JandJ Delight

Delight arrived second on the 24th at 4 oclock so very late for a birth, this is her mother Bliss' first cria so that might be why. She was a small but very determined little cria, always at the front seeing what is going on. Delight is very like her mother in every way, jet black & a little narrow but when we look at Bliss now we can't believe that she was ever that size.

JandJ Nettle

On Friday 24th June we had 2 births. The first one was Nettle, this is her nickname as at the moment she doesn't have a real one.


Her mother QAI Claire came into the country with her mum Drew Barrymore as a cria born in transit. Claire is the most beautiful alpaca, very gentle & calm just like her mum. Leo was Claire's first cria & he is a large gentle alpaca now living with Kim, Steve & Jo. Her next 2 cria were not so lucky & we lost both Chance & Enchanted before they were 4 months old, both of whom were stunning.

So this little girl, prettiest little cria we have, is very special & we really want her to live. We watched her being born & then left her & Claire alone to bond, I went back to the field an hour later to check on them & couldn't find Nettle anywhere. She had managed to sit down in a clump of nettles at the side of the field shelter & I got stung getting her out, so Nettle is her name for now. She is the only alpaca not registered & has to be by Christmas Eve at the latest, so fingers crossed we will be able to give her a very special name but to us I think she will always be Nettle.

JandJ Golden Wonder

Golden Wonder was the next cria born on 20th June. His mum is Mississippi Moonlight one of our original 4 alpacas & he is brother to Hope, Destiny & Dream. Golden was an amazing colour when he was born, really golden, hence his name & as he has got older it has gone slightly lighter.

Open Afternoons

Our 2 Open Afternoons were brilliant. We really enjoyed showing our alpacas to everyone who came to see them. Normally when we are out & about talking about the alpacas we are at shows or events & only have a few aged about 1 or 2 so it was lovely to show off the cria (babies) with their mums, Friday is now nearly 6 months old & Freya the youngest 2 months. I hope everyone who came found the afternoons interesting.

If you couldn't make the dates we opened, we are going to have another open day in the Spring. We are always happy for anyone interested in owing alpacas to ring for an appointment to come & see them.

Yorkshire Alpaca Show at Thirsk

JandJ Hope

We had a fabulous day at Thirsk yesterday. Very early start but it was worth it. We took 6 alpacas & came home with 5 rosettes and a sash. James was one of the penning stewards & we took some of our products to sell as we are members of the Yorkshire Alpaca Group.

It was the first time we had entered any girls this year & we decided to take Hope, Peace & Ruby Tuesday & our boys who we have shown before this year Kitt, Frazer & Diesel.

The stewards decided that Peace should be moved from the brown class to the black class. This meant that in the first class of the day, the intermediate female black huacaya class, Hope was the first alpaca into the ring & Peace was 5 alpacas behind her. Hope was given a 2nd Rosette and Peace a 5th. As the 1st & 2nd of each class go forward to the Championship for Champion Black Female Huacaya Hope was in the ring again & this time came away with a Reserve Champion Black Female Huacaya sash. We are so pleased with this, as it is our first sash & Hope is the daughter of Mississsippi Moonlight one of our original 4 alpacas.

Ruby Tuesday was next in the ring in a large class of fawn girls & unfortunately did not get a rosette. People wandering round the pens though did really like Ruby the best out of all our alpacas.

Next it was the turn of the boys, Diesel was first as he is black & came out with a 5th Rosette.

Kitt was next, he is a gorgeous beige & the son of my alpaca Skylark, & he came out with a 2nd Rosette.

Frazer was last, our lovely white out of yet another of our original 4, Luminaria who always has gorgeous cria, he was in a large class, the top 6 were pulled forward & Frazer was one of them, then the judge placed them in order & he was moved to 3rd place which he kept and came out with a 3rd rosette.

JandJ Henley

JandJ Henley at a couple of days old.

Henley is a very handsome alpaca boy. He was born on Friday 14th June at 10.30am. This time we saw the birth. Last year when Ashley his mum had Diesel we were busy in the field with a mating & she managed to deliver him in a dip under the tree without us seeing at all!! Unlike Diesel Henley is fawn like his sisters Thea & Gem. They all have beautiful fleeces, Thea was the best of her year & I think that Henley will be similar. Looking forward to showing him maybe next year, we will have to wait & see.

