The watchers become the watched.

In this episode I share a few stories that illustrate how alpacas pay close attention to us and if we do the same we can let them teach us where we are going wrong and how we can improve as we interact with them.

What is your greatest lesson an alpaca has taught you?

Let me know through by sending me a voice message using the button on the website or here:
Send me a voice message

We ran our first Farm Open Day a few weeks after we had our alpacas arrive. Our faithful friends were interested in seeing them and we were happy to share our delightful new arrivals. We have learnt a lot over the years - mostly how to do it better - here Steve Heatherington shares some of that hard-won experience to hopefully help you get a good start, if you are thinking of having your own Open Day.

SCALE

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

WELFARE

OFFERINGS

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

CONTINGENCIES

PACKING UP

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk

https://squareup.com

https://farmsunday.org/

OPEN FARM SUNDAY INFO PACK - very good resource

https://farmsunday.org/uploads/homepage-slides/2019-LOFS-Information-Pack-FINAL.pdf

There are many things that can produce that "oh I wish I had one of those!" For me, that includes a good barn - and sometimes flat fields.

What might catch your attention and produce that response? Here I share some musings on the theme of barns and how we might use them.

• An overhang to the roof can be really nice, creating a dry shelter outside area that alpacas will just love and make use of.
• enough doorways and access points to create smaller catch pens and a logical and efficient workflow (or animal flow)
• Spae enough to bring them all in and a bit extra for the occasional temporary hospital wing.

You can dream but generally, we need to get good at managing with what we have got. Having said that, I think if we moved house I would have a very different desirable traits checklist for our new house compared to last time. Alpacas will do that to you.

Fortunate to inherit a stable block I have been working in this space with my alpacas for 11 years. I am still trying to perfect the flow-through, given its size and shape. You have no doubt heard the old joke about "If you are trying to get there, I wouldn't start from here". Make do and mend is your best option but just now and again you get the chance to start with a clean slate.

What about you? What would your ideal barn look like? Let me know through by sending me a voice message using the button on the website or here:
Send me a voice message

A full hay store does the heart good.

Alpacas are amazing at fitting into a smaller space than you would expect - they seem to have "friends' and family that they will share space and the food bucket with but others, definitely not. Enough space for feeding and cushing will avoid them getting fractious.

A good barn or stable is a great tool for helping you manage your alpacas but it is amazing what you can achieve with a bit of ingenuity and flexibility. And remember, Thou shalt not covet your neighbour's alpaca barn"!

Have a good week.

What do you see?

Some see a strange alien creature; some see a pet; a fibre producer - or cloud on legs; others see a potential show champion.

I see fascinating friends.

Take a closer look and you will be rewarded. Look in the eyes, check what is happening with the ears and nose. The feet and body position and tail all communicate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01q4clh

CONFIDENT OWNERS

Confidence will allow you to get started, overcoming inertia.

Know-how; Know-what; Know-why.

Alpaca owners are life-long learners. It is OK to question.

Five confidence builders:

Courses

Think back to what attracted you to alpacas originally. Capture it again and pursue it. You can change your mind along the way.

What is your aspirational horizon? Take ownership and go for it – grow your self into a fulfilled owner.

Hobby or business it is you and your fulfilment, your flavour, your preference.

Ideas of things you can do with and relating to your alpacas:

tourism

Alpaca Chat Facebook Group

Alpaca First Facebook Group

Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

Victoria Barrett – animal-assisted interventions training

I hope your summer is progressing nicely and the hot weather is being okay for you.

My alpacas seem to be spending a lot of time in the stable in the cool – and I like that idea myself.

If you’re a regular listener, you will know we are doing a shorter format for the summer. In this episode, I want to share some thoughts about something that is at the heart of Alpaca Tribe, Alpaca Tribe is for alpaca people of whatever kind. You’re all welcome. Having said that, our aim behind what we’re doing here is particularly to help promote confident and fulfilled owners of happy and healthy alpacas.

****Happy alpacas

Let me ask you, what does a happy alpaca look like? It’s easy to anthropomorphize and say that “Alys looks like she’s smiling today”. Well, I know that some alpacas have a face and mouth that looks like they’re permanently smiling. But what I’m talking about really, is way beyond that.

