Shearing took place on April 3rd this year.  We had 16 Alpacas to shear.  Darren from Wyoming and Sam from New Zealand, with some help from Pat, Sherry, and Kathy sheared everyone in about 2 hours.

On the left is a picture of Darren (red shirt), Sam (long hair), and Pat (hat) working on Sampson.  Darren does the shearing and Sam helps hold and position the alpaca being sheared.  Pat is trimming toe nails and bagging up the fleece as it is sheared.   

While you don’t see us….Kathy is taking pictures and tagging the fleece bags and placing them under the Ezy-Up just outside the barn door.  I’m haltering the alpacas; Pat and I usually meet at the front of the shearing stall, I give him the next alpaca to be sheared and he gives me the one that’s just been sheared.

The first alpaca to be sheared was Domino.  The 4 pictures above are all of him being sheared.  The first step is to restrain the alpaca and stretch him out on the rubber mats.  The blanket is sheared first and gathered up in a bag.  Then the neck, head, legs, and tail are sheared and bagged. 

Darren and Sam are very careful in positioning the animals as they are sheared and ensuring they are not hurt during the process.

On the left is a picture of Domino after being sheared.
 

Below are a couple more pictures of Lucky Charm (true black male) and Sierra (medium silver grey and rose grey female) being sheared.

We now have our new crop of fleece to be processed.  

It had rained the morning we sheared so the bags of fleeces are laying open in our garage for a few days to dry.