Our first stop on the tour is our male barn, this is our large barn in the center of the farm. We will walk through depending on weather, the barn may be empty. In this barn we have several stalls that the alpaca males and horses are in at night. It also includes our extra stalls that we can put new animals into before introducing them to our herd or for some bonding time for new mom's and babies
Our second stop on the tour is the ladies barn. The ladies are in a separate barn to help keep the males from showing off for them, and to avoid surprise babies. The girls love treats so I will have some available in buckets for everyone, whomever wants to will have a chance to feed them. Many of our girl alpacas may come close to whomever is holding the bucket of treats, this is a good opportunity to have people pet the body of the alpaca that is enjoying their treats. One of the most important things is being patient and quiet while in the pasture, the calmer you are the more likely the alpacas will come and just let you pet them At times an alpaca may cush (sit), when this happens they are happy to take pictures with you especially if you're sitting next to them This is also where our small cria (alpaca babies) are with their mothers until they are five to six months old. We tend to let the crias explore, they get the zoomies from time to time so we usally wait for them to come to us for cuddles or pets.
The third and final stop on our alpaca tour is our front pasture, This is where our male alpacas spend their days, weather permitting. We like to call them our "public relations superstars" because they are our most friendly and we've been training them to stand for pictures. Their names are Atlas (2019) and Storm Cloud (2022), they are half brothers and stick together most of the time. Our other male doesn't enjoy the attention as much, he tends to stay away from the group.
We hope this gives you a better idea about what to expect while on our tour. We have a small handwashing station available to clean up after petting the alpacas. We also have a small amount of alpaca products and fleece to showcase what these amazing animals can be used for.