JandJ Dappy

JandJ Dappy

JandJ Dappy was born on 16th June at 11.30am, he had an uncomplicated birth & we watched, he was a nice large cria and up and feeding with the hour, ju

st what we like to see. His mum is Poppy a home grown girl, one of Coco Chanel's daughter's. She is very similar to Coco but a little lighter coloured & prettier, at a distance hard to tell apart. Dappy is gorgeous, he is Poppy's second cria, she had Lucia last year. Dappy is fawn but has Poppy's mid brown on the end of his nose which looks like he has had his nose in the marmalade jar.

JandJ Nayte

Ella Fitzgerald had Nayte on the 4th of June at 10.30am & we missed the birth as we were showing alpacas at Kenilworth Show. It was a lovely sunny day & we had left Nanny in charge to watched and make sure everything was ok .

Ella is an import & generally does her own thing, apart from shearing, injecting & tow nail clipping, we leave her alone or maybe that's, she leaves us alone. If we are gathering everyone together she & Nayte are at the other end of the field. She is the joint second eldest alpaca we own, 13 this year. Ella always has beautiful cria all black apart from Merlin who is mid fawn & so handsome, Ned we have sold, Nell always first at the fence to see what is happening & to be talked to & now Nayte. We have not seen too much of him as he is always at Ella's side but as he is getting older he is being allowed to come to us a little more.

I wanted his name to begin with an N & like the name Nathaniel (Nathaniel Parker now in Merlin) but needed the name to be shorter so Nayte it is.

JandJ Ralph Lauren

Our next cria was born 2 days later on 2nd May at 9.10am & like all Paula Rego babies is jet black. With this one I only just missed the birth, I had been watching Paula in the shed & decided to leave her for 10 minutes & when I came back Ralphie was already born. He is gorgeous, very inquisitive, when we take the camera into the field he always comes over & most of the shots are of his head getting closer & closer until there is only his nose in the photo!

JandJ Chastity

JandJ Chastity

 
On Tuesday 31 May, the day after half of our herd of alpacas had been sheared Chastity arrived. Her mother Amazing Grace had not been sheared as we do not like to shear our alpacas in their last month of pregnancy. Amazing Grace is Martin's favourite alpaca, when he feeds them Grace always comes over to be fussed. We missed the birth, after the busy long day before we did not look into the field until 7.30am and Chastity was already up and about. Grace likes to have her babies early 9.15am has been the latest but 7.30am is definitely the earliest. This is Grace's 5th cria with us, she has had 3 boys Max, Lex & Rex & then last year we had a girl Chartity and this year Chastity, so our naming strategy for Grace's cria has moved to Emmerdale's Dingle names.

Interested in owning Alpacas - Open Afternoons 9th & 16th October

We have decided to take the plunge and have 2 open afternoons in October for anyone who is interested in owning an alpaca. In the 6 years we have owned alpacas we have learned such an amazing amount about these beautiful animals & would like to pass this on to anyone else who would like to own them too. Whether it's 2 or 3 little boys in a paddock behind your house or 3 or 4 breeding girls like we started with, life will never be the same, alpacas are so endearing.

JandJ Diamond and her cria JandJ Topaz

JandJ Topaz

Our second cria 0f the year was born on Sunday 22 May & we missed the birth but it would have been about 6am. Some mornings when we are waiting for a cria I get up at 6am but that Sunday I didn't :) He is the most beautiful chocolate brown colour & his fleece will make gorgeous scarves if we still own him in April. Topaz is for sale along with his mum JandJ Diamond, all her cria are named after precious stones so we had Sapphire last year who is a gorgeous black. Naming Topaz was difficult as we needed a name to suit a boy and also wanted it to be a brown stone if possible so Topaz it is.

List of Cira for 2011

As we have now had the last of our cria for this year I thought I would tell you what they are all called in birth order. Friday/Thirteen, Topaz, Chastity, Ralph Lauren, Nayte, Dappy, Henley, Golden Wonder, Delight, Rufus, Cinder, Trudi, McKenna, Flynn, Divine, Marvel, Treasure, Avalon, Enya, Caspian & Freya.

Photo is of some of the mums & sisters.

The first cria of 2011

I am not very good at blogging as I keep saying so I am now going to try putting mainly photos of my gorgeous alpacas on here. We now own just over 90 of them & adore them all.

My first cria was born on Friday 13th of May & still doesn't have a real name as we can't agree on it. He is either Friday or Thirteen but I have been told that Thirteen is not a name! so he may become Friday. His mum Cosmic Damson gave birth to him at 9.10am & he is jet black just like his big brother Comet & sister Celeste.