A day on the farm at Angel Tree Farm Alpacas begins around 6 am with morning chores…although we hate the word “chores” because it has a terribly negative connotation. When doing alpaca chores you are mingling amongst the animals and it is certainly not negative but rewarding and peaceful.  Alpaca “chores” are relatively light work when compared to various other farming situations.  The alpaca “pile” is small consisting of little “beans” as they are called by the alpaca community. The pile is small and contained in one spot due to the fact that alpacas use a common waste pile…frequently one right after the other! Here at Angel Tree Farm we remove the waste pile in the morning and again in the evening. This makes for a very clean stall which is typical of the alpaca which is considered a very clean animal (they take a dust bath similar to a chicken)! The pile is dumped into a large plastic tub which is dumped into a small spreader after approximately 2-3 days. The spreader is taken out to pasture on the weekends once it is full.

During the morning chores the water is checked and the hay bins filled for the day. The alpacas are given approximately 1-1 ½ cups of pelleted feed/grain made specifically for alpacas. We feed the pellets in the morning and again at night. The alpacas have daily access to free feed vitamins and minerals which are in a bin in the stall in a granule form.

Morning chores for our approximate 20 animals take two people about a half an hour. We fill waters, and get hay from the hay loft during the evening chores so that the morning chores make for light work and go quickly due to our work schedules.

We save the more laborious jobs such as toe nail trimmings, tooth trimming, vaccinations and bigger jobs for the weekends when we have more time. This is a time when we might also halter and walk the animals around the farm in order to keep them comfortable with people and halter trained.

Most farms leave the alpacas out at all times with access to run-ins or barns.  Alpacas are very content just being left out to pasture and enjoy cushing down in the fields. We here at Angel Tree close our female alpacas and crias in the barn in the evening, turn off lights before bed and put them out again in the morning. This is done for safety reasons due to predators, weather conditions and peace of mind!

Other than the above mentioned “chores” and daily care we primarily spend time watching our alpacas grazing in the pastures around our farm house. They are fascinating creatures that we believe enjoy watching us just as much! You may occasionally catch our daughter, Ashley training and working with the young alpacas in preparation for a show. She trains them for competition in obstacle courses and events. This is great fun as well.

If you have questions regarding our farm system please feel free to e mail us or contact us on the farm, we would be happy to answer any of your questions. You will find, as we do, that a day on the farm at an alpaca farm is not too bad and better than doing just about anything else!