Julies Alpacas: Mother's Day Hair Cuts

Shearing Day... oh so busy, 45 alpacas to give hair cuts to... but oh so much fun. Why?

Here in Adams County, southern PA, the month of May
can start to be quite warm.
Did you know that alpaca fiber
is 30% warmer than wool. How would you
like a warm alpaca coat in 70 degree weather?
So.......

We give them a hair cut to keep them
comfortable and healthy.

Shear

Collect

Plan

Take a look at all the fun....

Check over the heard

Then we stage the alpacas by bringing in a group from the field.

With all the people and confusion the girls didn't think they wanted anywhere near that barn.
A herding tape with lots of people helps to convenience them that they would rather be in the
barn then next to these crazy people.
A herding tape is just a nylon flat line
that they are able to see and know that they are to go in the opposite direction.
Alpacas always want an escape route, or the easy way out. In the barn
was their only way to escape, the easy way out, so that is the way they went.
Easy!

Once they are in the barn we put them
through some stations before they
see the shearer.

They need to be cleaned. No shampoo, just a vacuum with
John and ...........

Bonnie.

Bonnie uses a special tool to knock off the hay and other
unwanted material in the coat. While........

John uses the vacuum to get that deep down dirt. Notice the
hose is coming from over head. That is because the noisy vacuum
is up in the hay loft. It serves two purposes. One to keep the noise away
and more importantly it keeps the hose away from the alpacas' legs.
They really don't like anything near their legs.

While the cleaning is going on, we prepare four bags by writing the name of the animal, where the fiber came from and the year it is being harvested.
One bag is for the side sample that will be sent off the Yocom-McColl to measure for micron and evaluation of fiber in general.
One bag for the prime coat or sometimes called "firsts", that comes from the back where one would find a saddle on a horse.
Another bag for "seconds", which aren't as desirable and comes from the neck and belly.
Finally the "thirds" that come from the legs, less desirable of all.
All alpaca fiber is useful in some way. Not all is comfortable next to your skin.

Once finished with the cleaning, John
then brings the animal to the mat. Where ....

he meets up with Rick, the team member
that comes with the shearer, together
they gently lay the alpaca down and .....

restrain the legs. The alpaca is now ready
for her hair cut.

Yuck! Most of the time alpacas are very gentle and polite, but some just don't like to be touched. When they get really frustrated by us humans they will let us know by "spitting." If they are really mad they pull up some green stinky stuff from the bottom of their stomach and "spit," that and, boy, is that ever stinky. YUCK!!!!!!!

Besides getting a hair cut some of the alpacas get some other "herd health" things done, such as trimming toenails and getting shots for deworming.

Notice the restrains are tight. This is the
same on the front legs as well. Matt is going
to trim this alpaca's toe nails. Alpacas
have a pad on their foot more like a dog. They
have 2 toe nails on each foot. Matt will trim the
extra growth over the pad. This does not hurt the
alpaca. Just like cutting your nails doesn't hurt you.

Joanne is preparing the dectomax,
a deworming medicine to protect the
alpacas from the dangerous meningeal worm.
She is also writing down what is being giving,
good record keeping is important. Once Joanne
is finished filling the needle then ........

Linda will hand the shearer the
needle to administer the injection.

Are you ready to watch the shearing happening? Here is Mike Bickley. He comes all the way from Christchurch, New Zealand. What a pro.....

Jen collects the leg hairs. We like putting the leg hairs
in a white tie bag. The drawstrings act to hold all three
bags together. Each bag is labeled with the alpacas'
name, date and the location of where on the
alpaca the fiber came from.

It's important that the shearer and his team work together to hold the alpaca still while the shearing is going on.

Can you see the white alpaca face between Rick's feet?
Yes that is a sock hanging out of Rick's pocket. We use
a sock over the mouth of the alpacas that spit.

It's been a long day and we have a lot of skinny alpacas now. But remember no laughing as you might hurt their feelings.

We will need to comfort them.

Here is the alpaca everyone is waiting for...... Penny..... the last one of 45.

YEA!!!

Thanks Marty for your help.

Yea! we made it to the end. Thanks Keri.

Thanks Boys. The shearing dynamo!!!!!!
Mike, Matt, Rick

Thanks Phyllis, Brittney, Lee, and Kathy for helping in that hectic but so important fiber room.

Thanks Holly, and Roy
Thanks Joanne, Linda, Lynne, Jessica

Thanks John, Bonnie, Jen, Stacey, Heather, David

Thanks to all the visitors too. We had a most successful shearing day. Thanks to all that jumped in there to make it run so smoothly. Thanks to LaBella Italiana Restruant in Littlestown, PA for making some delicious food and to Kennie's Market in Littlestown, PA for the lunchtime salads.