Chicken chaser.

Autumn Golds growing pains get the better of her in the evening, and she just loves to chase a chicken - don't worry, the chicken got away!

What a lovely weekend - hot and sunny here. Trimmed the hedge between garden and field.

Thoughts turning to land management regarding herd development - we only have an acre and a bit, and five girls now. If we mate Pela and Minnie now, and get another two next summer, and then mate the four girls we currently have which should be capable next summer, then next summer/autumn we may be over-using our resources with seven animals. Need to look into what agistment involves - it's a word I've seen bandied about alot, but without any clarification.

A midwifes tale.

They need help coming out it seems every time,
Their mamas are distressed and nothings going fine.
I put on my gloves and wade into the fray,
That baby's coming out and it's coming out today.

She keeps humming a song for her baby to hear,
Come out my baby while the weather is clear.
I put on my gloves and wade into the fray,
Come on little baby, it's a lovely day.

She strains and she wanders while the others all graze.
She rolls in the dirt it's just another phase,
I put on my gloves and wade into the fray,
Give a little pull, and baby's on its way;

It's another birth, both are doing fine,
Baby's standing up, it's a very good sign.
She nuzzles close to Mama, looking for a teat,
Her tail drops down, and the bonding's complete.

by Mrs. Smallholder.

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

Autumn (below) has been putting on weight steadily - last night at dusk, as the moon was rising they were chasing around, even 'Auntie' Moira. A welcome bit of warm sunshine most of today.

We realised how much Ambrosia (top) has grown when Autumn arrived, and we had a comparison - she is twice the size.

Can you take too many photos of your 'pacas? As with your children, their constantly changing poses, positions, interactions with each other and their surroundings provides an infinite range of possibilities - only the time you have available to watch them limits the moments you can capture...

Teat a' teat.

You've got to laugh - further to previous blog, it's been pointed out that male alpacas have four teats as well! So just to reassure readers, we have looked elewhere to confirm that Autumn is indeed a lady.

Here is a picture of Pela's first breakfast as a Mum, with Autumn beside her - as with Minnie on the first morning as a new Mum, she wouldn't come to feed at the shelter with the others, so I took it out in the open. Once they have the responsibility of a cria, they are wary at first. It's fascinating to watch the behavioural development - Pela would normally have been first to the feed shelter.

This morning however, she came to the shelter, but Autumn kept wandering off with youthful exhuberance, so Pela kept turning and calling her, which meant that she couldn't eat, so I took the bucket outside, so that she could watch Autumn while she ate!

It's rained all day here (much as everywhere I am sure), so this evening they were glad to see the clouds roll back, and left the shelter to do some evening grazing. Ambrosia is delighted to have a playmate, and the two of them charge about together. Ambrosia is in the foreground above - from being the baby, she's suddenly changed to being the 'teenage' sister, and is twice the size of Autumn.

Autumn in Summer!

Yes, yesterdays weather was like that, but Pela delivered her cria, Autumn Gold this afternoon, with a little assistance from ourselves.

After two and a half days of what seemed like intermittent labour, the final push for freedom came between 10 and 2 today. I think she spotted a pleasant gap in the weather.

After humming and restlessness for four hours, a nose and mouthed pushed out, but held this stage for 15minutes as we got more anxious, so just as I had entered the vets phone number to call for help, the front legs pushed through - head and legs dangled for what seemed too long, given the previous time of nose-protrusion, so we decided to assist - we caught her, and while I restrained her with the assistance of a fence post, Mrs. Smallholder had donned gloves and lubed-up, and pulled the legs, and out she slipped. "It's a boy", I was told, but after allowing ten minutes for scent familiarising, I went to sterilise the navel, and found four teats!

It's amazing how fast they develop in the first 8 hours or so - turn away and you miss something, and I feel that while I write this, I'm missing something. Having kept them in the lower paddock for the birth and to establish suckling, I've just opened the gate to the top paddock, and after the rest went through Autumn Gold and Pela went through - Autumn charged up to the brow of the hill, where we have views across the Levels "wow, so that's what you've all been talking about!" I'm sure she said (my Johnny Morris impersonation kicking in!).

So the naming theme is apples, and hence Autumn Gold.

Having been 'lucky' enough to witness our first two births, with the attendant anxiety and clock-watching, I can see the appeal of returning from a trip to the shops or break for lunch, to find a cria sitting in your field ready to go!

Pela-drama

Yesterday at 4.00pm, Mrs. Smallholder phoned me at work to say something was happening. In 5 minutes I was home. She had seen from a distance 'something' pointed had appeared out of Pelas rear, briefly, before going back in - we presumed it was a nose, or perhaps feet, still within the membrane. She wasn't interested in being caught for examination, but we got them into the shelter, and four fingers carefully probed 'inside' found nothing. We watched for over two anxious hours, consulted the vet, and our breeder and decided it was a false alarm, expecting things to happen this morning.

Watched regularly all morning, some humming, her tail regularly half raised, regular grazing, a few rests sitting but nothing much else to report.

Has anyone else seen an apparent 'squeeze' and peep outside, before back to normal?

Hey diddle diddle...

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, Moira jumped over the rest - I believe that this picture demonstrates the principal of the nursery rhyme, while we wait for Pela to give birth. Now that the girls have been shorn, I've been mowing the rest of the paddocks: docks, nettles and poo piles particularly.