Monday, May 11, 2015
Shearing day at Tanglewood Farm, is always a day full of surprises, and this year's was no different. I was still running around getting stuff prepared when my great helper, Shannon and shearers, Maegan and Mike arrived to start the day long activity to shear 27 alpacas. Echo, one of my older German Shepherds , was in the yard to greet them, and even Isaac, Maegan and Mikes oldest boy, who was scared of dogs, made friends with her.
I had not had time to move my male herd from their summe read more...
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Thursday, April 30, 2015
Tip number two. If you have trouble, and I have had, getting one of your alpacas to get onto the trailer, just bring two or three , then load the one you need on the trailer and bring the others back to the barn/pasture. Remember that these are herd animals, and it is often much easier to get one moving where you want it to be, when bringing several along. This also makes lead training much easier as well. I generally train two or three together with an animal that is already lead/halter b read more...
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Thursday, April 30, 2015
Sometimes you will want to move the entire male or female herd at one time. To make this go very quickly, I just get a metal pan, put some of their grain in there, and just rattle it a bit. It is amazing how well they can hear, and once they associate the rattle with grain, they will come, and very quickly. I have also clapped my hands together right before I rattle the grain, and it took no time at all for them to associate the clapping of the hands with the grain. As soon as I clap my hand read more...
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Friday, April 24, 2015
I will be posting tips for those new to alpacas, as I find time.
Here is tip #1Saving money.
My vet told me to re-use the syringes when giving monthly shots. Once I finish giving one animal its monthly meningeal shot, I just take off the needle, put a new one on, and fill it up with the required amount. This works great, except once in a while I drop a needle, so in that case, I just put a new one on. A box of syringes lasts a long time that way, especially when you have 27 or more a read more...
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Sunday, April 19, 2015
One of the best ways to market your farm and the products produced there, is to be visible at a farmer's market. Next week, Friday and Saturday,April 24th and 25th Tanglewood Farm and two of our alpacas will be at the new Crane Creek Farmer's Market in Mt. Orab on Eastwood Road, near Route 32. Hours are Friday through Sunday from two pm to seven pm. Since we generally have our farm store open on Saturdays and Sundays, starting in June, we will attend this market on Fridays and Saturdays in read more...
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Monday, March 2, 2015
After seeing all those people running and chasing the two Llamas that escaped several days ago, I had to think back to my own first days with my alpacas. I had just gotten my animals the day before, and I wanted them to come from the field into the enclosed area where their barn was. I had been told to get a 25 foot tape that Marty McGee uses and so I had that on hand. There was just one difficulty with that, I was the only person on the farm, and there was nobody to hold the other end of the read more...
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Tuesday, February 24, 2015
With the extreme weather we have been having this winter, I decided to do the deep bedding again this year. So the first thing was to get plenty of straw, and each day new straw is put on top of the poo piles in the barn. With so much snow on the ground, it is impossible to clean the poo like I normally do, and this also helps to keep the animals much warmer, as the composting poo helps to heat the barn. In addition, I also leave the barn lights on because the alpacas don't even want to stick read more...
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Monday, January 26, 2015
It was time to give the pacas their monthly shots and evaluations, and I was lucky to have a relatively warm day to do it. So got all the females and the crias done. Scale is not working and I suspect that the cord is broken somewhere because I put new batteries in. Will have to find a out if I can fix that or have it fixed somewhere. Have to do the males today, and the one bullheaded female, Tutu, who would not go into the small pen by the scale, no matter what I did.
We had about an read more...
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Saturday, January 10, 2015
So far, the cold weather does not seem to have affected my herd. They have all pretty much decided to stay in the barn, smart animals that they are, and nobody is shivering. They do have fresh straw every day and lots of good hay to munch on, as well as their Golden Blend Minerals. I also add Alfalfa and Beet Pulp pellets to their grain. They seem to love that, because it all disappears in a short time.
The water heaters are working, and I was able to fill the tanks up to the top yester read more...
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Monday, January 5, 2015
When you get sudden and dramatic temperature changes like we are currently getting, I make sure that tarps are up to cut down on the wind, and put extra straw down for all of the alpacas to cush in. They also require more water at this time, so I check the water tanks to make sure the heaters are doing their jobs. This makes the barn rather dark, so I leave lights on, even during the day. I use the floodlights that are led, and they don't use as much energy as the normal floodlights used to d read more...
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