Thursday 29 December 2011

New Chick Pics

Just a note on our growing chicks. They are now 2.5 months old - or 11 weeks old. In egg laying terms, that means they are halfway to laying eggs. Normally chicks will start laying eggs between 20-24 weeks. The larger chick continues to be much larger, but they are growing well.

In fact, we will be picking up some new leg bands for them to put on soon. I'm thinking they may be ready to go into the barn with the rest of the flock in the next couple weeks. They are all feathered out now, even under their wings and I'm getting tired of cleaning their cage out. 

The other really cool thing is being able to touch their combs. It has a really interesting feel, like soft plastic or rubber. Very cool!

Saturday 10 December 2011

New Alpacas

I travelled down to 100 Mile House to pick up 4 new alpacas. They are very nice fellows. We are having to keep them separate from the male llamas as well, just as a precaution to prevent any fighting. As these are all intact males, if I put them with the male llamas, the two herds will fight with each other for dominance. It can get very loud and I don't want to keep my neighbours up!

As these will be meat alpacas, they have been placed in our finishing pen. I am having second thoughts about one - he is a coal black colour - I'm going to name him Midnight. He has won a reprieve for a year because I want to be able to shear him - it's a great colour! For now he is going to stay with his herd.

I am really pleased with these boys - they have great temperaments and are in great condition. See for yourself! 

There is a white one, he is the largest right now, and then a mottled coloured one with the greatest eye colouring, a dark chocolate brown and then the black one. 

Picture of the four of them together exploring their new pen.

In the finishing pen we had our miniature horse, Benjamin, as the "babysitter" for the half dozen lambs that are in the pen. As soon as these new boys were in the pen, Benjamin got all snorty and started chasing them a bit. They then chased him in return. In disgust he rounded up his sheep and chased them into the barn and then he stood in the doorway and snorted at these interlopers. He finally allowed his sheep out but they had to stay by the barn while he ran up and down dividing the pen in half - alpacas in one half and sheep in the other. He finally let the sheep eat their dinner but kept a wary eye out on the alpacas. It was very cute, but not great behaviour on his part. We finally took Benjamin out and put him with the main herd of sheep and llamas so that the alpacas could eat.

We had planned on moving Benjamin closer to the big horses anyway, so this just happened a couple days early for him. And now, everyone is quiet, fed and resting comfortably! Yeah!
This is Midnight - the one we are keeping a little longer.
I think he's lovely!





Thursday 1 December 2011

Update on the Chicks

The chicks continue to grow and do well. They are in a bigger cage now - moved from the guinea pig cage to a rabbit cage. They are taking handling really well and love to wander around on my shoulder - this could be a problem in 5 more pounds! But really handy for taking them to any fairs and events.

This is the little girl





Their colouring is really starting to come in. As you can see in the pictures although they are both black and white, it's not a true Bard Rock colouring and one of them is blacker than the other. There is still a significant size difference but I am now fairly confident they are both hens. Anyway, a few pics of the growing girls!



lighter colouring on this one
and a pretty pattern


you can kind of see the size difference
between them here


Darker colouring with this one