Honeysuckle Miniatures: Shearing Time

So I forgot to post the pictures of us shearing at my friend's farm. Randy is an awesome shearer, but I only remembered to get pictures of him shearing the alpacas on his fancy table. The alpacas hardly even blink putting them on it. They are so used to it and it isn't nearly as frightening as stretching them out on the ground. They just walk up beside the table and -flip- they're up.

Frappuccino was first up on the table. We keep their eyes shielded so the don't get damaged by the halters or ties, and so the hair that is flying doesn't end up in their big, beautiful eyes.

Halfway through, and you can really see the fiber. We separate out the cuts into 1's, 2's, and 3's depending on the quality, where it is cut from and the length. We try to skirt as we go but we hardly throw out anything. By the end we had only one bread bags full of unusable items from the 6 alpacas. The bag to the left is the second cuttings from the neck and thigh areas- quite a lot for such a small area!

The baby hadn't ever seen shearing time before, so she was very curious.

We decided mom and baby would be happier if the little one could walk around and investigate. Turns out baby took it as an opportunity to nurse without mom trying to walk away.

She seemed very interested in the whole process. Hopefully it will help her when her time comes next spring.

We did 'Elvis' last. He was shorn last year as a 4-month-old because he had so much fiber that was super soft. This year his fleece was as heavy as his dad's even though he is a tiny guy, but still as baby soft as ever. His staple length was almost a full 12-inches, crazy for the deep south.