The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: llama

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday – October 30th

    Have you ever heard people talking about farm animals and been confused about the terminology they were using? With this week’s farm fact I’m here to help! Below you will find several terms used when describing the farm animals that we have. These are terms that you might see pop up from time to time on our blog.

    Goats:

    • Kid – Baby goat
    • Doe – Female goat
    • Doeling – A young female goat, generally under a year
    • Buck – Male goat
    • Buckling – Baby male goat, generally under a year
    • Wether – Castrated male
    • Billy – Older intact male
    • Dam – Mother goat
    • Sire – Father goat

    Chickens:

    • Chick – Baby chicken
    • Pullet – Female chicken until they are old enough to lay eggs
    • Hen – Female chicken of laying age
    • Rooster – Male chicken (also called cock or cockerel)

    Llamas:

    • Cria – Baby llama
    • Maiden – Female llama who has not been bred yet
    • Yearling – One year old llama
    • Dam – Mother goat
    • Sire – Father goat

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday – October 16th

    A few months ago I posted a fact about the 5 month gestation of goats. Well, this gestation is incredibly short compared to llamas. The length of a llama’s pregnancy is 11.5 months and ends with a single baby!! I can’t even imagine a pregnancy this long!

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday… September 25th

    With all of these facts about goat breeding I thought it would be nice to have a fact about llama breeding… even though both of our llamas are gelded (castrated) males.

    Llamas do not have cycles. They are induced ovulators! Ovulation usually occurs 24-36 hours after they are bred! Generally females are first bred at 14-18 months of age.

  • How the rest of our animals eat

    Back in May I wrote a post about what we feed our goats (here). Since the products that come off of our farm come from the milk that our goats supply we felt that it was important that our customers have an insight to the quality of our milk. The health of our animals is #1 to us so I thought our readers might also be interested in how the rest of the animals on The Freckled Farm are fed.

    Llamas

    Our llamas are strictly grass fed. They spend their days eating grass from the two pastures, munching on blackberry brambles and evergreen trees, and eating mountains of hay. During the winter we are literally stuffing the hay feeders all day. Because we do not give our llamas grain the quality of the hay is incredibly important. It is what keeps the weight on them, so the hay has to be nutrient rich. I have talked about the quality of our hay before. It’s something that we take very seriously. Most farmers that grow hay are small and only produce it for a small number of farms, so they do not want to go through the process and cost to be certified organic. The hay we use, however, is as close to organic as we can get! It’s chemical free and the farmer never uses drying agents. Good quality hay is one of the most important (and largest) purchases we make each year for our farm.

    Chickens

    Chickens eat everything. I’ve said it time and time again… chickens are not vegetarians like many big name chicken farmers would like you to believe. We feed our chickens a wide diet filled with proteins, veggies and greens, and grains. Our Chickens get a non-gmo grain and whatever food scraps that come out of our kitchen or garden. Our chickens also pick up lots of greens and bugs while they free range around the farm. You can tell if your chicken is getting a balanced diet by the color of their yolk, and our girls have bright orange yolks. I wrote an article about that as well (here).

    On The Freckled Farm the health of our animals is incredibly important to us. We do everything we can to make sure all of our animals have a well-rounded, nutrient-rich diet.

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… August 28th

    Have you ever wondered what farms do with all of the manure that their animals produce? Here on The Freckled Farm we use it for our compost and garden. Both goat and llama fecal matter has little to no odor and both can be added directly to your garden without having to be composted. It acts as an amazing fertilizer! It’s a great organic way to give your plants a boost.

  • Beating the Summer Heat

    I love the heat! I’m comfortable even on the hottest days of the year… The cold is what I have trouble with (if you were following us last winter you are well aware of this!). The animals however don’t deal with the summer as well as I do. We have to take certain precautions to make sure that they are safe and healthy even in the hottest temperatures.

    The goats deal with the heat the best. We just have to make sure they have constant fresh water and shade. During the hottest parts of the summer we may have to come out several times a day to make sure the water buckets are filled. A few summers ago, when we were dealing with extreme heat, I witnessed a bucket of water emptied in front of me between the llamas and goats. We have several buckets spread around. We always keep at least one in the barn and one in the pasture.

    The chickens will tell you when they are too hot. They pant and egg production may go down. In very extreme heat chickens may become listless, which is a sign that they could be in danger of heat stroke. We help our chickens deal with the heat by making sure they always have fresh water, occasionally we will add ice to the water to keep it cooler longer, we give them frozen fruit and veggies to eat, and give them fruits with high water content like watermelon. It is also important that chickens have shade and space to dust bathe since this can help them regulate their temperature.

    In the spring we shear both llamas to prepare them for the summer and like with the rest of the animals we make sure they always have fresh water and shade. Afton, our cream colored llama, does fairly well in the heat. He dust baths a lot, but is no where near as miserable as our black llama, Blue. Poor Blue struggles in the heat, so at least once a day, on the really hot days, we go out and hose Blue off. He loves to stand in the running water.

    Heat can be very harmful to animals. It is extremely important that you take measures to keep your animals safe in the heat. For most fresh water and shade is enough, but keep a close eye on them to make sure they don’t need further help.

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… July 31st

    Given that we are now in the dog days of summer I felt like it was a good time for this fact about llamas…

    We discussed before how llamas are in the same family as camels, so they share many similarities. Like camels, llamas can survive for weeks without water because they can collect water from the food they eat. I have also witnessed our llamas suck up a half a bucket of water in one sitting on a hot day!

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… July 24th

    Did you know that llamas are not actually hoofed animals? On each foot they have two toenails and on the bottom they have a leathery pad. This hoof structure makes them very sure footed. It allows them to have better sensation on the bottom of their feet and gives them better contact with the ground.

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… May 15th

    Here’s a fun little fact about llamas… Llama’s have somewhat unique bathroom habits. They pick 2 or 3 locations that they designate as their “bathrooms” and they will only go in those spots. On our farm there are several large piles of poop strategically placed throughout the pasture and one in the barn. The same spots they have been using since we got them 2 years ago. It most definitely makes mucking easier at the end of the day and keeps the pasture cleaner.

  • Llama Shearing

    Every year, when the temperatures start to climb, we shear our guard llamas Afton and Blue Ridge. This keeps them cool during the dog days of summer. Since we do not have the equipment required to do the shearing ourselves the owners of Westerham Farm, where we purchased our llamas, come out each year to do it for us. We always enjoy seeing them, and having them see the boys!

    The pictures below are from our very first shearing in 2013!

    2013 llama shearing