A blessed arrival!

We have a cria!  Ruby delivered her first baby this morning around 6 am.  I'm guessing at the arrival time.  I woke up and looked out the window at the barn around 7:20 and saw a brown blob and with a closer look via binoculars I could tell that it was a cria.  I dressed very quickly and ran out to the barn and into the dry lot to bring the baby in to dry it.  In the cleanup process I was able to find out that it was a boy!  His birth weight is 15.6 lbs. I think we're going to name him Fiddler.  He appears to be a bay black right now.  His daddy is a silver grey.

He's doing great. He's already been nursing and Ruby is a great mom already!  Here are some photos.

Let's add chickens!

Hi all!

I've been busy getting the farm ready for the arrival of some chickens.  Why chickens, you ask? We have been buying fresh eggs from local farms periodically and love the idea of being able to get our own eggs.
Also,  chickens are very good at bug control.  They will be allowed to free range a good bit so hopefully they will spend alot of time hunting for bugs from the poop pile.
  I've been back and forth about how many to start with and for now, I've decided on 4 chickens.   I will probably get a few more in a month or so, ending with 8 hens. The first 4 are being delivered tomorrow.  We're getting 4 hens that have just started laying.  I've attached some photos for you of the chicken coop  and the chicken yard.  More photos will be added soon of the "girls".  We will have 2 Americaunas and 2 Rhode Island Reds.  The reds lay brown eggs.  The Americaunas lay green or blue eggs.  They are also known as the easter egg chickens.

I decided to go with adults so we could have eggs right away.  When you buy pullets from the farm store, there's a 4-5 month wait before the chickens actually start laying.  One neat thing I've learned about hens: when they are hatched, the number of eggs they will lay in their lifetime has already been predetermined.  The quantity varies, depending on the breed.  It is not necessary to have a rooster for them to lay.  Therefore, no rooster will live at New River Valley Alpacas.

A quick update on the alpacas:  no cria yet.  Ruby is due in the next week so, based on a 330 - 350 day gestation, we will most likely have a little one on the farm by April 15.  Bubbles is due around the 20th of April.  I don't think she'll go that long though.  She's very large already and quite uncomfortable.  I hope she delivers before the 20th because April 20 is shearing day for everyone. If she hasn't delivered by then, I'm sure she'll have the cria shortly after shearing.