you'll love alpaca yarn and products as much as we love our alpacas
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In November of 2014 we brought home our first 4 alpacas and have been in love with these animals ever since.
I love animals! As a child growing up in Washington state, our family always had a small farm with poultry and livestock. My husband Stuart was converted to a” farm life lover” while in college. Through our years together we've had chickens and peafowl, but I couldn't convince Stuart to add livestock. He didn't want "cow poop" on his pristine pastures. That all changed in 2014 when we met alpacas. We both fell in love with their grace, beauty, magnificent fiber, and big, beautiful eyes!
In the summer of 2014, we met an alpaca farmer at a craft fair and convinced them to sell us 4 bred females. We embarked madly into “alpaca farm preparation”! Fences were built, and the barn was converted from junk storage to “future alpaca home”. We cleared the vines and weeds from the pasture, found a hay supplier, and a vet. I purchased medical supplies, halters, lead ropes, feeders and other farm stuff.
In November 2014 Trinity, Mocha, Tina and Liberty arrived. The next September we welcomed 3 more alpacas onto our farm - Trinity birthed a female we named Honey because she was the color of honey, Tina birthed Cappuccino, a beautiful chocolate brown girl, and Liberty birthed Spot - a male that was off-white with one brown spot on his left back leg.
Between 2014 and today we’ve learned a lot about alpacas. They are genuinely sweet. Even the shy standoffish ones can be “won over” with love and patience. Even the grouchy couple inclined to kick or spit if annoyed. I’ve learned to get blood samples, give injections, trim alpaca toenails, blow the dust and dirt out of their fiber, perform wellness checks, milk an alpaca, bottle feed a cria, evaluate poop for parasites, and drive the tractor.
They are truly therapeutic. We love to sit and watch them graze. Walking through the pasture at sundown passing out treats and grain; scratching a neck here and there, seeing our reflection in their warm, expressive, big dark eyes. It is peace personified.
From our alpaca fiber we produce beautiful alpaca yarn and products that we sell. We offer stud services, and will offer young animals for sale, usually around 1 year of age.
Some Fun
ALPACA FACTS
HISTORY
Alpacas appeared initially in the Northern Hemisphere and migrated across the Bering strait to South America. Alpacas and other camelids were the most important resources of ancient peoples in South America. Cloth was currency to these people. A person’s social status could be easily seen in the quality of his clothing – what fibers were used to weave the fabric. The Spanish Conquest almost wiped out 90% of the fine alpacas being bred by ancient cultures. In the 1980s alpacas started being imported to the United States. Huacayas were the first imported, and Suris arrived about 10 years later.
ANATOMY / HABITS
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Alpacas come in two types, Huacaya and Suri.
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Alpaca pregnancy lasts between 11 and 12 months.
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They live about twenty years.
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They are ruminants – they have 3 stomachs and chew a cud.
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Alpacas weigh between 100 and 200 pounds and stand about 36 inches at the shoulder.
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Alpacas have split feet with pads on the bottom like dogs and toenails in front.
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Alpacas do not have teeth in their upper palette.
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Alpacas’ lower teeth have to be trimmed because they keep growing. Alpacas are some of the most efficient eaters in nature. They won’t overeat and they can get 37% more nutrition from their food than sheep can.
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Alpacas usually poop in the same place. They line up to use these communal dung piles.
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Alpacas hum. This is an outward display of emotions.
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Alpacas pronk when happy. This is a sort of bouncing, all-four-feet-off-the-ground skip like a gazelle might do.
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Male alpacas orgle when mating with females. This sound actually causes the female alpaca to ovulate.
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Alpaca babies are called crias, and they are usually born before noon.
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Alpacas come in at least twenty natural colors, this is more natural colors than any other animal.
GREEN ASPECTS
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You can keep far more alpacas on the same amount of land then sheep because they are more efficient eaters.
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Because of alpacas’ padded feet, they are easier on the pasture and thus create less erosion and runoff.
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Alpacas are healthy grazers and do not decimate natural vegetation like goats nor pull up plants by the roots like cattle.
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Alpacas weigh much less than livestock such as cows. Alpacas weigh between 100-150 pounds, compared to cattle that can weight a 1,000 pounds. Easier on the pasture land.
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Alpaca beans (poop) make wonderful fertilizer and it is easy to collect based on communal herd dung piles.