Rearranging Alpacas

We have had our alpaca herd on our own place for nearly 3 months.

We built the minimum amount of infrastructure possible to bring the herd up, so we have only 3 corrals and loafing sheds for 3 groups.

• The Ladies: dams + maidens + nursing cria
• The Big Boys: older breeding, near breeding and gelded  males
• The Little Boys: younger males

This made a whole lot of sense to me when we started.  There was only one problem.  We had three cria that needed to be weaned and one was female.

We decided the younger boys were young enough to not realize that Frieda was a girl.  So we put the three cria into the corral with the two younger boys until the moms dried out.

The next question was, "How long does it take for the mom to stop lactating?"  The answer is definately longer than 2 weeks.

Last week, this weaning attempt had reached 6 weeks.  I realized that Frieda was now 9 months old and that Yoda was 2 1/2 years.  She is technically too young to breed, but not outside potential.  He is old enough and has showed some interest in our maiden, so I know he's getting close.

Since Hubba was at the Los Angeles Marathon, my mom came over and helped me catch and hold Frieda's mom so we could make sure she was dry before moving Frieda.

Fortunately Kocoa was dry and Frieda had a little halter training experience. 

She wasn't too excited about the halter at first, but agreed to come along.  Augustus (19 months) mounted her as we were leaving the corral.  He didn't know what to do at that point, but it was clear that he knew she was a girl.

My mom told Frieda, "That's why we're moving you today."

She seemed to understand and walked very easily to the Ladies' corral.

More Halter Training

Yesterday we spent a little time with our two youngest alpacas and the halter. 

Our smallest halters are still too big for these little guys, but I feel the sooner they get comfortable with being caught and haltered, the better it is for all of us.  So my goal was to have them stand quietly with the halter and lead in place.  Both Captain Jack and Eduardo reached that place as well as took a few steps when I asked them too.

Captain Jack, like his sister Daisy, was a bit of a drama queen at first.

Gus and Yoda came over to check on Jack, while Frieda and Eduardo watched.

Jack did relax.  He stood here for quite a while.  Then took a few steps on the lead.

The alpaca dog was not allowed to help.

Eduardo was second up, and took the halter very well.  He relaxed and started walking very quickly.  Perhaps watching Captain Jack helped him feel more comfortable.

A Little Halter Training

The weather was beautiful this weekend.  Most of the snow has melted (finally) and there is rain in the forecast.  There is still snow, but there IS rain in the forecast.

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and work with a few of our alpacas on a halter. 

These are pictures of Blue Mesa Yoda, one of our Junior Herdsires. 

Yoda is a Legacy grandson and Shockwave son.

He was quite interested in our girls.  Which is good since, we plan to breed him with Kocoa Moon in he fall.

Yoda is very easy to handle and stood quietly when I asked him too.