We have begun planning for our garden next year, and we are going to make A LOT of changes next year. Actually we are starting now with the changes, so I thought I would start a new blog to keep track of what we are doing with just the garden.
Silk Creek’s Square Foot Garden Blog
Come on over and take a look at what we’ve done so far (not much, so don’t expect to see much!)
We have 3 areas in our barn but we only had 2 hay feeders for our alpacas. For the last year we’ve been using buckets or just putting the hay on the ground. I have wanted to build something similar to what we’ve had in the other areas, and this weekend I’ve finally been able to do it this weekend.
The hay feeders we have are about 8′ long and about 25″ wide. They are big enough that we can put 2 full 120 pound bales in, and the alpacas can slowly eat from them. We also just use them to put 4 or 5 flakes of hay in and then refill it daily or every other day. They are sturdy and somewhat heavy so the alpacas can’t move them around, but Julia and I can easily move them if needed (I can move one alone if I am just moving it within the same stall.
It was fairly easy to put together. It took about 1.5 sheets of plywood and about 2 2×4’s. Julia helped me cut everything and then I put it together. All in all it only took me about and hour and a half (it was hot so I took a lot of breaks!)
Here are some pictures of us working on it.
Here is the plywood getting ready to cut. You can see my nice straight line!! This was only possible because my father had brought me some of my grandpa’s tools. One of the was a plywood square. It was EXTREMELY helpful yesterday!!
Here I am cutting.
The final project.
The alpacas using their new feeder.
I even thought that I could make these and sell these. 
Anybody need a hay feeder?
When an alpaca baby is born, we draw blood for a couple of reasons. First is to send a blood sample in with the alpacas registration. The second reason is to test the immunoglobulin G or IgG. The best way to describe IgG is that this tests the level of antibodies in the blood to protect the cria from disease.
You want to see an IgG test of at least 800 or above. For instance, most of our alpacas this year have been in the 3500 level. A level between 500-800 is borderline, but not terrible. Robinson Crusoe’s IgG was around 300. TOO LOW!! This is a problem We have been noticing that he has just been laying around, not gaining weight, not nursing as often as needed. All signs that he probably had a low IgG. His low IgG probably comes from he was born a month early and Liberty Blaze hadn’t started producing colostrum yet in her milk. The colostrum is how the mom transfers the good antibodies to the cria.
To take care of a low IgG you need to give a plasma transfusion to add the antibodies that the alpaca needs. We had our Vet, Dr. Pete, come over to do the transfusion. The best way to do the transfusion of plasma is in to the abdomen. There is about a 2% loss of the antibodies this way over adding the plasma directly to the blood, but since it is llama plasma, this causes less stress to the system than doing it in to the blood. It’s worth the 2% loss to not have other problems.
Mom and baby did well while the Dr. did his work.
Here is Dr. Pete, Megan his assistant and Julia getting Robinson Crusoe ready. They have shaved his belly, and holding him down and then cleaned him really well.
Here you can see Dr. Pete with the plasma:
Here is Georgia helping out afterward. He was pretty worn out afterward.
Today, Robinson Crusoe was running around the pasture, nursing and doing great. Dr. Pete came back and drew some blood to see how the changes have done. One test came back borderline. That is an improvement. So far he is doing great. We’ll keep watching him and make sure he is doing well.
Well, I told you yesterday that we had some new alpacas. Let me tell you the short version (and I’ll tell the long version later). We have traded one of our alpacas for 3 other alpacas (1 male and 2 females). Both of the females are pregnant. One is due at the end of September and the other due in May.
Well, today we went over to our friends house, the Robinsons, for dinner with them and their family. We had a great time with them and left there around 8:15 to come home and take care of the animals. I went out first while Julia changed her clothes. I go in to the main part of the barn and notice something icky on the ground and called to Julia to bring a bag. I thought that one of our new moms had maybe aborted a baby or something. I had no idea what it could be. I look out in to the pasture and there he is, Liberty Blaze’s new baby boy! I called back to Julia that we had a baby. All the girls came out to see the new boy. We don’t have a name for him yet but since we were at the Robinson’s, we’re considering Silk Creek’s Robinson Crusoe. We don’t know yet.
Here are some quick pictures we took tonight:
Here’s a picture of his mom, Liberty Blaze (she’s the black one in front).
2009 Cria
Here are Silk Creek’s 2009 crias!! We have one more due (story about that soon). They are all growing wonderfully, and doing great! All the mom’s are raising them well!
Silk Creek’s La Bella
DOB: 6/23/09
Dam: Feline
Sire: El Bello (son of Hemingway)
Silk Creek’s Juanita
DOB: 6/28/09
Dam: Alsea
Sire: Juan Pablo (Full Accoyo granson of Vengador)
Silk Creek’s Opal
DOB: 7/2/09
Dam: Aurora
Sire: Dreamweavers Dilberate
Silk Creek’s Oberon
DOB: 7/23/09
Dam: Milkyway
Sire: Shepherd’s Pasture Endeavour
We are starting to get eggs FROM MORE THAN JUST GOLDIE!!
We have been getting eggs from Goldie for most of the summer (except when she went broody, but that’s another boring story!) About 2 days ago we went out and found that our quail have now started laying eggs! Quail eggs are so small and cute!!!
Well, today I go out, and we have 2 chicken eggs!! I think, did I get Goldie’s egg from yesterday? YES!! Then I look closer at the 2 eggs, one is much smaller than the other! I am guessing that Dottie, our Silver Laced Wyandotte is laying eggs now! That means Wellie (our Wellsummer) isn’t far behind!!) Here are the 2 eggs for size comparison!
BEAUTIFUL!! Well, how do I know that it isn’t Wellie’s egg? Well, hers will be dark brown, not light brown. So I’m pretty sure it’s Dotties.
Here all the eggs together.
Need some eggs?
One of the first rules we heard about when you are butchering chickens is, “If you feel something wet on your lips, don’t lick your lips!!” I think this is a good piece of advice!
This week we have been butchering our meat chickens. We started out 8 weeks ago with 52 day old CornishX chicks. We lost about 15 to some animal digging in to our movable chicken tractor, so we ended up with 36 very large chickens! Here is a picture of them from about a week ago:
We did 6 on Monday, 6 on Wednesday, 6 on Thursday, 8 on Friday & 15 today! As you can see, that doesn’t equal to 36 chickens. We had 5 roosters from our egg laying chickens that we just didn’t need anymore, and it was time for them to move on to the Freezer Camp. So all in all we did 36 CornishX, 3 Buff Opringtons & 2 Black Australorps. They are all in the freezer (except for 2 that we are eating tomorrow) and our freezer is STUFFED!! Not even room for a cube of ice in there!
Looking forward to a great year of good chicken!!