There are times when I know that my alpacas are happy. The level and intensity of humming is a giveaway that when the opposite is true. Generally, a quiet alpaca is a happy alpaca, or at least not an unhappy one. In the valley here, where we are, we have a lake and the alpacas love to sit in the water, particularly in the ford area by the bridge. There is not enough room for them all, so they have to queue up. As they get their turn and settle down into the water. There is a subtle lifting of the head and leaning back slightly. There isn’t quite an audible sigh, but to my eyes, at least there seems to be a look of bliss. “Oh yes, that’s better”. Is that a happy alpaca? I think so.

When being fed, there are more smiling opportunities. Some of the girls in particular just love their food. Usually, the sound changes when the food goes in the troughs and there is just a slight rattling sound as they work their way down the trough hoovering up the dried food, especially in the winter, when we tend to give the girls some extras of flaked peas, which they tend to take out first.

The same when we open up a new bale of hay they just love.

**Healthy alpacas

Of course, this doesn’t just mean the absence of illness. Health is encouraged and promoted by a range of preventative actions and by an adequate supply good food and water, plus the interventions of vaccinations, worming and vitamin supplements as necessary.

Good food by which I’m thinking of soft leafy hay, a measure of dried feed to provide the trace elements necessary for health and well-being Feeding is a whole topic of its own really, with different demands for breeding females fibre producers, growing cria, etc, etc.

We can’t always do everything to optimize each mouthful, but if we learn about nutrition, we can do right and do well by our charges. I hope to return to the topic of feed and nutrition in a later episode.

The mechanisms of healthy balance can be difficult to discern, but make a good target for us to be aiming at.

Happy and healthy alpacas

If you have any comments questions or suggestions for future topics do let me know by emailing [email protected] or use the link on the website to leave me a voice message.

Thanks for being with me on the journey and see you again soon.

-Steve Heatherington

LINKS

It can be difficult to choose the right animals and remember in a way you are buying the breeder too - at least their support and knowledge to help you as you start on an alpaca journey. Be hungry to learn and keep watching your new charges as they teach you.

Hermione; Nicola; Lalana; Juno and Scylla. We took a while to narrow down on our final selection but got there in the end and have had no regrets. If you are going through the process, take your time; engage your head; and then engage your heart. They are likely to be with you for a long time!

As summer progresses, take some time out to walk the paddocks looking for things that shouldn't be there - in particular weeds and poisonous plants. Now is a great time to be digging up ragwort - at least in our neck of the woods. Catch them before they set seeds because then you will not see them so clearly and one year's seeds, seven year's weeds.

I have a question for you - "What is your favourite thing about keeping alpacas?"

Let me know through the usual channels or even better try out the recording link on the website - you get to leave me a voicemail without using a phone! How cool is that. You can also leave me any comments or questions.

Also, if you are enjoying the podcast, please share it with someone.

Have a great day!

Show Notes

Cria birthing is one of my favourite times of the year. It also comes with a frisson of both excitement and anxiety. Familiarity with numbers of births can help reduce the anxiety but at least for me doesn't lessen the excitement.

As you wait for the expected - active inactivity - it is a lovely time for herd watching. Alpacas can be great time wasters.

If you are in the middle of cria-watch yourself, I hope you are in the right place at the right time and enjoy the excitement without too much anxiety.

Millie - to lead, you don't always have to know where you are going. Sometimes it is just enough to step up and be the leader that you are.

Megan - make good friends, you are going to need them, and they will need you. There is only one Megan; there is only one you

Mair - As important as it is, don’t always put food (or your feet) first. Know what is important and stick to it.

I didn’t know that I had a shepherd in me until we had alpacas - what do you not know that is in there waiting to be expressed?

The journey continues by keeping your eyes and ears open; growing relationships; and having the posture of always learning.

Alpacas may not be your metaphor for life but they certainly are mine and maybe I have made you think enough to find your own metaphor for your journey through life. And maybe it is alpacas...

Book by Marty Mcgee-Bennet Llamas and Alpacas as a metaphor for life

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Llamas-Alpacas-Metaphor-Bennett-2003-04-24/dp/B019NRJDE4/ref=sr_1_3?crid=17B87TYI9Q04X&keywords=marty+mcgee+bennett&qid=1562171648&s=gateway&sprefix=marty+mcgee%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-3

6 months of weekly episodes. You will have your own favourites but here are some of the bits I really liked. This time we consider getting to know your alpacas and making amazing things with the fleece - small and large scale.

With time stamped links to the episode the featured guests first appeared on.

Time stamp Guest Episode