It's all change!

When I was born I had a full head of wonderful dark brown hair. I know, I know. I just did. Stand by for the real shocker.
As a toddler my dark straight hair had been replaced with beautiful blonde curly locks. I know this is a real stretch of the imagination for those of you who know me, but it's true, my parents have photographic evidence. I may even post the evidence if there are too many non-believers.
With these sun like golden curls I was cooed over and generally adored. I was also, allegedly, commonly mistaken for a little girl. Ahem, all right that hasn't happened for a very long time.
But in the pictures that I have seen, in my humble opinion, I appeared to look like a baby Greek God, all pureness and general baby-godishness.

As I approached school age my golden curls changed back to the glossy straight brown hair that I kept (in various styles from No1 crew cuts to as long as I could get away with) for all my school years and in to my early twenties.

From there on in it all appeared to go a bit awry and I am now at the stage where, depending on the light, my haircut or the presence of CCTV cameras and tall people I am anything from a third to two thirds bald. But that's fine, I'm happy with that. I am content with my level of baldness. I wouldn't win any awards for hair, or even hairstyles, but I am happy, that's not why I am here, to win prizes for my hair, or fleece (can you see where I am going with this now?).

So why the follicular history? Well, we have been observing cria fleeces this year, probably more attentively than before, because of the Qjori factor.

For example, Truffle. I wish I had photographs of all this but it's been difficult this year.
Truffle was the first Qjori cria and was born in appalling weather (weren't they all?).

A slighty damp Truffle this morning.

When Truffle eventually dried out her dark fawn fleece had the tiniest tightest crimp I have ever seen, you may remember I wrote a blog about it. Well that got me excited but then no sooner was it there but - whoosh, her fleece had changed and was straight and fluffy and crimpless. I was dissapointed to say the least. But the story continues. We have just weaned Truffle at 4 months old as her mother Dee is just too thin and her condition needs to improve before winter.
As a result we gave Truffle a good inspection, so we can keep an eye on her condition as she switches from mothers milk and a bit of nibbling to full time grazing. We looked at her fleece (having paid it no attention for 6 weeks or so) and were blown away by the transformation.
The colour has changed as if it has been dyed, it is now a medium brown and the crimp has returned in bucket loads, tight, bright and gorgeous. I know you are probably saying "Well let's see some pictures then!". Sadly I am home alone and am not even going to try to 1) Catch Truffle 2) Hold Truffle 3) Open up Truffle's fleece and 4) Take pictures of Truffles fleece whilst still doing 2) and 3)!

If it is dry when Sue returns we will give it a go.

But it is not just Truffle. Young Toddy, the Toddster has changed dramatically too.

Little Toddy drying off in the sun earlier this morning.

Todd is our little pie-face. His mother is white with a white pedigree. Toddy was born brown with a white face and two white front feet. He is a little cracker and a real favourite. When the Toddster was a week or so old I looked over his fleece carefully for any sign of black or white fibre. Was he just a brown pie-face or was he rose grey? No, it was just brown, nothing else.
Well yesterday I looked at Toddy again and blow me down his fleece has changed colour completely! The first inch or so is brown but the next inch is dark grey! Not only that but his neck seems to be getting lighter. Is he turning into a grey? Goes this happen with grey alpacas? We have never had one before so don't know!

Taz has also changed dramatically. He has always been a rich chocolate brown and still is but for the first month of his life he had a fleece with no character to it at all. Yesterday when I looked, (Sue had told me to check him out as she had seen some change) his fleece is now becoming all crimpy. It is a big bold crimp but from dead straight to big bold crimp in a month is impressive. Not only that but he is now finally starting to grow into his nose!

So far all of the fleeces that I looked at that I was disappointed in are improving, they are not show-stopping stunned mullet creating fleeces, far from it, but the change has been dramatic.

The only thing is, having looked back at my own dramatic 'fleece' changes, I am dreading the bald phase!

HLS?

It has all been a bit stressful here lately. Many of you may know that we moved to the current Patou HQ almost a year ago as we had outgrown where we were, we needed more land. We were lucky enough to find the cottage and then discovered that the ten acres surrounding it was also available to rent. Marvellous. 

There had just been a couple of horses on the land prior to our arrival and we were invited to do what we wanted in the fields. Field shelters were erected, hurdles and troughs were installed and fences were repaired and reinforced. And then it happened. 

We were visited by a group of men, representatives of the estate (we are on the beautiful 9,000 acre Fonthill Estate), the farm manager and someone else who I cannot remember. I have to say that they were all very friendly but their message was a bit of a surprise.

The conversation went a bit like this:

'Did you know that these fields are in an HLS scheme?'

'No. What's an HLS scheme?'

'It's a Higher Level Stewardship Scheme which means there are strict rules governing it's use'

'Meaning what?'

