Cluckin A Critter Farm, LLC: Sat May 16th... The Alpacas Go to Isabelle’s for Shearing Tomorrow...

We went out early this morning to check on the boys since we kept them in all last night so their fiber would be good and dry. Isabelle emailed to say we should close them in because there was a threat of rain during the evening and that would make it hard for shearing with wet fiber, so we kept them closed in. They did well, and we fed them this morning and I put their harness’ on so they are ready when Isabelle comes for them this afternoon, today. She likes to transport them to her farm alpacas-4-pets the day before shearing, so they can relax overnight, which makes shearing a lot easier for the shearer. Whoa... Isabelle just pulled in for the boys..... Vicki just called from the barn to say she showed up early. Good thing we harnessed them so they would be ready for her.
The boys just left with Isabelle, headed for Coxsackie and her farm. We’ll be in attendance tomorrow morning at around 8:00 to join in on shearing day. Isabelle said they would start off with coffee and doughnuts. That’s a cool way to start such an undertaking. We’re excited to go and meet the other alpaca owners.
NEWS FLASH... ... ... ... We have newly hatched chicks in the big barn!
We were working on the Bunny Brothel roof yesterday. Vicki was cutting lumber to the sizes I called out and I was nailing then into place in preparation of installing the metal roofing, when she mentioned that she heard baby chicken squeaking. She then shut off the radio and low and behold, there was a bloodied little newborn chick outside the barn. It had hatched out in the nest and fallen out of the nest. All the other adult chickens pecked and pecked at it until we found it and Vicki placed it into the incubator in the brooding house, where it seemed to revive with time. After about four hours in there, it was as good as new, so we thought we should insert it back under the sitting her (it’s mother) since there was another little black one under her too. This morning, I found the little yellow one we re-introduced to the mother, under her... flat as could be. Obviously, Mom sat on her and crushed or suffocated it. (It could have also been the pecking by the other birds too) We have at least six different boxes with setting hens perking clutches of eggs. It’s hard to tell how many chicks we’ll end up with and we have Araucanas from our Agway store and an assortment from another mail order hatchery coming, so we’ll have plenty of chicks this summer....... and on into fall.
We got the roof on the bunny Brothel yesterday, so it will be dry in there even if it rains. Now we will cut the new inside door in so we can place the bunnies in there until Reggie and Keren get these. We need to cut and install the soffit all the way around and a fascia trim board and then the wall battens still need installed and the outside work will then be done. After the outside work, we’ll install some lighting, a few receptacles and a grooming table. We need to build several new pens to suspend from the walls with catch pans.
I sure hope we have some summer left when we finish the Bunny Brothel, the Hospice Gift Shop and the rear deck porch roof.
Take a look at all the photos we snapped yesterday while working out at the barn. Do you know... the geese let us within ten feet of their babies, but won’t let another goose within twenty feet or better... We got beautiful shots of the little ones and Mom!