Grace's next Emmerdale cria is a boy

Last Friday we were eagerly awaiting the birth of the next Emmerdale cria. As Grace's last 2 cria were both girls Charity & Chastity I did wonder if we could have 3 girls in a row & call this one Genesis (Jenny) but instead of a girl we have a beautiful jet black boy who of course had to be named Cain. Cain is a lovely little alpaca very friendly, just like his mum Grace. He is very brave & has to come up & sniff our hands every time we go in the paddock.

Hope's beautiful daughter Asha

JandJ Asha with her milky mouth

I am a little late telling you about our next arrival as I have been trying to get a good photo of Asha. Every time I go to take down to the paddock when it is nice & sunny all the alpacas are in the big shed keeping cool:) Born last Thursday, Asha is Hope's first cria, we are not sure at the moment whether she is dark brown or black. Her name means hope & desire. She is a very funny little cria, little slow to get going, Martin even made up a colostrum bottle but when he went to feed her she had just found where her mum's milk comes from. Asha was a little wobbly on her feet & is only just mastering the art of standing on three legs to itch as all alpacas do from time to time.

Our second arrival - JandJ Layla

Had a very busy weekend. We had a whole day of shearing last month, shearing 37 alpacas in day. Yesterday Sandra the shearer came back & we had 44 of our own left to shear & 5 alpaca boys which we have sold in the past coming back for shearing. Amazingly 40 were shorn on Saturday leaving just 10 for Sunday morning. 

JandJ Layla

Poppy was due on Friday & by Saturday was really unsettled, we thought that perhaps a cria was imminent but I think that the rainy weather put her off. This morning though it was bright & sunny so a perfect day to have a cria & sure enough at 9.21am Poppy gave birth to a beautiful fawn girl we have named Layla. She is a little unsteady on her feet, earlier on she leaned on me & promptly fell over :) 

Skylark's first cria of the year - Pipit

JandJ Pipit

This is our first cria of 2013. 
Skylark managed to be the first to give birth on Friday even though she is not due until Monday. Her cria are often early & even though Martin checked the girls an hour before there was no sign that Skylark was about to produce. Born at 2pm, this handsome, jet black little boy is Pipit, all Skylark's cria are named after birds Raven, Wren, Robin, Ani, Kitt & Swift.

Interested in Owning Alpacas - Open Weekend 6th & 7th July

Interested in owning Alpacas

Come to our

open weekend         

 6^th & 7^thJuly

  11am – 5pm

JandJ Alpacas

Silverdene Farm, Main Street,

Dry Doddington,

Newark, Notts NG23 5HU

www.jandjalpacas.co.uk

Martin & Clare  01400 281315

Little Chick

This is a photo of the last speckled sussex chick to hatch yesterday. He was still stuck to his shell when his mum decided to take the other 8 chicks out into the pen, leaving him in the nest, on his own & really cold. Martin found him & after a bit of warming up from the hair dryer & a few hours wrapped in a towel on top of the boiler he was fine. 

Little chick late last night just before he went back to his mum