The Final Cria of the the season arrives!

Yes, the final cria of the season decided to read it's pretty little head! It was a cold (potentially wet) fall day so we decided to keep Cinnomon...the mom... inside should she decide to deliver when we weren't home...well she did! We had Grandma checking in on Cinnomon during the day and when she arrived there early afternoon there was the cria and placenta. The cria wasn't moving much so Grandma almost had a heart attack! Lately I have been in shock a bit myself with the cold temperatures setting in. Well it seems as though she was a bit chilled...shocked at the weather and apparently a little thirsty! (I couldn't resist posting a picture of her with her tongue out!) She just couldn't keep her tongue in and was licking and sucking like crazy! We quickly dried her, weighed her (15.5 lbs) took her temp (99.4) and put her coat on...and of course a little neck warmer as well. (I knew those designer Izod leg warmers from 25 years ago would come in handy some day!) It's hard to believe it is almost turtle neck season...well this little one is starting it out...she's lovin' her turtle neck and so is her friend and neighbor Ranata who helped G'ma with the birthing chores:-) She is quite a little character and we all laughed a bit as she was "dressed" for the weather! We'll keep you updated on her latest fashions...I am hoping it is just beautiful alpaca fiber in the near future!

Cria Update...

Over the past few weeks we have had two additional crias... August 4th we happened upon a new female black cria...three weeks early according to my records but when you go 350 days whats a few weeks early? She is adorable and what conformation! Still un-named...

We just went on vacation to Orlando Florida and left with one of our females OVER due...approximately 370 days gestation. Well wouldn't you know it she went and had the cria on the eve of our return...fortunately we left the animals in the care of our new tenants/vet students! It was uneventful and the mom had the cria as usual...on her own and quickly.

We put out requests for name suggestions and have yet to firmly decide on names...at this point it looks as if the boy will be "Orlando" and the female "Noir" which is french for black. She gave such a fight while being bled though that many wanted to name her bronco...

It was a fun day all around and we have enjoyed our season thus far of crias!

Talk about an audience!

Okay this one I had to post. We had our annual Cornell Lab at the farm the past two days (they arrive in car loads and go through 4 shifts of students, the professor and their assistants as well) we merely provide the alpacas and a few llamas! The incoming vet students always look forward to the alpaca farm lab...well this day was no exception. We did the usual...ivomec, nails, some toe swabs, blood draws, blood cards...and a spit off/breeding. Marcus was not bothered by the audience. If you are an alpaca and you have an opportunity to breed...you do it! Well he did and were there ever were laughs at the "orgling"! This is what you call "receptive"! :-)

Jay wins naming rights! Cria number two... of birthing season 2010 is born on Angel Tree Farm!

It was an exciting evening on the farm...unfortunately you just don't know when an alpaca birth will occur! Tonight was farmer Jay's (Engels) night. While down by the barn doing chores all the animals in the stall came in...all but Joy. Something was up. He went to the pasture to check on her and he noticed a head and ONE leg coming from Joy's posterior! He was the picture of calm from what I was told. As if HE had taken the classes on birthing alpacas in abnormal positions...he went and had to put his hand inside and help her to get her crias other leg out. He gently pushed the cria back in enough for the cria to present normally...with both legs AND a head! No Name yet...Jay earned the naming rights to this one!

Fortunately... SHE was a healthy 14 lb little cria.

***Stay tuned to the blog... a technologically savy teen was on the farm and caught part of it on video...we will try to upload it for you in the next day or two! Otherwise feel free to do a drive by and watch for the "It's a Girl" sign!

Welcome Frankie!

Here... Ashley is holding our latest bundle of joy!

Yes we were surprised...but not too surprised to see we had an early arrival last night around dinner time. We went to the barn to start chores and lo and behold we found a cria! Yes we had a nice little white MALE cria in the pasture as well as a placenta. We believe the little guy was around for a few hours by the time we found him on the cold spring evening.

We will keep you posted as we await new arrivals but we have a lul now until July I believe... hope you enjoy our cria. We will get our blue "it's a boy" sign up!

The clock is ticking....

The clock is ticking down to the first birth on the farm this spring birthing season. Kenya...who ALWAYS goes early is due May 15th. She is acting very pregnant to we are on cria watch already. Watch for the sign...will it be a pink alpaca sign or a blue one??? Stay tuned!

This would be Kenya's first pink sign...she has had three crias and they have all been the color of she or the father. We thought we'd take a chance and breed her to our medium silver grey Marcus this year. Can't wait to see what we get! (Kenya pictured with her '08 cria)

Spring on the Farm!

