Downsizing

With my health being a huge issue, we are dispersing our herd. Having had 50 animals at one time, we are now down to 11. We're offering continuing customer support for the life of these animals.

Huacaya package $3500  4 open females and one champion stud male

 Suri Package $4500. 2 bred females 3 open females and a blue ribbon winning stud.

Call us today. Cash, Credit or Paypal.  931-636-5967

Southern Select 2012

Another Southern Select Alpaca Show has passed and we did great again.
Brian took 1st in the obstacle course with our big bad stud boy Gustof.
Spencer took 1st in the white juvenile suri class.
Fionghan took 3rd in adult fawn class.
Angus got also got 3rd in the adult light/beige class
Dakota took 3rd in a large class of 12 light fawn juveniles.
Angus won 1st place in the spin off!
Here's Brian with Gus and his ribbon

Endings and Beginnings

The Big Sale is over but do not despair! With every ending comes a new beginning. Our first cria of the year has been born! Our llama Cassie has blessed us with a fantastic true black girl.That's Cassie sniffing at her. This cria's daddy is our suri alpaca Fanfare. We chose to breed a mix of llama and alpaca because I like the idea of a smaller statured llama for handling reasons.

WooHoo! This is Cassie's first baby and she has taken to it like an old hen. Delivery was easy and the cria was up and nursing within 40 minutes.
It always amazes me how the mommas usually take right to it, like they've been doing it all their lives. Delivery isn't hard to figure out. It hurts and feels like it might come out so you push. Like evacuating the bowels but on a much grander scale. The part that baffles me is just after that. The wiggly thing that just dropped out of her behind stands up and not only does it want to follow her around but wants to lick and suck on that belly place that's been itchy and ouchy lately. What tells the mom to be patient and stand there? To let this alien take it's nurishment from her body like a parasite. What tells her that she should protect this thing at all costs? How does she know that the afterbirth isn't the same kind of thing, to be fed and protected?
I love cria watch time and this year should be a great one. We have 7 or 8 more due this spring. Unfortunately I am not physically able to help this year as I am recovering from major surgery but I will still be watching and waiting and wishing like always. I still have to name Cassie's cria and all the crias to come. That's always fun and a thing of great debate in our household.

The BIG Sale!

It's that time again! Time to make your best deal on our best alpacas. Every January we drop our prices to their lowest. Must make room for spring crias!
So far this year's sale has been a great success but we still have some awesome alpacas at stupid-low prices available.

Yearling girls plus breedings starting at $1999! (That's Sweetheart! She's ready to breed anytime) Click here to see all our girls.

Sweetheart

Males starting at $200! Click here to see our males.

Bred females due this spring from $2999! (That's Ruby.She's due in just a few weeks!). Click here to see our females.

Ruby

This sale includes full reproductive and live cria guarantees  PLUS our great 24/7 customer support.

Contact us now. The sale ends Feb 29th! 931-692-3397.

**Congrats go out to Cheri & Justin for their purchase of Delta Dawn, Dolly and Alora! What a super starter herd you've chosen! Welcome to the wonderful world of alpacas.

**Terri N. made a splash in the alpaca pool with her purchase of Smitty and Caezar, while her daughter Tanya and hubby Daniel dove in even deeper by purchasing Seamus, Romeo, and Perry!

What a funtastic year you will all have in 2012! Good luck and welcome to the Hidden Gem Family!

CRIAS are due starting in just a few weeks!  March 9th is our first "due date" so we're starting cria watch around the 1st. We can't wait to see what this year's crop brings to our herd. We have NINE crias due this spring! Come on out for a visit any you may see one enter the world.

Last Cria of 2011 Has Arrived And It's A......

GIRL!!!!! WooHoo! Way to go Delta Dawn!

Meet Dolly.

Dolly was born on November 19, 2011 at just 13.2 lbs. She was born without assistance (but definitely observed!) to Delta Dawn, a first time mom and Romeo, our awesome studmeister.

Dolly was born at 344 days gestation and although that is considered a full-term pregancy she was somewhat dysmature. Her suckling instinct kicked in right away, but her ears were floppy and the tendons in her legs were lax so she walked on her pasterns front and back. She stood and nursed within normal times.

We were concerned that she would not be strong enough to keep up with her momma or that she may get accidentally stomped by our other girls. Rain also came into play the first few days so at night and when the weather threatened we penned up Delta Dawn and Dolly in our trailer. Normally, I wouldn't worry about a cria getting wet or stomped too much but Dolly seemed so small and frail and it gets cold at night this time of year.