'Well what would you do if we said you couldn't feed your animals on this land?'

'I would feed them in the dark when no-one was about'

'I thought so'

And so on........

Basically the estate get paid a large sum of money to keep the landscape to certain environmental standards. The rules are very strict. 

We have been very nicely 'told off' since then several times and after a visit to the estate from the head scrutineer of this HLS scheme we have been put under a bit of pressure. At one point I did lose my cool a little bit as I explained how frustrating it was a) not to be told about this in the first place and b) to not be told what the rules were after that.

It felt at one point that we were under fire from all directions and would have to move. Which we really don't want to do.

Since then things have improved dramatically. The estate manager and the farm manager have been brilliant. We have been offered more land, we have been offered 'feeding areas' which would be made by cutting through into other fields, or into the woodland. Now we have been offered a whole field of hay. I have to say that having felt a bit unloved we are now feeling pretty good about life!

Anyway enough of that old twaddle, yesterday I was out with the camera getting some shots of the girls we are going to put up for sale (decisions have been made). Whilst there the cria were bimbling about as usual getting in the way of everything.

Then the sun came out and there was a mass snooze. Todd and Tsar buddied up together

Behind them Thor (God of Thunder) and Talisker also crashed out.

And finally..........................

I have exciting news from Karen at Amiryck Alpacas about another female Qjori cria. Just have a look at the beautiful brown girl below with her mother Moselle!

The balance is tipping!

There has been much ribbing about our lack of female cria this year (I could say Qjori's lack of female cria but this is Team Patou, we take the blame, praise, biscuit together, as one). 

All sorts of things have been suggested as to why this has happened and I'm afraid I have refuted them all. You may know that the lovely Mrs S is a midwife and has been for a long time so she knows a thing or two about babies and the things people do to try and influence the sex of any offspring. Human babies I know, but the same applies to most species and definitely to alpacas. Every birth there is a 50/50 chance of a male or a female. It will all even up in the end.

Well I might just take this opportunity to point out that the balance is tipping. The girls are turning up.

Firstly I have news of two more Qjori cria from Andy and Viv at Reddingvale. Firstly a brown boy out of a white dam, as yet unnamed, when I spoke to Andy yesterday he was still being known as 'Brown Boy'. Come on Andy you gave Quintus such a splendid name what about another Q name?

Secondly, and also out of a white mother, a gorgeous smoky brown female, currently called Reddingvale Cappuccino (sounds good to me), nice job on the colour Mr Q!

I also have news from Snowdonia, new home of Karen and Crispin at Winterhead Alpacas who have also just had two Qjori cria. Firstly, the wonderfully named McCrimmon who is as cute as a button.

Secondly the beautiful SarahJane, pictured here with her mother against a super Welsh backdrop.

I have also received news of female cria down at Snooks Farm Alpacas and another female over at Old Stour Alpacas. 

There are still plenty of Qjori cria to come, how many more girls is anybody's guess but I'm feeling a lot better about it all now!

Patou Update

I was reminded the other day that I had not 'blogged' for a couple of weeks. What was wrong? Had we done a runner? Had we been abducted by the Galactic Fairies? Had we been swallowed up by a giant wall of raspberry blancmange? No, just been busy and lacking in inspiration.

I have tried to blog a Patou cria update and have been out with the camera, but recently I have been suffering from a bad case of weatheritis. When I am at work, at the day job, the sun shines. Conversely when I am at home it is generally raining, windy, cold or just dismal. It should definitely be the other way round. As a result getting out with the camera opportunities have been minimal. Yesterday the weather was okay, so I went out. 

The problem is that when it is raining the mother and cria herd tend to stick themselves together in a group under some sort of shelter. The same can be said when it is sunny, stuck together like glue they take cover. In short they don't make it easy. My plan was to photograph each cria with it's mother. The plan (one should never have a plan when dealing with animals) was doomed from the start. The sun came out and like iron filings being attracted to a magnet they shuffled into the shade. In fact the Patou herd is more like a shoal of fish than a herd of alpacas. Except they don't scatter when I walk into them, they just look at me, ears twitching to keep the flies fit, the odd hum, the odd comic fart, but to get them to move I have to physically push them and who wants that?

So this was the initial cria and mother picture. 

The cria on the right is Talisker, his mother is nowhere in sight. The little cria in the shade is Tsar, his mother, Millie, is behind Talisker. With me so far?

Having given up I plonked a chair in the field and sat waiting to see if anyone would venture out into the sunshine. Gradually things picked up. First to come over to investigate was the incredibly cute Todd, Toddy, The Toddster. His mother though, was nowhere to be seen.

Next to wander past was Troy, now he has a seriously interesting fleece. His mother, Patou Penny, is a Canchones Witness girl, she is one of our top brownies and Troy has a dense, soft, bright, and crimpy fleece. One to watch, definitely.