Spring has started to appear on the farm! This was first apparent when the peacock began to grow his feathers for mating season. (Little does he know his mate is captive...and the size of the tail just doesn't matter!) In a matter of a week or so the feathers have come into full plumage. One male has started to use his feathers the other has not. There are a few guinea hens in their pen so maybe he is confused!

The rabbits have been returned to their outside cages and seem very happy to be out of the stuffy barn.

The chickens are happily free-ranging on the farm again and are back in breeding mode themselves. We have chicks in the basement that are anxiously awaiting their turn to venture out on the farm.

On a sad note our beloved "Abby" (llama) the queen of the farm came down with P-tenius about 3 weeks ago and has been struggling to overcome it. She is a strong, stubborn animal and is not going down without a fight. She can no longer get up on her own (so we help her up a few times a day...and are getting very strong ourselves!) She is able to talk around for a bit before going down again. We have tried all the remedies in the book and have seen the worst it is going to get we hope!

We continue to grow fiber and babies until shearing day and birthing begins. It has been a long hard winter but now as the sun begins to shine and the mud is in full bloom we begin to realize the fruits of our labors.

Sat. Bakers Acres and Open House Sunday at ATF

We will be having an open house on Sunday...we chose Sunday because we (the alpacas, some of our products and us!) will be at the Baker's Acres Apple Harvet Festival this weekend on Saturday...it should be awesome. Come by and check out all the activities...it is supposed to be an incredible fall day! Click on their logo to see what the schedule is for the day!ooh yes...and Monday will be a day of rest in honor of Christopher Columbus! :-)

Touched by "recovery gift" at The Great Cortland Pumkin Fest

Two beautiful days were spent in Cortland this weekend. It was truly a celebration of pumpkins...and fall. They were incredible fall days and hundreds of people filed through our stall...but two made our days completely worth the time and effort.

Two special ladies bought hats for themselves. One was going to be losing her hair soon due to radiation and the other was buying herself a "recovery gift". I recognized the woman as a woman who had purchased our stylish alpaca hats last year...asking her if she had bought hats last year she immediately said "yes"...two...and this year I am buying one as a gift to myself. I wore the hats all winter because they were so soft, warm and didn't itch my head. She then told us that she was told she had breast cancer only a month after buying the hats...not knowing how important they would be to her bald head! But on this day she was buying herself a new one as a recovery gift. It gave me chills...and my mother...the Creator of the unique hats was touched that something she made had made a difference in the life of someone with cancer. It seems as though no one is spared from being touched by cancer...and on this day my mom felt how she made a difference!

Prepping for National Alpaca Farm Days!

As usual we have been working hard on the farm and are beginning to prep for winter and fall events. You know... the list one last barn door to replace, spit offs to be sure all are bred and the daily work of animal upkeep. (Above pictures are from the Lansing Harbor Fest)

We will be open the the weekend for National Alpaca Farm Days (Sept. 26th and 27th). The farm store will be open, animals in pens with new babies to be seen. It has been another good year on the farm and we look forward to sharing it with you this weekend. We are distributing our fall events schedule and will be around at local festivals, farmers markets and will be having open houses at our farm...and in between we will be knitting ;-)

For more information on our events go to our website at www.angeltreefarm.com !

Puttin' up hay!

Hay you alpaca farmers...I got lucky! You know when you get that call from "the hay guy"? Well if you are not familiar with it, it is kinda like that call that that proclaims"the baby is coming"...you drop everything and run...only in this situation it is to the barn! Depending on the weather and when the farmer will show up with the hay wagons...you just take it when you get the call. Well, I was preparing for a graduation party at our house/farm...when I got "the call". Not quite knowing what to say I said "okay"! When you are getting second cutting hay you take it when it is ready because you don't want it sitting on the wagon and drying out or let it get caught in the rain...so I took it! Well about midway through the party..."Ray the Hay guy" shows up with about 175 of the bales (we had already put up two wagons ourselves!)...my husbands farmin' family (and friends!) pictched in and we had the hay put up in about 20-25 minutes! It was fun and is always a bit of a thrill in a weird... exhausting... sweaty way...but on this day it was really special whenpeople took their positions and we did the tedious job of putting up hay...together. (Did I mention I was the photographer on this day?)

We bought a used hay elevator from a local farmer and were thankful for it this season...it was worth every penny!

Belated Blogging!

Hey bloggers...I want to say that here at Angel Tree you are sure to get the scoop on the latest...but it might be a day late! I am struggling with getting all the hapenings onto the blog quick enough. Also finding that between web, tweeting, blogging and facebook I am not able to "get it all done". And to top it off I am doing the countdown for going back to school. When not farming and doing the family thing I am teaching kindergarten...and we all remember kindergarten. So I am prepping for the first day and trying to do "it all" as my husband says...and have only shed a few tears. But...would I do it again? Absolutely...so enjoy the ride and forgive my belatedness! :-) Thanks, Carol

Cornell Labs held at Angel Tree!