Dolly has now made it through her first week of life. She is up over 15 lbs., her legs are straight as arrows and her ears are almost perfectly upright. She's a beautiful girl, too! :) 

One last cria for the spring!

Jacinta finally had her cria. A very nice fawn male. Their owner is thrilled. That's all that really matters! Congratulations Terri!

Here's a cria, There's a cria, EVERYWHERE a cria!

Everywhere I look there's a cria running around! There is nothing as wonderful as healthy babies. This spring we had 6. One huacaya girl and one huacaya boy. The suris have all been boys.

Allow me to introduce them.
Alora is from Poppy(Papillion) and Eclipse(NightOut). She weighed in at 15.8 lbs and was nursing before she stood up. Poppy layed down beside her and she nudged her way under to nurse!
JackJack is out of Maddie and Abraham. He was a whopping 20.2 lbs and hit the ground running.
Maverick is from our girl Holly paired with Fanfare. WOW! This guy is gorgeous! His fleece looks like it might drip it's SO shiny.
Murphy. What can I say about Murphy? He looks so much like his momma it's like looking at a picture of her as a cria. This guy is out of our now retired Rodie and our (now sold) boy Storm. Couldn't ask for a better outcome (except maybe a girl would have been nice :) He was 17.4 lbs at birth.
Spencer is out of Vanity Fair and Solomon and weighed 19.2 lbs. He's a sweet and personable little guy who might just make it to the show ring.
Diez is our first cria out of Joy, the first cria born here. So Diez is technically our first grandcria born here. He weighed 18.6 lbs, very big for a maiden momma. His fleece is almost pink! Very pretty boy.

We are still waiting on Harmony and Jacinta to deliver. Harmony is due June 18th and Jacinta on July 19th. Harmony started looking "ready" early last month. Her milk came in and her belly is huge. When Joy delivered last week Harmony was going through the motions with her. Everytime Joy would roll or poop, Harmony was right there mirroring her. I thought we might have a two-fer cria day but it wasn't meant to be. I'd rather Harmony wait until her cria is "done". 
Jacinta has been sold but will stay here until after her cria is born. Congrats to Terri on her purchase along with Delta Dawn! I always regret selling my girls once their crias are born. This one will be no exception I'm sure. Jacinta is bred to a fawn full Accoyo boy. Can't wait to see it!

Our new male MFI Peruvian Caezar has a drive by breeding today so off I go to prepare for it. I'll give him a little pep talk and maybe a handfull of alfalfa for extra energy. :) GO CAEZAR!! Make girls!

Cria time again

Well, shearing is done for this year. Now it's cria time.
We have seven more girls due this spring. Pictured here is Holly(the grey) who should deliver today. She is 362 days pregnant and I've given her a shot of Estrumate to help her along. Right now it's raining but starting to clear. The girls are all cold and waiting for the sun to come out.

Waiting for Spring

Wow, this winter has been crazy! We've had more snow than this area has seen in many many years. It's bitter cold for a week, then 50 and sunny, then cold, then rainy. Sheesh. Enough already.
Yesterday was one of the nice 50 degree sunny days so I was out spending extra time with the alpacas.
I see them several times a day but when they are out enjoying the sunshine they seem to look different. Happy. Relaxed. Fat!
Those girls who are bred for spring crias seem to have suddenly gotten enormous. Vanity has 95 days until her "due date" but not only is she visibly pregnant but I've seen the cria kicking and rolling already.
Maddie is due next month. She's laying around alone and already elongating and relaxing "back there". I've seen crias bumping and rolling inside Holly, Rodie, Joy, Jacinta and Poppy so far.
Come on Spring!!! Bring me some girls!

A Little Recognition

The Royal Alpaca Challenge was a great time this year. We loaded up our alpacas Angelia, Juliet, Cristo, and Randy plus Blizzard from Stone's Throw Alpacas and Serafina owned by Helen Price. They were all very well-behaved and excited about the roadtrip.

Cristo

We arrived and checked in with only a couple of small microchip "glitches". Cristo's chip went missing and had to be replaced and Juliet's paperwork had the wrong number on it. Nothing we couldn't handle! Yeah!

As Magnolia Sponsors this year we were stalled on the end of the barn nearest the arena so we didn't have to walk far and also had good exposure of our stall display to visitors.

We swept out our stalls, lay out our stallmats, brought in the hay and water, then unloaded the alpacas from the trailer. They were quite happy to be out of the cramped trailer, but not too sure of their surroundings. They were just glad to be with (part of) their herd so they followed us without question into the appropriate stalls. It was dinner time for them so we removed their halters, fed them and left them alone while we unloaded and set up the stall display.

