Alpaca Farm!

This is a special, extra edition of our weekly update.  We visited Fox Wire Alpaca Farm in Toano today and had one of the best times we've ever had!  We hope your associate shared with you about their day...every one of them smiled a lot today.  We were proud of their attention to the vast amount of information Farmer John shared with us and also the excellent questions they asked!  We took so many pictures, we decided to share them in a post of their own.  Enjoy!

We met Farmer John at the store on Richmond Road where we loaded onto the farm tour bus and headed out to the farm, which is located off Forge Road near the Little Creek Reservoir.  Our first lesson was on how the farm observes all the rules of keeping the water clean by not letting nitrates and phosphates (from animal waste) run off into the creek, which leads to the Chickahominy River and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay.

Next we learned about hydroponics!  In a rather small room, the farm grows feed in these tubs...with just seeds and water.  There is enough in one 20 lb tub to feed 15 alpacas!  There were frogs and spiders all over the walls, too...which help keep pests from getting in the plants.  On the way out the door...thank goodness Carol was leading the way...a black garter snake fell from the rafter right down in front of us!  Too bad we didn't get a picture of that!

The first animal stop was the playful goats.  We had a lot of fun with them!

Here are some Jersey steers, rescued from slaughter and being trained (ultimately) to give farm visitors oxcart rides.

We caught Devin's reaction after the cow licked his fingers!

There are 88 alpacas on the farm, with 8 babies due in October.  Here, a young "cria" is nursed by her mother.

Being still and quiet while the alpacas get used to us.

Enjoying lunch...

Hard to tell, but these are mini donkeys.  We fed them, too!

These guys are Jack and Ross...they are guard llamas!  They were trained by a Marine Sargeant to protect the alpacas.  There toenails are filed to resemble a serrated knife and they can rotate their legs in their shoulder joints like humans.  That makes them great at attacking coyotes, which are predators.  

We were great listeners!

John demonstrates with Kacie how the guard llamas will attack if a predator (including a human) doesn't turn his back and walk away.

There are four Tennessee Walkers on the farm, and they love carrots!

These are Kune Kune piglets.  They are native to New Zealand.  We ended our great tour with these cuties! 

There was a little feed left after feeding the piglets, so Kacie fed it to the mommas!

As you can see, we had a delightful time.  We can't wait to visit again!