Well, it was that time of year again

and Cornell asked once again to have Angel Tree host the vet students for one of their first labs on various farms. The students started arriving and getting into their blue "jumpers" as I call them (you'd have to ask the students about their nick names for them! :-).They quickly rallied around and started to learn about "the alpaca". We here at Angel Tree use llamas as guard animals for the alpacas...and we have a young female llama that has decided that she wants to be the star of the show. "Liberty" quickly won the hearts of everyone and allowed us to demonstrate, poke and prod for the sake of learning about the llama and alpaca. There were 4 goups totally 90 students in all that came through the farm on two days. They filed in and filled the lawn with cars and seemed anxious to learn about some of their potential future "clients"...the llama and the alpaca. We vaccinated, trimmed toenails, drew blood, completed blood cards...and even sedated a few of the adult llamas for their pedicures! Yes...can you imagine having to be sedated for YOUR pedi??? The animals tolerated the barage of students fairly well...but everyone was ready to be put out to pasture when all was said and done. A lot got done and it was beneficial to everyone...the students, professors and us! (PS: I did the "chipping" or microchipping that night...without an audience!) It was a few days packed with learning! Thanks students (and Dr. Smith!) for all your hard work...sometimes it's not easy wrestling an alpaca :-) but they are incredible creatures and we hope you enjoyed them as much as we do!

Lansing Harbor Fest Rocks!

It was yet another fabulous year of the Lansing Harbor Fest...it was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine...a little humid but everyone was having so much fun it didn't dampen the mood! Each year there are more and more exciting exhibits...this year it was the Verve booth that got us going! We had energy drinks and raised money for the Lansing swim team. It is a great product and worth considering if you need a little healthy jumpstart!

The alpacas fared well for the day but left a little early due to the heat. Liberty and Yu lo were very courteous and enjoyed all the festival goers. People got a chance to see some of the handmade alpaca products that can be found at the Angel Tree Farm Alpacas Farm store and see what incredible things can be done with alpaca fiber!

Back to Back Babies!

It was quite an end to the breeding season on Angel Tree this year. We were surprised again and again this year...and again on Sunday (Aug. 16th)...to find a beautiful black male cria...and again on Saturday... we found a long awaited little white female cria. It has truly been a year of surprises. It has made it so much easier on the stress level of WAITING...which alpaca people know can drag on for days with dozens of trips to the barn a day...watching and waiting for a pending birth. We have been blessed that the births have been uneventful and independent. Yeah!

That is the beauty of alpacas...natural birthers and natural mom's! When we started in the alpaca business we would aniticipate the pending births with angst and now it has become a momentary thrill and then we calmly go about the rituals of prepping the cria for life on the farm. Now we have two more added to the herd...and to watch grow. No names yet :-)

The Three B's

It was an exciting and exhausting day on the farm today...we had the three B's. It started off with a Birth, then a Burial and ended with Breedings! The birth was an unexpected twelve days early and delivered a healthy male cria (yet to be named!). The death was of one of our beloved old girls...Feliz. It was not a complete surprise as she has been showing signs of age for some time now. She delivered an adorable male cria (Rudy) earlier in the season who is adjusting to not having mom around. Abby the guard llama has taken him under her wing and he is doing fine. It will be strange to go to the barn and not see Feliz there with a mouth full of hay. It was a sad day. You think your aged alpacas will live forever on the farm as a "pet" but one day they die...that day came earlier than we had thought but she is resting now.
The day ended up with a few alpacas going for a drive in the trailer to breedings...then back home to the farm !
It was a day that showed...literally...the circle of life on the farm.

And then there was...JUSTICE!

We returned from our vacation in Indiana just in the nick of time...or so my farm-sitting-nephew Kyle and mother/father think!

We were down at the barn when we noticed front feet and a head...coming from Abby our female guard llama. Abby continued to walk around the pasture for about 20 minutes or so before getting the sensation to push. (The intermittent rain and downpour didn't phase her). The baby came out nicely on it's own... and so considerate and perfectly timed that we could all watch. My parents, Mal and Ellie even had time to finish their breakfast and still got there in time to see the eventual birth! We watched Abby, who is a natural mom, wander around the pasture and stall as she passed the after birth and allowed us to do our usual birthing procedures...drying, weighing (a whopping 27.5 lbs!), temp...(a perfect 100.3), dipping the umbilical cord and putting on the cria coat. Then we wait as the two rested, attempted walking and the eventual nursing. Abby is a gentle giant and loves her babies...and only gave us the occasional warning spit...of only air! She knows we love her and we were helping.

