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7:28 pm
November 25, 2009
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Valerie
| | East Central Minnesota | |
| Big Chicken | posts 76 | |
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Well, I think all the animals are about the same as far as upkeep. They all need to be wormed, but llamas are more difficult, we had to give ours an injection monthly for worming. Alpacas may be the same, as both are of the camelid group. But donkeys and goats can be given paste (comes in a syringe), or pellets, which we use. And feet have to be trimmed. So mini donkeys or goats would be easier, the smaller the animal the easier to handle. Our donkeys (standard size) except 1, stand like little soldiers at attention when their hooves are done. The goats didn't stand at attention. But really, if a farrier does it, they have ways to get the animal to stand well, and they can be trained. All eat grass in spring thru fall, so if you have pasture that's great. In winter you feed hay. And grass hay is great, they can't tolerate a high protein hay like cows need. Our problem with the goats was that we kept them with the donkeys and horses in a 3-strand electric fence, not what I call pig-fence, which is what Suzanne uses. They can put their cute little faces through, but that's it. My goats didn't care if they got a shock or not! So I would say goats or small donkeys would be good for you.
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"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." – Groucho Marx
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3:32 pm
November 26, 2009
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caprilis
| | Northern Virginia | |
| Big Chicken | posts 14 | |
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Thanks Valerie. We need to put up a section of fencing and build a shelter and we'll be good to go!
Would alpacas and goats pasture well together?
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Bloom where you are planted!
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5:59 pm
November 26, 2009
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BuckeyeGirl
| | N.E. Ohio | |
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| posts 3992 | |
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I know for sure that alpacas and sheep do well together. The alpacas tend to hang with each other and stay off a little ways from the sheep, sort of seperate but near if that makes any sense. It's kinda funny really.
Do you spin or weave? If not, do a search for spinning guilds in your area, there's usually a good market for alpaca fiber.
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If tomatoes are a fruit, then isn’t ketchup technically a
smoothie?
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7:39 pm
November 26, 2009
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Valerie
| | East Central Minnesota | |
| Big Chicken | posts 76 | |
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Llamas and sheep do very well together. Llamas are used, in fact, to guard sheep. Donkeys are used for that purpose also. When we had the 2 goats, 2 sheep and 1 llama together, the sheep and llama hung out, and the goats did their own thing. They were not unfriendly to each other, that was just their clique. Just like out donkeys buddied up, and the horses, too. My thought is they'd do fine. Llamas are very protective of the sheep in their flock, I don't see why they wouldn't be that way toward goats.
OK, I just googled "llama guards goats" and lots of information came up, so your answer is YES!
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"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." – Groucho Marx
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8:32 pm
November 26, 2009
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Helen
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| Super Chicken | posts 582 | |
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I am a spinner, and the last time I checked, which was quite a while ago, alpaca was going for at least $2.00/ounce for blanket fleece. But any fiber marketed to hand spinners should be clean and relatively free of burrs, grain, chaff, mud, poop, etc. because a dirty fleece is harder to work with (it takes alot of time and effort to pick all that junk out of there by hand, and only so much will card out) and so is worth less to the spinner**. Blanket fleece is the most highly prized, with britch wool being worth the least to the hand spinner, but all of the fleece should have some use. Another thing, alpaca wool should have a staple that is at least between 4 to 6 inches long…the longer the better. Both breeds of alpaca wool are lovely to work with.
**Some alpaca farmers send their wool out to a mill to be cleaned and carded and then sell it to spinners. Mills can use a process called "carbonation" to get rid of plant material in the fleece, where the cellulose-based plant material is eaten up in an acid bath, which doen't hurt the fleece, but gets rid of the plantstuff, but that is an industrial process that isn't available to most hand spinners.
p.s. The ancient Peruvians used to spin alpaca at 168,000 yards per pound for two-ply  . No, that is not a typo…they could spin alpaca at 191 MILES PER POUND for singles yarn…incredible, but true. Facts taken from the Handspinner's Handbook by Bette Hochberg.
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George Orwell – 1984
- Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
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9:28 pm
November 26, 2009
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Pete
| | WV | |
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| posts 7875 | |
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Helen, and anyone else interested in wool and spinning, if you haven't found it yet, Suzanne did a great blog about washing and dying wool here: http://suzannemcminn.com/blog/…..-dye-wool/
She has done other blog entries about the sheep, shearing, and visiting a fiber farm. Look in the Barn and Crafts sections of the main menu above for them.
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Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
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9:32 pm
November 26, 2009
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Flatlander
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I remember that I realy enjoyed that posting, I have my sheep orderd for coming spring.
4 Little bottle babies, 3 girls and a boy.
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9:59 pm
November 26, 2009
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Helen
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| Super Chicken | posts 582 | |
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I hadn't gotten to that post yet, so thanks, Pete, for the link. It was a really useful and informative post, too, and the colors from the KoolAid came out really pretty. I mostly spin Merino, which felts very easily, and so I have to be super-careful. My method of washing wool is a little different, in that I use super-hot water and only let the greasy wool soak in the detergent (I use Basic-H) for 5 mins. Then I put it through a wringer and into a super-hot rinse. From there, it goes through another wringer into a second super-hot rinse, and then back through the wringer into a somewhat cooler rinse. Through the wringer one more time and then onto the line in an old onion sack to dry. I don't use my washer for any of these operations with greasy wool. I have two utility sinks and two wringers from Lehman's. The idea of the 5 min super-hot soak is that if the water cools down, any grease in the water will settle back onto the wool, whereas if you keep it very, very hot, it doesn't. Merino is a particularly greasy/waxy kind of wool and very fine. Some people like to spin greasy fleece, but not me…yuck…not to mention that any grease left in will eventually foul up the carders. The people who like to spin greasy fleece sometimes keep a set of carders just for carding fleece-in-the-grease. At any rate, washing wool this way has always worked for me.
Oh, and if anybody out there is going to wash wool, DON'T use detergent with enzymes in it. Enzymes are made to eat protein…that's how they get rid of stains, since many stains are protein based. But enzyme-containing detergents can damage wool, which is a protein fiber. The finer the wool, the more likely it is to be damaged by an enzyme-containing detergent. The detergent makers assume that most of the fibers you will be using their detergent on are either cotton, or some sort of synthetic…not wool, since most clothes are not made of wool these days. If your detergent says something like "stain lifter" on the box…keep it away from your precious fleece.
Sorry if I was long-winded…but I love fiber talk!
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George Orwell – 1984
- Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
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