Sunday 14 December 2008

The nasty lady

I feel like the nasty lady today, we have weaned the first batch of this years cria today. It's a job I really don't like doing, I remember how much I missed my mum when I moved away!!

As I expected the girls made the most noise, Lualeni and Sienna didn't want to leave their mummy's. It was also the two girls mums who were the most concerned by their daughters being taken away. We have also weaned Horatio, Barnaby and Aodhfin who were slightly less bothered initially. I'm sure Mary will miss Horatio tonight as they always snuggle up close.

The cria have gone back into one of the paddocks behind the house for a week or so, so that I can keep a close eye on them. They were happy munching the nice grass when we first put them in there but by mid afternoon they had remembered that they wanted some milk and were all humming away. Lualeni and Aodhfin were chasing round looking for their mums. Aodhfin came to see if I had any milk when I went to give them their tea, having checked round my legs he thought he would try my nose.

By the time it was the main herds tea time the respective mums had all seemed to have forgotten they had youngsters this morning. They can all now concentrate on the babies growing inside them.

We have finally got the roof on the additional shelter we were building. It is now fully function albeit still needing a few finishing touches. With the very short days and Paul working all hours I'm not quite sure when said final touches will get done.

3 comments:

Patou Alpacas said...

Ah weaning, a sad time but a necessary one. We'll be weaning ours soon but I am not looking forward to it.
Still a couple of months and it will all be over!

Anonymous said...

hello Debbie, Its not very nice having to wean the babies, but you know it has to be done eventually, but it does,nt make you feel any less guilty for doing it.

Debbie, Barnacre Alpacas said...

Thanks for your kind comments, I still feel like the nasty lady though! At least the babies are still my friend.