As we stood watching this incredible act of birth...we talked about "Liberty" Abby's cria from last year and decided this one should be appropriately know as "Justice" for Liberty (female) and "Justice" (Male). Liberty is a gorgeous female grey and white llama that has stolen the show...from the alpacas on the farm. She is the first to approach the fence line and offer"kisses' to a passerby. Justice will hopefully follow in his sister's footsteps. He is a beautiful grey, white and light brown llama. It is exciting to watch as they turn from not-so ugly ducklings into princes and princesses! Join us on the adventure, drive by or follow on the blog as we watch them grow!

And baby makes 5!

I was casually working across the road when my parents happened by and asked if ..."we had a baby?" I was shocked only to cross the street and see as they saw...a young cria under a new mom! It was Joy standing in the pasture with a cria suckling under her. It was her cria...a little over a week early and the spitting image of her! It was a male that was criated out of our very own Marcus. It was thier first pairing and her first male cria after two females. This new young male will make a beautiful herdisre for the farm someday (we don't have any brown herdsires!). Although each cria born to the farm makes you think about another alpaca for the farm. But as my husband says...everything is for sale...and we are geting up there in numbers...and continue to sell a few here and there! We now stand at 30 alpacas on the farm. Three left to go this season...2 alpacas and 1 llama. One alpaca is due this week. We have been fortunate that most of the cria this season have arrived unannounced and healthy. This is far less stressfull than past birthing seasons where we spent the summer on "cria watch"...there is no way to desribe the agony of it! For today we are thankful and with each birth we fall in love with alpacas again!

Got Water???

Yes, it is that time of year. Any alpaca farmer knows that it is a big day om the farm when the pools come out! Well Joy could not wait...she literally followed me down the pasture when my son Tyler and I began putting out pools. She could not wait and quickly jockeyed into position in the pool...then proceeded to defend her spot in the pool. She is a "pool lover" there are also alpacas who have absolutley no interest in the "alpaca pool"...but prefer to be sprayed! The pools are wonderful but need maintenance...dumping, cleaning and monitoring when there are cria about! We don't tend to put them in a pasture when there are cria in it...but move the mom and cria to a different pasture and back once the cria is able to be near a pool and the herd. Even though it only contains a few inches...one never takes chances with new cria. ;-) PS: the next day she had a beautiful male cria!

Saturday Surprise!

Well, we were going about your average Saturday...when I saw my husband Jay in a fast canter up from the girls barn...with that look that says "we've got a baby!" There is nothing like the excitement of a cria birth on the farm!

We have been looking at each other for the past few weeks and saying NO Way is Lacey going to make it TWO months! But I had double checked my records and checked the gestation tables and yes....that was the calculated date...but I knew Sat. when I saw him running up (in a controlled way) from the barn that we had a baby...and when I met him half way I called out...Lacey had her baby didn't she? The answer was yes! Any alpaca breeder will tell you that we alpaca breeders know our due dates! We plan, we calculate... select or herdsires, we check... we chart and we re-check. In looking back over my records the only thing we can figure is that last season she went down, bred and we calculated based on the last breeding...when in actuality an earlier breeding took? This makes you wonder...was she just in the mood? Enough of that, we could be here all night discussing the breeding habits of male and female alpacas, their breeding habits etc...!

Well I am sure you are curious at this point...the cria and mom were fine, healthy, up and enjoying HER Saturday! Yes she is a beautiful white female weighing in at 16.5 lbs. Not bad and the best part...no waiting, no butt watching and pre-delivery stress. Alpaca breeders will actually drive themselves crazy watching the expectant mother...for days, hours, minutes, and even seconds. Literally staring at the alpaca's butt, it is as if if we watch hard enough... a tiny head will peek out from under the tail and say "Hi, I'm here". Of course everyone wants to be around for the birth of the cria's on the farm in the event they really DO need our help:-) ON this day we were blessed.

All kidding aside it is the first unobserved birth where I have found the mother with slightly bloodied teats. I think she may have actually nipped at her own teats to "unplug" her teats as we alpaca farmers deem necessary :-) A quick clean up with a sterile wash and all is normal. The two are fine...and did it all by themselves. Imagine that. This Saturday had a happy ending. It was after all "D Day" and in honor of D Day and our surprise we have named her ATFA's Normandy "Mandy" for short.

(We will let you know if someone on the farm just can't live with "Mandy")