And before you say, "Hang on a minute, he's fawn!",............. he isn't........... well alright he might be, but.............. he might not be................  just leave it! Once again his mother was nowhere in sight. 

Then one of the darlings of the herd wandered past, with her bat like ears, little Tabitha. She is utterly gorgeous and definitely not fawn! I don't recall where her mother was at the time.

I then returned to the shed as the mother cria combo I really wanted to show you was Millie and Tsar. They wouldn't come out of the shade so here they are resting in the cool. Tsar is our little bottle boy. He was losing weight in his first few days and we just didn't know why. Millie had (and still has) masses of milk and we had seen him with very milky chops on day one but for some reason he stopped feeding well and started faffing about under there and not getting stuck in. 

We started bottle feeding him and he took to it well. 

The problem is, as you all probably know, there is a very fine line between over bottling and therefore getting them reliant on it and under bottling, meaning that hunger will keep them trying to feed naturally. Thankfully we seem to have got it about right and he is taking less from us and more from Millie. Hopefully in a week or so we will be able to withdraw completely. He is a little cracker.

Lastly, a photograph of Tarquin, The Mighty Quin, who is never far away when the camera is about. What is it about these light coloured show-offs?

And that's not the only photograph I took of him yesterday, I have enough for a whole portfolio. one from every conceivable angle. Bloody show-off.

The Love Machine

Firstly may I announce and warn readers that the following pictures contain explicit images of fawn alpacas. Not a  brownie or a blackie in sight. 

Actually I am writing this blog due to being hassled by a colleague whilst working at the day job earlier on. Thanks Jimbo, see what you've made me do? Now get on and sort out the 'follower' thing.

So to the subject of this rather hasty and short blog posting. 

We have a light fawn cria, Tarquin (otherwise known as the Mighty Quin), a lovely Jack of Spades boy. He is six weeks old and has a lovely dense fleece. He is a real character, a lovely looking boy. But. He is a bit of a lothario, a bit of a romantic, a bit of a love machine, in fact he is a bit of a sex pest. 

Furthermore he only has eyes for one female, Polly. 

Now Polly, a mother of two, is medium fawn but is perhaps the closest colour to The Mighty Quin in the mighty Patou herd, apart from the two white girls of course. 

But for Quin there is something about Polly, something that has really caught his naughty little pervy eye because every opportunity he gets he is all over her like a cheap suit. He follows her for ages, his little 'bumble bee in a jam jar' at full throttle as he relentlessly chases down his prey. 

Polly's cria, Tabitha, is now just over two weeks old and Polly has already returned to the 'Love Chamber' with the Mighty Qjori, so this is not going to end well for The Mighty Quin, no it will end badly for the little fellow. Polly, he will soon realise, is well and truly taken. Once those chemicals in her head tell her that she has been 'satisfied' I fear this will all end in tears for the Quinster.

However, until the spit starts to fly, The Mighty Quin is making his move, or moves to be precise as he is a little bamboozled by this big thing called 'love'. 

A couple of days ago I managed to catch him on my mobile phone trying to have his evil way with the lovely accommodating (for now) Polly.

Once he had 'bedded' his woman, he went at her sideways, and for quite some time.

Then, as if a cloud had lifted, his dirty little mind cleared and he went into 'straddle' mode, not quite right there but he seemed to enjoy his time and Polly, being in the 'zone' just sat there, for quite a while. The sound of furious Bumblebees was in the air!

Finally, obviously after much thought, The Mighty Quin decided that positions were to be changed and in my head 'HOUSTON THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!' sounded out at full volume.

Of course moments later Polly stood up, obviously bored, and poor old Quinnie fell on his back and did a dying ant impression for a few seconds. One day my son, your day may come.

The Three Amigos!

We have never had two cria in a day. So it follows that we have certainly never had three cria in a day. 

Well we have now.

Yesterday here in Patouland I was planning to write a blog entitled '348, 352, 357'. That was the gestation lengths of the three remaining females that we were waiting to give birth. We are not waiting any more and I didn't get a chance to write that blog.

I was due to leave for work at 1130am, I had an important date with an Olympic Torch. At 7am the girls all looked settled, no tell tale signs of impending birth. Sue went out food shopping and left me to potter about for a couple of hours until it was time to leave for work. I glanced out of the window at around ten and saw Millie, one of our top brown girls acting suspiciously. In fact it was pretty obvious that she was getting ready to give birth. I watched her wander into the shed, tail stuck out, humming like very hummy thing, announcing that something was happening. 