After that, it was off to the hotel for a little well-deserved rest. We could have stayed around the arena for the sponsor party but our son Brian was with us and he's not much for adult parties.


Angelia



Saturday morning dawned bright and early and we were all ready to go. The exhibitor's mandatory meeting proved to be very chilly and the metal roof over the arena dripped condensation on our heads as the sun heated it.  The judges were introduced, Canadian Kathy Merkley for the suris and from the UK Nick Harrington-Smith for the huacayas. I thought it was great to have some fresh faces (and opinions!) in the ring.

Basic instructions were given and we were dismissed to get ready for the show to start. Production classes were to show first so we had quite a bit of time to wait.

When all the animals were finally shown we ended up with some nice ribbons. Angelia placed 1st in her class, Juliet got 4th, Cristo was 1st, Randy placed 5th, Blizzard and Wendy brought home 6th, and Serafina won 1st. Angelia also won a blue ribbon in Performance with Brian leading her for his very first time in the ring. We're so proud of all of them (and us)! A good time was had by all.

Fall babies

Here they are. The last of our 2010 crias. All girls. All fabulous!

Destiny - Amber CeBonne X Our Peruvian Navigator

Dream a Little Dream - Dominique X Edmunton Prairie Royale



StarDust's cria - Lofty Pine Star Dust X Pumpernickel Fanfare



Another Successful National Alpaca Farm Days

For those of you who don't know, this past Saturday and Sunday were National Alpaca Farm Days. Once again we opened our farm to visitors (like we don't have visitors every day).
Saturday started out with a bang. Dominique decided to have her cria just one hour before the event was to start. She blessed us with a gorgeous dark silver grey female. Oh Yeah! Just what I ordered her to have. She's a great foundation dam! We've named her Dream a Little Dream. Here she is...

Perfect at 17.6 lbs. Dominique delivered by herself. We walked out to check on her just as the cria hit the ground. She was up and walking within 20 minutes and nursing in about an hour. Now all she does is RUN! Love, Love, Love her!

Then Farm Days started officially. We had a steady stream of people all weekend. Several were actually considering purchasing alpacas. Our store was a big hit. Many people purchased alpaca treasures to take home. Wendy Stone was here to lend a hand. She's always a big help and fun to have around. Her mom Pat and neice Morgan came out on Sunday as well. Laura Brewer was on hand both days demonstrating her spinning and carding skills. My mom was providing backup as always.

We really appreciate all the help from everyone. It wouldn't have been possible without everyone of you!

Here's a picture of some of the kids who visited. They are leading Leopold and Juliet through the obstacle course.

The alpacas (and Leopold) all did very well. We used mostly our yearling girls and Stallone, too. We wanted to get them used to more handling.

New Additions to the herd

We've got a few new faces on the farm these days. Last week we picked up these beauties from Susan Darling at My Little Darlings Alpacas...

Delta Dawn is a true black huacaya with a few brown spots. We're happy to add her Augusto genetics to our herd. Then there is true black suri Otono who is a Pardner grandson and also Overtime who is a sweet brown suri gelding. Stop by and meet the new kids when you get a chance!

We're going this week to possibly do some trading that may bring our huacaya herd a couple of new faces and force us to say goodbye to some of our beloved suris. I'll post more when things are finalized.

Update on Crias

Here are the rest of our gorgeous spring 2010 crias...
Bella had a GIRL! She looks so much like Bella we named her IsaBella

Vanity had a great looking HUGE boy whom we named Stallone

And Lucy had a perfect little man we call Leopold

The crias are all perfect and wonderful. Unfortunately Lucy had a bad episode of choke and developed a fatal infection. She died 4 days later leaving us with Leopold at only 6 wks old. He's doing fine though he refuses a bottle. He's grazing alot and stealing sips of milk from the other moms. He's very loving and likes to be petted. We're being careful to let him know that we are NOT llamas and he is expected to respect our space. We don't need a berzerk boy.

With sad hearts we accepted my best buddy Kathy's kind offer of a replacement guard llama. Her big black and white girl Cassadaga has always been one of my favorites so we brought her home to our herd. She's fitting in just fine and even though we will always love and miss our first llama Lucy Cassie has a much more pleasant personality.

Cute isn't she?

Tomorrow we go to pick up a few new animals we're getting from My Little Darlings Alpacas. Two girls-one for me and one for our friend/customer Jim and also a couple of suri boys for me. I'll post pics once they are here. 

