chacho. Love his beautiful locks. This pair makes some great babies.

Meet Kinross out of Abby and Chops. Was hoping for gray, but he’s a nice looking guy.

Need a name yet for this pretty girl, Out of Gabby and Tupelo.  This is Gabby s last baby as she’s now 17 years old and we feel she needs a break. What a great cria to end with!

Still working on a name for this sweet guy. He’s out of Media and Tupelo. He has such a pretty head, and love his little star.

Meet Frankie out of Emily and Chops. Has been so nice to see Emily as a mom. She’s a great mom and now she doesn’t have to try to steal a baby from the other moms.

Meet Raj out of Antigua and Masada. Didn’t expect black from Antigua, and he’s a beauty, such great crimp in his black fleece.

Meet Flecha out of Cora and Aysen. This is Cora’s first cria and she’s such a good mom. Was so glad to have a girl from her.

Meet Marigold out of Tiger Lily and Aysen. 3rd girl for Lily!!  Must be Aysen ‘ s color this year, may have a hard time telling her from Flecha.

Last, but most definitely not least meet Gigi ‘ s new little guy.This is the first cria from Manassa and How fun is he! He is fawn with black, brown and dark fawn spots, also some white. Will be fun to see how he develops. Can’t wait to see more Manassa babies next year!

3 down 6 to go- come on babies!

Cora's cria

Abby's cria up front, Cammie's in the back

Cammie started out the spring births, she was 2 weeks early and had a white 21 pound boy. Very happy to have a live birth for her this year, she lost last year’s baby. He was 25 pounds and stillborn so glad this one was early.

Abby was next to go. We were hoping for a gray as she was bred to a gray, but he’s a cute fawn boy with gray genetics. Difficult birth as was upside down with both legs folded back, came out nice and Vigerous. 

  Cora had a beautiful solid med brown girl. So excited everything went well. For a first baby she made it look easy. Again was hoping for gray, but it’s a nice looking girl with a different tone of brown, maybe she’ll change, just need to wait and see. 

    So Now Down To 6 Left.  Hoping to see some more girls 🙂
   Emily is 3 weeks over due. She’s my last hope this year for gray, and she’s making me wait for it. 
    Media is 2 weeks over due. She’s bred to Tupelo- excited to see the result.
    Antigua is due on Wednesday. She’s bred back to Masada. Loved her friendly guy Sheldon last year, hoping for a girl version of Sheldon.
    Gigi is due next week. She is huge as usual. Hoping for an easy birth this year for her. Last year was a breech baby girl who did not make it also excited to see this baby, it will be Manassa’s first cria.
    Lily is due next week also. She’s rebred to Aysen. So far 2 girls for her, hoping she continues that streak.
     Gabby is also due next week. This will be her last baby as she’s 17 years old and we are going to retire her. Hoping for a girl. She’s bred to Tupelo.

Spring 2015

So far we have 2 new cria. Both boys again! One white Suri and one fawn Huacaya so far.  We were hoping for a gray out of abby, but after a difficult birth we’re ok taking a nice lively cria.  7 more to go this month of June.  Emily, Media and Cora are all overdue.  Antigua is due next week, then Lily, Gabby and GiGi are at the end of the month. 

Abby with her new cria

Cammie enjoying some sun with her new little guy

Children’s health fair 2015

Beautiful weather for the health fair this year. Lots of fun!

Spring is here!! (We hope)

As the weather finally warms up my thoughts are on the cria on the way. Very excited to see what appears after almost a year of waiting. All the animals weathered the cold winter well, and are now enjoying the warmer days.

We had some sales recently and while it’s hard to see them go we are excited to share our babies with others, and allow the new owners to experience the joy of alpaca ownership.

With the warmer weather also comes the time for spring cleanup, adding and repairing fences and shelters, and of course shearing. so we’ll have plenty to do while waiting for the new arrivals. 

So HAPPY SPRING

To everyone!

2014 Michigan Alpacafest

Prim and Premo both came home from the 2014 Michigan international Alpacafest with Blue ribbons! Thank you to Bob and Nel for showing them for us. What a great result for their first show. Stay tuned for the spring shows in 2015!

Fall is here

Primrose and Premo getting ready for Michigan International Alpacafest

Premo

Primrose

The Michigan International Alpacafest is coming up in less than two weeks. The two yearling Suris are going- Premo and Prim. So the preparations are going full force this week. Went for a 2 mile walk with them in the woods today, longest we’ve gone with them. They did pretty well. Definitely getting much better.

This year we are breeding the 3 new Suris for cria next fall. This is new for us we usually just breed in the spring. Don’t want to wait a year and a half to see what they produce, a year is long enough.   Add this to  the usual farm work and it’s been quite the busy fall so far. Enjoying the nice weather this week and hoping it stays for awhile.

2014 babies

Ended the year with 4 babies. 3 huacaya males- Mo, Yankee, and Sheldon. And 1 Suri female- Trillium. Also had our first losses this year, but moms have recovered well.

Mo is the dark male who was born during the Morel mushroom festival. He is out of Abby and Masada.

Yankee is the fawn male who was born on Memorial day. He is out of Gabrielle and Masada.

Sheldon is the brown male, no special day for him, but he’s special in his own way 🙂 He is out of Antigua and Masada.

Trillium is the white and fawn Suri female who was born on the 4th of July. She is out of Lily and Aysen. This is the first baby from Ace and I like what I see so far. Planing on repeating this combo for next year.

I am excited for next years babies already. Mixing things up with 5 studs. 2 are the same Suri boys, but for the huacayas we have 3 new ones. 2 are proven studs, but new for us, and the other is our almost 3 year old Manassa who will show us what he can do:) 2 are black, and a gray one. Using the same studs for the Suri’s but our rose gray Suri Cora is ready this year 🙂 So hoping for some awesome colored crias next year!!!

Ups and downs on the farm.

Has been a sad week here on the farm. We have always been lucky to have mostly easy births with our girls, and had never lost any babies.

With alpaca pregnancies lasting a year it’s a long wait to see the results of your breeding decisions. Then in the last weeks there is a lot of time monitoring for labor. Alpacas are stoic animals so most signs are subtle. It helps to know individual routines, but they can still trick you. It is lots of fun though to watch the babies move around inside and wonder what they will be. They can come in any color, and you never know what you’ll get. Then are they boys or girls?
So that’s what’s been going on the last 2 months, watching routines, bellies and bottoms for changes. This week though we’ve been reminded that there are never any guarantees. GiGi had a hard labor and we found that we had our first breech baby. She had her little back legs folded under her and there was no way she was going to f