Blue Moon Alpacas live peacefully on our farm near Port Elizabeth. In 2007 we imported our foundation herd of 10 white huacaya females, one of which gave birth to little Ella whilst in quarantine in Chile and 1 junior herd sire, also a white huacaya. On our second import in 2009 we selected 4 fawn huacaya females & 1 dark fawn Vicuña pattern huacaya male, also from Chile.

Our stud name came about from our love of Blue Moon roses and also the fact that once in a blue moon you have the opportunity to be part of something as unique as owning and breeding alpacas. Ours is a long-term project, with the aim being to breed amazing alpacas with fabulous fibre that we can shear, process & create gorgeous garments from our own fibre right here on the farm.

We started with 2 wethers (neutered males) in May 2005, Zeus and Sorpresa. We had to familiarise ourselves with these lovely creatures as well as see how they adapted to our Eastern Cape coastal conditions. We then decided to take the next step and immerse ourselves in the breeding of alpacas. We made contact with Maria Bravo of Quintessence Alpacas Int in Chile through Carmen and Udo Mettendorf of Sacoyo Alpacas, who are Maria’s agents in Cape Town. After attending a fashion show in November 2006 in Paarl, where we met Maria and admired the wonderful garments she has had created from alpaca fibre, we were hooked for good. We selected our herd with Maria’s guidance and cracked on with the task of erecting our barn and sorting out the paddocks for our new herd. Finally on 27th April 2007, we brought our precious alpacas home to our farm. It was exciting as well as nerve wracking on that trip but we arrived home safely, ahead of a storm, and they all soon settled down inside the barn.

They are highly intelligent animals, incredibly curious & learnt English very quickly indeed!! All have names and their own individual personalities, likes and dislikes. One or two have definitely graduated with distinctions from the Alpaca Academy of Attitude!! Inchala gave us a beautiful boy named Antonio on 6th June 2007. Antonio was our first cria born on the farm. He was weaned at 6 months, has been halter trained and will eat pellets from our hands. He will do anything for food & has grown into a wonderful sire with his first progeny due in December 2010.

We shear alpacas once a year. Udo and Carmen sheared our herd in October 2007 & my husband, Marco, sheared our 2 wethers under Udo’s guidance. We sort the fibre into 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades whilst shearing. The alpacas are restrained in a recumbent position on a mat on the ground for shearing. Whilst they are restrained, incisor teeth are checked and filed with a dremel if necessary. The young males also have their fighting or canine teeth filed down as well. It is a good opportunity to have a close inspection of those parts of your alpaca that may be difficult to see clearly whilst unrestrained.

The patient wait was on for the rest of our pregnant imported moms to give birth and they did so from 26th December 2007 to 27th February 2008. All highly pregnant, they still managed a lap or two of the paddocks. Sand baths are always high on the list of things to do and of course anything resembling water is met with great enthusiasm – alpacas love to play and kush (lie) in pools of water although they do not like the heavy rain.

Finally “criation” time arrived with Bono, a beautiful pure white male, born to Emma in the early hours of 26th December 2007. Next came Kabuki Queen, a gorgeous light fawn Vicuña pattern girl, born to Graciosa in the early hours of 27th December. Carlos was born premature at 13:30 on the 5th January 2008. This little cria would never have survived without our help. We fed him every 2 hrs with a bottle using milk from his mom, Carmine, in order to make sure he received the vital colostrum from her and thereafter mom’s milk is always better than a milk substitute. Let me tell you, it is no easy task milking an alpaca. My husband converted our chicken brooder into an incubator to keep his temperature above 37°C in order for him to have the suckle-action as well as for his body to absorb the colostrum. As soon as he was able, he was supported to drink on mom himself. 3 days later he was on his way to becoming the cutest little boy on the farm and of course cheeky too. The rest of the moms gave birth out in the fields around 8am with myself observing, cria bucket in hand, from a distance.

We are fortunate to be able to observe most of our girls giving birth, something truly amazing to witness. We do not interfere unnecessarily. Observe from a distance, keeping time checks just in case the cria become stuck or there is an abnormal birth presentation. Only then would we intervene and help reposition the cria. This is something we did not have to do with our first cria season. Kerstin Heisterkamp of Manor House Alpacas in Paarl was our saving grace!! Kerstin is a mine of information & is never too busy to advise. Thank you so much. You are amazing!! Once the cria is delivered he / she will make an effort to stand very quickly, albeit on very shaky legs. Following a normal birth, with the cria full term, locating the milk bar is next and so starts a new alpaca life on our farm.