Maidens.... hmmmm

Greetings this January 20th! Happy birthday to our friend Dawn from Mada Vemi Alpacas. Dawn reported yesterday that the two Legend cria are growing by leaps and bounds. Very exciting news since ours should be here in about ten months or so. I will look forward to having fast growing here as well.

Quinn, our newest cria from Miss Wise and Friar Tuck, is living up to his nick name of Super Tanker. He's well over 40 pounds and just coming up on two months next week. The little female cria we have here was born on October 15th and Quinn is now taller than she is. He is really hysterical to watch. Yesterday he was having issues with our female Whitney. Not sure what the issues were of course but she was disciplining him and he was standing right up to her. Before the session ended he climbed up on a pallet we have in the paddock for hay and just stretched his little body and neck and postured in her direction. I could almost hear her laughing as she walked away! :-)

Last week I had occasion to attend the Virginia AgriBusiness Council appreciation dinner as part of the VAOBA contingency. I was astounded at the number of agricultural industries represented and very pleased that VAOBA is now a part of it all. Alpacas have been classified as livestock in Virginia for quite a while but until last year we really haven't been very active in the state. We will next attend the General Assembly the week of February 16th and get to meet the delegates.

I have heard that 4H is really taking off in our state! We now have three clubs already formed. I think we are up to 39 or 40 children. This will really make our show full in October. Ray & Teresa Tubbs were the first club in VA and are amazing. On top of being the VAOBA Youth Committee Chair Ray is also on the AYA, the Alpaca Youth Association. He's doing a great job!

I guess that's it for this entry! so.......... Until the next time!

Happy New Year

It has become painfully obvious to me that I am unlikely to ever keep this blog current! A big shame on me for sure. Back again, almost two months later!

The highlight of November was the birth of YAM. No, not a spud. YAM stands for Yet Another Male!... On Thanksgiving morning Miss Wise Obsession delivered her 2008 cria out of Nottingham Hollow's Friar Tuck; his first. It probably should not have come as a surprise that he is light fawn but it did. Tuck is light fawn but with a true black sire. Miss Wise is a true black. Silly me was really hoping for a true black female! Psych - not this time!

YAM was just an affectionate nick name given because of the day. His official name will be Quinn of Nottingham Hollow. Quinn means wise so we thought it appropriate. He does have nice fleece and his color is sort of a blush - I think truer to light fawn than his sire's color which leans towards apricot. Quinn is a delight in spite of his color and gender! When invited he will come up to us for a neck rub. I am glad he is not a bottle baby as we would probably have to geld him due to his friendliness.

In December we had a two female adults (with one female cria) arrive on the farm for breeding. True Blue Princess Dora, Chache and Dora's cria Princess Lea are owned by (our new friend) Faye G. Dora and Chache have been bred to Victor Valuenza for November 2009 crias. Princess Lea is a little black girl with a white face and dark silver grey neck. Haven't found and white in her blanket so I'd call her true black at any rate. She was born on October 15th. Quinn and Princess might just as well be twins the way they carry on and play together. I think watching crias grow together is the best!

Our other borders up from Florida are doing very well. Holly, the mother, is really gaining weight and filling out. This was what we were after! She was still nursing Mark when she got here and for the first couple or three weeks. You know how it goes, sometimes crias are like the biggest parasites! :-) Holly is pregnant and due in April 2009. This will be the only cria born here this spring. Mark has been weaned and finally is just "one of the young guys" and not so much a mama's boy now. He had a tough time - transportation from Florida and then weaning a few weeks later. I think Mark was entitled to miss his mama more than the average kid! This brings us to Princess... Princess Curiosity is an extremely friendly maiden who flits from male to male at the fence lines singing "I'm so pretty!" quite frequently. Unfortunately we have decided to hold her for a spring breeding because she just doesn't seem to have the maturity yet. That's not totally unexpected since she won't even be two until March 19th or 20th (I can't remember...). So, she and her dam will be bred together in the spring.

We have a couple of males here visiting from All About Alpacas for our older girls, Clara and Tabitha. Clara has been bred to CVA's Cadbury who is a bay black out of El Negro. Clara used to let the color of the sire pass through to the cria so we are hoping for that to happen this year with this one. Tabitha is bred to Chapala's El Fuerte and both females are expected to deliver around Thanksgiving - assuming they have both taken like I think they have. I have put my order in for girls this year. I hope they will be able to give us one or two more cria but they are in their teens now so will be retired if that's what is meant to be. We will see what Mother Nature dictates.

Miss Wise and Whitney are bred to Mada Vemi's Amerikhan Legend for their early November crias. Talk about an interesting weekend we had for those breedings! Miss Wise was only 12 days from delivering Quinn and we really planned on waiting a few more days before breeding her but she had other plans. Down she went, like a rock. There was no moving her! So, having tracked her cycle before I knew she was a 12 day gal and decided to let her make the call. Miss Wise is pregnant. She has a personality that when she is open will allow touching and kisses. When she's pregnant it is as if a switch is thrown and she gives everyone the evil eye! Well, Whitney was supposed to have been bred to Marathon's Dynomite, a Lethal Weapon son. Whitney is probably a poorly expressed grey (maroon with more and more grey appearing each year) and we thought she would produce a nice looking cria with Dynomite. Whitney disagreed. During the Miss Wise and Legend breeding Whitney was cushed next to them and spent the entire time with her head resting on Miss Wise's back or rubbing on Legend's neck! It was pitiful. We probably should have brought Dynomite to her right then. We didn't. So, we brought them together. Whitney would have nothing to do with him and went so far as to spit him off! She had chosen Legend and that was that! How dare we even think about her with this grey male????????? Whitney has since been spitting off. Next in line on the 15th of this month will be Whitney & Angus' daughter, Lady Emma. Emma was blessed with very long staple length and we just can't wait to see their cria!

Black Velvet has been bred a couple of times to Friar Tuck. We are having trouble deciding if she remains receptive or is doing as her dam (Miss Wise)did early on in her breeding career. Both females are a very good size and you wouldn't think they would have issues being submissive to the males. That did seem to be the case with Miss Wise when she was younger. With Velvet being a maiden who knows if that is what is happening? We plan to ultra-sound next week and see what we can see!

Now, the first Legend cria have hit the ground! There is Amerikhan Legend's Jackpot and The Great Amerikhan Dream, a boy and a girl with fiber that seems to have surpassed Legend's! It is going to be a very long year for us!

Until the next time!