JandJ Blade

The weather was very kind to us on our open weekend, we met some lovely people & sold some of our gorgeous girls & boys.

JandJ Blade at 3 days old

 No cria had been born on Saturday so we were really hoping for a birth on Sunday & Mississippi did not disappoint us, she gave birth at 10.45 on Sunday morning. After being shut in the shed & the top of the field on Saturday we decided before we opened to the public to let the alpacas have the whole paddock & of course they all went down to the rolling pad at the bottom. So JandJ Blade was born down there & then had to be carried all the way up the field into the shed so we could keep an eye on him & where everyone could see him. It was an uncomplicated birth but he was very noisy being born, moaning away even before he was fully out, not had that before. 

He is Comet's second cria & Mississippi's 5th, her daughter Destiny is also in the paddock due in the next couple of weeks, she is the image of her mum, at a distance it is hard to tell them apart. Blade is a very forward little cria, friendly, always comes to see us, very inquisitive. He is a gorgeous colour, a little like great grandma Plum, a plumy, mahogany colour. 

Open Weekend

The sun is shining as I write this & I hope that it will for at least part of the weekend.


The alpacas are in the big sheds, so we can all be dry. The mums & cria, & mums to be have the big shed & paddock so they are in & out & it only takes a minute to herd them in if it starts to look rainy. They were happily out most of yesterday in all that rain very unlike them.


McKenzie is looking very uncomfortable, a cria today after 11 would be perfect, Mississippi & Miss Scarlett are also over 11 months so we will have to wait & see.

JandJ Bruno

On Thursday 28th June, Miss MoneyPenny gave birth at 9.20 it had been a straight forward birth & all looked well but the cria looked a little weaker than the others. He had a lovely pink mouth so we left them in the shed with the other alpacas to bond & to get up on his feet. 


We went back to check half an hour later & Bruno hadn't moved much from where he had been born, still laying flat out, this is not normal so he obviously needed help. Miss MoneyPenny was pawing at the ground around him & moaning, as his mum even a first time mum knows that this is not what normally happens. Martin started to rub him with a towel & turn him over, bend his legs into cush (sitting position), propping him up on a bed of hay, he kept doing this for 30 mins with Miss MoneyPenny looking on. We left him sitting in cush for another half an hour, newborn alpacas usually get to cush position in about 10 to 15 minutes on their own. When we went back he was happily sitting there & Martin just helped him stand, holding him for a few minutes until he found his feet. Twenty minutes later Bruno was feeding & wandering round the shed the past couple of hours behind him. 


He is JandJ Affinity's first cria & a very similar colour to him, Bruno has very bright black eyes & the longest eyelashes I have ever seen on an alpaca.

JandJ Archie

On Sunday 24th June at 12.45 Ani finally gave birth to Archie, it had been a long & slow birth lasting all morning. I think that most births are very similar, it's probably that most of the mums to be do not show that they are about to give birth but we were watching Ani very carefully for any little tell tale sign. At the end Archie was just eased out a little.He is the first cria out of our stud Comet who is a handsome boy just like his father Van Dyck, with the same face & curly top knot. Archie is Ani's first cria & she is a very good mum just like her mum Skylark.

Magic & Swift

Magic

Swift