Quarter House Alpacas
November 08
Another highlight of the year took place in late October – luckily during a rare dry moment. We had all of the mated females scanned using a portable ultrasound machine. As you may recall, we can test whether a female has initially conceived using the 'spitting-off' routine, but there's many a slip twixt cup and lip, so we like to scan them to be sure. We have to wait 60 days at least until the foetus is big enough to be detected. It is always possible that a new foetus gets re-absorbed after initial conception, though nobody is quite sure why this sometimes happens, apart from a stressful episode for the mum possibly. It is always an exciting moment as the scanner reveals all, and we have never yet seen the results we expected. This time our old faithful Kim was declared 'empty' which was quite a surprise as she had 'sat then spat' in textbook fashion, though she is at least 12 years old now. A pleasant surprise however was to find that Philly was pregnant, since she is rather (to put it politely) on the large side (“half Alpaca half Suffolk Punch”). Her cria should be interesting especially if it inherits her remarkable personality. It was also a surprise to find that Fleur was pregnant, since she didn't conceive last year, and she is only a few months younger than Kim, but much smaller, though that doesn't stop her being the herd matriarch. We can now plan for 5 births next June/July, and we know which mums will be most in need of a break from their demanding cria when we wean them next Spring.
The mums & cria are all doing well now, and they had a treat recently when we left open the gate into the orchard. This small orchard had apparently been devastated in the Great Storm, so we replanted it a few years ago with a wide selection of old English apples and plums. The trees are still small, and most of the fruit goes to the wasps and the increasing number of hornets, but we had to build protective enclosures around them to protect them from larger pests. We constructed wooden frames about 5 feet high and covered them with chicken wire to keep out the rabbits and Alpacas, andthe sheep who borrow the orchard each year during lambing. The Alpacas still manage to nibble any stray branches, but on the whole it seems to work. When we recently planted an avenue of 50 Lombardy Poplars we tried another approach, and managed to find 6 foot high 'Tubex' tree shelters which are just tall enough to stop the Alpacas nibbling the tops off the saplings. We're hoping that by the time the trees burst out of their sheaths, they'll be thick enough and tall enough that the Alpacas can graze the lower branches without damaging the whole trees. The herd really enjoyed their brief munch of the new grass and leaves in the orchard, and it was a great sight to see the cria tearing about like excited children.