Hi troops and welcome back for Episode 10!!!
As promised in our last episode we are going to be shearing Hagrid! This lovely chap joined us this month after having sadly lost his buddy, leaving him all alone as a flock guard. Well, we couldn’t have that so we picked him up on a super wet and stormy day, checked him over and introduced him to our quarantine site. And then we named him Hagrid of course. He seems really fit underneath at least three years worth of fleece, and now the weather has turned – and is the hottest day of the year, now is the time to get all of that fleece off and take a good look at him.
After Hagrids trip to the barbers, all of the team gets together to transport 500 bales of our very own hay! And as expected, shenanigans ensue ;)
In case you were wondering about our Animal Ethics surrounding shearing, here it is: https://alpacalyeverafter.co.uk/our-alpaca-welfare-policy/
Transcript:
The past hour or so we’ve had the UK Met Office issuing it’s first ever red warning for extreme heat. Tempreatures of over possibly 38 degrees here expected on Monday and Tuesday
Hi guys and welcome back to the hottest day of the year at Alpacaly Ever After, welcome to our video diaries episode 10! today as promised we’re gonna be shearing Hagrid it’s gonna be 40 degrees today apparently so we’ll get him sheared, he’s got about three years worth of fleece on him and ghe’s our most recent rescue, so we’ll get him layed down, full body shear – not like the others, erm yeah – so i’ll show you what he looks like now to what he looks like after we’ve sheared him – so let’s crack on.
So we’re going to be shearing hagrid laying down, so it involves straps, a mat, two anchor points, so why we have to strap him down is because when you go over an alpaca or llamas leg they’re quite sensitive and they jump and if you’ve got really sharp blades it can cut them, so it’s better stretching them out and then you can shear down the leg without sort of making them jump and cutting them, it takes about 20 minutes to shear em, if they trust you they’re happy to do it, some get a little bit nervous because they don’t know whats going on, especially when they’re babies but yeah the older they get, the more it happens, yeah they’re more than happy to have their fleece off, so heres the straps, two straps, these padded things go over their ankles like this and then pulls them straight so i can shear. So let’s I’ll go and catch Hagrid and do a quick demonstration. So what we do guys is we lay them down, we just restrain him a little bit so he dosent panic and hurt himself, his legs just go in over his joints nice and tight, then we get this leg, okay buddy so do you wanna swap? Then what we do is, we just get it nice and tight.
I’m just going to pop his head on my leg so that he’s nice and comfortable, and i can keep him nice and calm throughout the process.
So you can see how dense this is, you can loose your arm in it. super fluffy, it’s about 3 years worth of fleece that’s just been left in a field to do some flock guarding and he’s not been sheared, so yeah it’s got to get it off becuase he’s too hot especially on today, so we’re going to start on his belly and push this back.
Might leave this little bit at the back, what do you reckon? wooow, he looks so good. Right Nicole, just hold him there.
So that’s Hagrid finished, missed a few little bits here and on his legs, i’m just gonna tie him up and i’ll do that with some clippers, but yeah he looks completely different alpaca he done absolutely brilliant, he stayed nice and calm, he wanted that fleece off – so in a minute i’ll show you him meeting the rest of the herd and let him run off into the sunset.
So as you can see this is all the wool from Hagrid, look at that! Jesus he must’ve been warm, some weight in that, about 10 KG – 8 KG okay so let’s go let him out
good lad, right go show off your new haircut
Right guys! come on get back in, reggie! reggie! reggie! come on! And little Hagrid!
So i’ve got one more to shear and that’s Sage, the very first one I resuced, he was only a little baby then, so we’re gonna shear him and then later on it’s hay time, we’re going to get the hay into the big barn, all the team are coming up – we’re gonna have a bit of a BBQ, sing some hay songs, and get the hay in the barns, this we’ve got about 5-600 bales which im dreading becuase it’s super hot, so yeah i’ll see you later on.
Look at look at this! We reckon theres about 400 minimum 600 maximum of bales of hay, so this is what we’re doing. we’re gonna put all of these in the big barn ready for winter to feed the animals, years ago they used to sing songs about this – it’s gonna be a great time getting the hay in, but yeah. Im dreading it.
That’s it guys episode 10! Finished, done, 400 bales – took is 2 nights erm thank you for joining us, stay tuned for episode 11 please like share and subscribe! I’m going home for a wash.
