Big boys and little boys

I'm under strict instructions to take things easy so I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to tell you a bit of whats been happening.

The sun has made a welcome appearance, although it seems to have been replaced today by frequent hail and snow showers and a howling gale!

We decided to put the two groups of boys together last week, usually the adolescent boys don't join the stud boys until after shearing when everyone looks and smells different and they go into a new field for another distraction.

However as we were moving the studs into a new field and seeing as they are all very well behaved we gave it a go  We have a few boys who will start their working life this year, including Supreme Champion Thor, double fawn Champion Zoom and another of our white champions Linus, all unrelated and with very exciting genetics and fleeces (introductory discounts will be available on these boys so please get in touch if you are interested).

All went very well, it was head down munching....

With the odd bit of posing...

Until Loki remembered the burried wall, it makes a fantastic posing platform!

Loki is very proud of his tackle and likes to flash it to anyone and everyone, particularly Golden Guinea who is the boss.

Guinea tends to ignore the other boys for so long and every now and again reminds them he's the boss!

Frequent followers to our blog and twitter (@barnacrealpacas) will be aware that we also have a few sheep here too.  Lambing isn't supposed to begin until 17th April, well after the NWAG show however someone seems to have forgot to mention it to this little cutie who arrived on Sunday from Bella one of our Texel girls.

There is also a pair of blackie twins on the top of the hill who have managed to avoid the camera so far.  I love birthing season; alpacas start next month too :-)

Work Experience and job week

I'm pleased to hear my last blog went down well, so I thought I'd better make sure I didn't leave it long before I did the next one before I am in trouble again!

We are so busy what with one thing and another it's difficult to find the time to fit in sitting at the computer, but here I am whilst I have a cup of tea and sneak one of Paul custard creams whilst he's not here.

I've had a lovely young girl called Lucy here for some work experience for a few days which was great, she's wanting to become a vet and off to uni later in the year.

It's the second time Lucy has been and she is great, first job on our list was to get the littlies weaned.  I have to say they have been a great bunch so far and with a couple of exceptions, Khaleesi and Xanthe.....

.......... they have all been good.  They did crack it in then end though!

We like to get them used to walking on all surfaces and coming across different things so someone always accompanies me and on this occasion Lucy) to the post box.  Selkis and Aryana are so friendly and happy to explore they love a stroll down the drive.

I also like to halter train them to walk onto the scales which always makes life easier in the future as some of the older girls and purchased girls do find the scales a bit of a scary experience!

Whilst Lucy was here all the girls got weighed and wormed and had a pedicure where required.  Other than the usual drama queens it went quite well and for the first time ever we managed to weigh Venus (nickname crazy horse!) who was a hefty 80.4kg.

Porker award went to Vitoria who came in at 99.4kg although with a bit of luck she's pregnant.  

Lucy also got to do the oral AD&E paste which all the littlies are happy to take.

It wasn't all hard work she did get to play on Paul's toy, although I don't think he realises us girls don't find it as much fun as he does!

Bottle feeding is a much more fun job if you ask me!

Weaning continues, I've added another four to the line of bums, they do have more troughs these two are just the favourites!

Arty, Pixie, Pandora and Stella have all settled in nicely although Stella has made it quite clear that she doesn't think she should have been stopped from having her bottle and had a few stroppy tantrums initially!  

That just leaves the youngest two cria Oscar and Peaches to wean along with tiny Nelson, Slug and Eclipse who are on a go slow.  They will be all weaned by the end of the month though with a bit of luck.