Pronking into Spring

Finally, after 352 long days of pregnancy, Rodie had her cria.

The beautiful day brought us a lovely little girl. Yeah!

Thank goodness that's over, now just 3 more babies to await in the next 3 weeks!

Nothing but Trouble

We picked up 5 new suris on Good Friday. When you get new alpacas there is always "something" you have to deal with, be it worming, skin issues, attitudes, or bad fleece.

Here comes Trouble...

Looks like Trouble wasn't shorn last year huh? Unfortunately this pic is from last year and when we picked him up on Good Friday he STILL hadn't been shorn. In fact, I don't know if he had ever been shorn in his 3 years of life in HOT Alabama. Sad, yes. Uncomfortable, yes. Matted, dirty, hot and disgusting-YIKES!

Welcome to Hidden Gem Ranch Trouble!

Our suris are shorn every year, even if we have to use scissors.

Dennis & Melissa to the rescue!

15 minutes with 2 pairs of household scissors and poof! Brand new alpaca. Thankfully,Trouble was a complete gentleman about the whole situation. Up until that point he had been skittish at best. He stood quietly while Dennis snipped off one side and I snipped the other. He's certainly not going to win any beauty contests with the new "do", but he is free from all that hot hair. We clipped off 12" of matted ropes! He's a brand new man now and just a sweetie. Bring on the summer!

Goodbye my friend

If you've ever been to my farm you know who Patty is. The beautiful tuxedo grey girl that everyone wants to take home with them. Well behaved, graceful, and a great mom.

It is with a heavy heart that I say that Miss Patty passed away peacefully last night. She had been fighting a losing battle against what we think was a respiratory infection. We buried her in the pasture that she loved the most and planted a tree in her honor. 

If you have the great fortune of being a keeper of alpacas please take a minute today to appreciate each one for who they are. Patty was not just livestock or a pasture ornament. She was an individual and a friend. She will be greatly missed.

Patty's Big Smile

No Trailer? No Problem!

We have a trailer. We use it all the time. BUT, there are times when I just don't want to haul the trailer: bad weather, when I'm hauling just one alpaca, and/or on long trips. We recently experienced all three on one unavoidable trip. A mid-February trip to Cleveland, OH just after (and just before) a snow storm to bring home an awesome true black suri male. Ugh!
How do I solve such a dilema? Jeep Liberty to the rescue! Fold down the back seats, put down a tarp and a stall mat, bag of hay to munch on and off we go. Meet Cristo...

Cristo didn't seem to mind the 12 hour ride too much. After living in northern Ohio all of his life he seemed to rather enjoy looking out at the snow from the warm and cozy Jeep. We stopped at the occasional rest stop, got him out to stretch and get a drink of water. Of course there were plenty of stares and photos taken by the other travelers but he took it all in stride. He even waited until no one was watching to "go" in the grass. Good boy! Welcome to our herd. Please don't poop in the shelter.

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The New Year with The New Wheel!

Happy New Year to you and Happy New Wheel to me! WooHOo!
That's right. I am now the proud owner of a Majacraft Pioneer spinning wheel. She's lovely and talented. Quiet, yet outspoken when it matters most. She is a modern take on the ancient art of spinning. Take a deep breathe and behold the beauty...

And my first yarn on her, white huacaya alpaca.




Don't be calling wanting me to spin up all your fleece for you. I've got a whole room full from my own animals just waiting for me. Shearing 2010 is in just 2 1/2 months so I don't have much time to make room for more. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Speaking of shearing season, we are using a new shearer this year. Last year we had over 50 alpacas and llamas here for their annual haircut. That's alot to shear so we've hired a team from BioSecure Shearing to do it for us this year. We've heard great things about them and look forward to working with them. The really good news is that they assured me they can get them all shorn in less than ONE DAY and all we have to do is bring them the alpacas and bag the fleece. No sore knees and backs! No chiropractor trips when we can't stand up the next day. Hurrah! I'm more excited about shearing this year than ever.
Everyone is invited to join in the fun. I'll post the date when I get it.

Maybe you've heard, maybe you haven't but we are having our annual BIG SALE! to make room for spring crias and to get more people interested in alpacas. The sale is going GREAT but will be ending soon. We're only selling a few more at these rock-bottom prices and then the sale is ending. People are calling every day. If you've been considering buying any of our animals now is the time to act. These prices won't be available again. Here are some of the alpacas we've sold recently...many thanks and continued success to our customers!

Marc

Ester and Riga

Ember

BlackBerry

Rudy