What do you do with alpacas?
                                    Samari Says
  Our fleece is the softest and most durable you'll find in the animal kingdom. It's as soft as cashmere, and just as strong as wool. Sweaters made from alpaca fleece are long lasting - we know people who have sweaters they still wear after 30 years!

The fleece is clean; no lanolin like sheep wool, and it's hypoallergenic. No sneezing, no itchy feel. Best of all, alpaca fiber is not heavy. It actually seems to breathe. So you can wear alpaca garments three seasons and be comfortable.

What alpacas like to do with alpacas is make more alpacas by having baby alpacas. And our people like that, too
                                 

How often do you shear alpacas?
                                  Samari Says:
  We get shorn once a year. Our people get that done before the temperatures get over 80 degrees several days in a row. That's usually around the end of April here in Tennessee

What do you do with the fleece?
                                  Samari Says:
  Our people sell it just about every way. Spinners buy it right off our backs on shear day, or in smaller packages. Spinners love it, 'cause there's usually no carding needed. Just about everybody here has gotten awards for their fiber from handspinning fiber competitions.

Some of it goes into yarn for knitters and weavers. Our farm store always has a supply of raw fleece, roving and yarn skeins that came from my pals and me. In fact, Aretha and I have won several blue ribbons for the yarn made from our fiber  and Ajay, Chad, Ozzie, and Jammy all got one this year for their yarns.

Our people are so into what they can do with our fiber they co-own a processing mill to make the yarn from us and other alpaca farms. The mill is called New Era Fiber, and it's just up the road. You can check it out at www.newerafiber.com

What do alpacas eat?
                                  Samari Says:
  Mostly pasture and hay. We graze and munch hay just about all day. Our hay comes in bales. We like orchard grass here at Hickory Bluff Farms, but just about any mid to low protein high quality grass hay is good for alpacas.

We also get a special alpaca grain supplement with extra vitamins and minerals mixed in. Boy, do we love that stuff! But we don't get much of it, just about 1/3 pound per day per alpaca

What about temperatures? Do alpacas mind cold or hot weather?
  Samari Says:
  Bring on the cold! By wintertime, we've grown lots of insulation, so we are comfortable. Just give us some shelter in case the weather gets rough, and make sure we've got plenty of hay and water.

Hot weather is tough for us. It's the number one reason to shear us. When temperatures plus humidity get above 150 (like temperature 90 + humidity 65 = 155) we suffer from the heat. So in the summer, give us shaded areas, plenty of water, and some big fans to sit next to. We also get "alpaca-ade" in addition to our regular water. It's an electrolyte solution. I like the cherry flavor best.

Here at Hickory Bluff Farms in middle Tennessee, we do really well. Nine months of the year, we've got great weather, with only 3 months of hot humid days. But even then, our people do the best stuff to keep us happy and comfortable.

What kind of health care do alpacas need?
                                  Samari Says:
  We're easy. An annual vaccination for whatever large animals might get in the area where we live, and monthly deworming. We get dewormed monthly because white tailed deer live in the woods on our farm, and they carry meningeal worm, which is really bad news for alpacas.

The rest is pretty easy. We can grow some pretty long toenails, so most of us get our toenails clipped 2 to 4 times per year. And some of us need an occasional dentist visit.

Our people watch us pretty close to make sure we're acting normal for us. And they get really nosy when babies are about to come, and pester us when we're little to make sure we're growing up to be nearly perfect.

The one thing they do around here without fail is poop scooping. Sanitation in the barn and pastures goes a long way to keep us healthy.

Do alpacas spit?
  Samari Says:
  I knew you'd ask that. The answer is YES.

But only when we're unhappy about a situation, and usually it's between us alpacas. HAY, how would you like it if somebody was trying to eat your food? Or somebody cut in front of you? 'Course, sometimes you're just having a bad fleece day - Casper spit at a bird the other day. He missed, but the bird didn't.

Can you ride an alpaca?
  Samari says,

Our cousins the llamas are the ones to ride. We're really too small to carry people of any size, and we like to run and jump around too much. We do know a couple of alpacas who will pull a cart with a driver, and Gold Man's Mom used to square dance with people. She was even on Letterman once.

When do alpacas reach breeding age?
                                  Samarri Says
  I'm glad you asked that one! I'm proud to report that I'm a Dad of 4, with 3 more due in 2007 - 2008!
  Our people start breeding the girls when they are two. Girls develop a little earlier than us guys. They wait until guys are three.
  There's a lot that goes into the reasoning. There's physical stuff like how big we are, but a lot more has to do with our social maturity.

Some people will tell you they start earlier, but our alpacamom person is convinced that we are more successful with conception rates by waiting. Boy, that's hard on us sometimes, especially when she makes us guys go through rookie camp, and the girls right next to us.

But, as Diana Ross sings, "you can't hurry love"