Within two minutes I arrived at the first shed door and was met with a cria running out of the other door. I looked at the cria, it was dark fawn/light brown, it was wet and it had membrane hanging off it. That simply couldn't have come from Millie not from tail up to running in two minutes! Just not possible, and it wasn't as ten seconds later Dilly appeared in the doorway with a placenta swinging between her back legs. She had craftily dropped anchor in the shed.

By this time Millie appeared in the doorway tail still up except this time she had a head and two legs poking out from under it! I felt a bit of a wibble moment coming over me. I turned round to see the first cria who was by now running flat out across the field with Dilly sporting a pendulous placenta in tow. There was humming coming from every direction. I quickly caught up with cria No1 and sprayed and weighed (10.62kg) a big healthy boy. He seemed fine so I turned my attentions back to Millie who by now had squeezed out the shoulders and a minute later a dark brown boy slapped onto the ground. He was wriggling like a good 'un so was dried, sprayed and weighed (8.60kg) and I backed off to let the mothers bond.

Here is cria No 1, (as yet unnamed) with his mother Dilly, one of our two white girls. Qjori has done a decent job on the colour front and he has a lovely dense fleece. 

Millie's cria has been named Tsar. We have given him a name with a bit of clout because he is an absolute cracker. A beautiful dark brown (well done Qjori!) and a super tight crimpy, greasy feeling fleece. I know it is only early days but he is very, very exciting. He looks the part completely. Millie is a double reserve Champion brown female (Futurity and SWAG 2010) and we thought her and Qjori would combine perfectly. Early days but we will be watching Tsar very closely. Remember his name people for it will strike fear into people's hearts at shows one day, be warned and be afraid. In fact, take cover.

Here he is with his gorgeous mother, Millie (daughter of Lily, my favourite alpaca in the whole wide world).

At this juncture I should point out that all of our alpacas don't have names ending in ly or llie, as in Dilly, Millie and Lily. No, just those three. Oh and Polly, I forgot her, just the four then. Moving on.

So there we had it, two cria, both healthy and both up and feeding quickly whilst Sue selected sausages and bananas in a supermarket far far away. I delayed my departure for work until Sue got home and we made sure everything was well. Alice, the last female cooking a cria was lounging about ominously, she was humming and huge and it was just a possibility that we would do the treble.

Alas I left for work and Sue was left in charge. At 6pm I received news by way of a text message that we had had another cria, another boy (good job we wanted lots of boys this year............. did I tell you that we wanted lots of boys this year? No? Well we did.) Anyway Alice (to almost prove a point about the name thing) had given birth to a lovely little pie face, and here he is. Qjori has worked his magic over 98% of the little chap, he is a beautiful shade of brown but the final 2% Alice has had something to say about. 

I know I shouldn't say this, my credibility as an alpaca breeder (what credibilty?) will be tarnished but he is a very handsome fellow, I like him a lot and he is destined to be a real favourite here. He has been named Todd.

I won't go into describing want went on during the evening, night and morning following Todd's birth. Suffice it to say that I did not cope very well with him being slow to feed. I crumbled desperately, lost the plot, swore way too much, slept briefly on the sofa and spent a large amount of time in the field watching and waiting whilst muttering under my breath. Sue, calmness personified, revealed that he was feeding well first thing this morning and quite embarrassingly I shed a few tears. I know I am an idiot but bearing in mind that we lost the first three cria this year I have become a little bit paranoid and pathetic. I will buck up and now that birthing is over for the year we will concentrate on keeping everyone dry, warm and healthy.

Hairy Sardines.

It's raining again. A prediction on the weather forecast this morning stated 'a month's worth of rain in one day', that was for Oop North, not down here in the South. Well I feel for you my Northern friends as it's absolutely wazzing it down here and we aren't getting the worst of it. You are. 

I know there isn't anything that can be done about the weather, it is what it is. However, that doesn't stop me stomping out into the field glaring skywards and shaking my fist at the sky whilst uttering the vilest insults I can muster. It doesn't make any difference but it makes me feel marginally better

I have been a little silent on the blog as little Tabitha, who is a week old and absolutely gorgeous, has been through the mill a bit. Eagle eyed Mrs S noticed something was up, she was lethargic, a little hunched and just not herself, so a full investigation was soon launched. At the time I was stuck in the pouring rain on the A36 directing traffic around a broken down articulated lorry for four hours so was both incommunicado (left my phone in the car as I was drenched) and of absolutely no use to Sue. 

Luckily His Royal Incaness was available for telephonic advice and upon my return (I am the jabber here) anti-biotics (Nuflor) and anti-inflammatories (Finadyne) were administered. She is picking up now but the weather really isn't helping!

The shed has been available to the girls in the bad weather and I can reveal that it can officially fit 29 alpacas in it as can be seen below. That's a 12' x 24' shed and 29 alpacas, that's just under ten square feet each which is obviously just enough.

Right I really must go and wring out my pants again.