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We have other animals as well, after all that
is why we have moved to the country. We have two
dogs, both family pets that we brought with us.
We have one barn cat that we got to catch the
mice in the barn. Funny thing, we don't have a
barn only run in sheds. The cat found a male and
now we have two kittens that we will keep to be
barn cats for the barn we don't have yet. Although,
we do have mice.
We were given three guinea hens to eat the bugs,
tics and weeds. They live with the alpacas. It's
very cute to see the curiosity of the crias (alpaca
babies). They will follow the guineas, chase after
them, just as if they are playing.
The guineas do their job and they do it well.
Guinea hens rule. They are very loud at times
and not very smart. This spring the female guinea
laid her first egg. Then another. Then another
all the way to 26 eggs. Then she stopped laying
eggs and went broody and sat on her eggs for 28
days. We had lots of little keets running around.
New farmers beware! There are a lot of little
bits of information that you will learn as you
go along. Did you know that for some unknown reason
the male guineas will kill the keets? Neither
did I. As hard as I tried to save some, the little
keets escaped and the males got them. Next time
I will use an incubator. I will give those keets
a fighting chance.
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Everyone asks how we got
started in the alpaca business. Some people even think
we are crazy for taking on so much at our age, empty nesters
and ready to retire from our day jobs.
First let me tell you that we both have very time-consuming
day jobs. I, Julie, teach 1st grade, and the students love
alpacas by the way. And David is a construction General Superintendent.
Several years ago we started thinking about retirement. Not
so much the financial end as that came much earlier, but the
fun part. What did we want to do with the newfound time? We
are both looking forward to working and being together. We
both had childhood experiences on a farm (neither of us actually
lived on a farm) that never left us. We came to the place
where we both wanted to live in the country on acres of land.
But what to do with the land?
While strolling the Wool and Sheep Festival in Howard County,
Maryland, we saw our first real alpaca. I was prepared emotionally
to take it home with me right then and there. However, my
husband, David, being the more down to earth fellow that he
is, suggested that we do some research into these animals
before just bringing it home. Of course he was right. So was
I. The more I read about these wonderfully cute animals the
more I fell in love with them. The more we researched, the
more we decided that this was going to be a way for us to
get some time together, a way that we could even make some
income during retirement. The opportunities seemed endless.
So after three years of thinking, researching and visiting
alpaca farms, we finally made our purchase of four bred females
and two crias, one herdsire, and two geldings.
We didn't have our house or land ready so the alpaca breeder
agisted the animals for us. When we returned in May to witness
the shearing process for the first time we purchased more
alpacas. This time we purchased three bred females, a cria
and a very promising junior herdsire.
That's only 14 alpacas you say, well as time goes on the
bred females gave us offspring and those offspring bring the
numbers to nearly 30. Those numbers also make us alpaca
breeders and so the beginning of our adventure called
Quarry Critters Alpaca Ranch.
It's been a little over a year, we still have our day jobs;
however, we do have plans to retire and still have our dreams
and still see the opportunities.
We are alpaca breeders and loving it.
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