Shearing Day 2008
Thanks to a suggestion by juffles in a comment to last year's shearing post, moving the alpacas from A to B wasn't as hard this year. He suggested we take advantage of a 7000-year-old invention called the wheel. Instead of endlessly lifting and carrying heavy fencing panels, we made one rolling yard and pushed it along with the alpacas and llamas inside. Two trips saw the whole herd in the shed.
Alpacas on the move!
Pushing the yard is like handling an enormous, unruly shopping trolley which changes shape at will and whose contents sometimes push back at you, but it was a thousand times easier than what we did last year. juffles, we can't thank you enough.
Due to the threat of rain, the shearer asked us to shed the animals overnight. I was unenthusiastic about this because I don't like to confine grazing animals, didn't want to unnecessarily upset Janie and her two-day-old cria, didn't want the mess in my shed, and also didn't want any interruption to my Wednesday House-watching plans (what? New fan here!), but we decided we'd better do as we were told.
Shed turned into a 1-star alpaca hotel
The carpet is partly to absorb some of the mess and partly so they don't slip on the concrete.
The mess after 14 hours inside
Nabil about to be shorn
(They're too big for the shearer to hold the way they do sheep, and tying them down this way prevents any struggling or cuts. They don't seem to mind too much or bear any grudges afterwards.)
Zareena being shorn
New cria waiting for Janie
4 month old cria Sabrina and Miranda after shearing
Done
Going home
Happy to be home
Cleanup job required
Alpacas on the move!
Pushing the yard is like handling an enormous, unruly shopping trolley which changes shape at will and whose contents sometimes push back at you, but it was a thousand times easier than what we did last year. juffles, we can't thank you enough.
Due to the threat of rain, the shearer asked us to shed the animals overnight. I was unenthusiastic about this because I don't like to confine grazing animals, didn't want to unnecessarily upset Janie and her two-day-old cria, didn't want the mess in my shed, and also didn't want any interruption to my Wednesday House-watching plans (what? New fan here!), but we decided we'd better do as we were told.
Shed turned into a 1-star alpaca hotel
The carpet is partly to absorb some of the mess and partly so they don't slip on the concrete.
The mess after 14 hours inside
Nabil about to be shorn
(They're too big for the shearer to hold the way they do sheep, and tying them down this way prevents any struggling or cuts. They don't seem to mind too much or bear any grudges afterwards.)
Zareena being shorn
New cria waiting for Janie
4 month old cria Sabrina and Miranda after shearing
Done
Going home
Happy to be home
Cleanup job required