Want alpacas at your wedding?
February 02, 2020
It's wedding season again soon and we are attending The Villa, Levens wedding fayre on Sunday 16 February between 11am and 3pm. Come and see us to see what we can offer you. We also take some of our alpacas with us so you can meet them.
We are also attending other fayres too:
Broadoaks County House, Troutbeck on Sunday 15 March
Park House Barn, Milnthorpe on Sunday 17 May.
County Brides Magazine
September 06, 2019
In June our alpacas Carmelo and Jura went to theirs and our first wedding. Mike and Lesley Oliver invited our alpacas to be ring bearers on their special day, with ribbons and ring pouches around their necks.
After the ceremony they dressed in dickie bow ties and while guests enjoyed drinks and garden games the boys spent time 'talking' to everyone, posing for selfies too!
There are some special photos of them in 'County Brides' Issue 12 in an article Mike and Lesley did about their wedding.
If you want some special guests at your wedding to entertain your guests and would like some unique photos for your wedding album give us a call.
Our most rewarding day so far....
July 26, 2019
Words cannot express how much of an amazing and rewarding morning we had. Suzie, mother of a resident at Holehird care home organised for us to visit with our alpacas Carmelo and Jura. The reactions of the residents and their families made the whole experience so worthwhile and knowing our pacas brought joy to some especially who hadn't wanted to come out of their room in ages brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't stop smiling especially when we took them into a residents room and they saw themselves in a mirror, priceless!! The home has spent so much time putting up pictures and posters, making alpaca biscuits, everyone was really exited for us coming. Definitely a worthwhile thing to do and can't wait to do it again.
Numbers 14 & 15
July 12, 2019
Our herd has grown to 15! Today we went to see our friends Tracey & Steve at Lythe Brow Alpacas and brought home Benedict and Braveheart to join our trekking team. Benedict is white and Braveheart is dark fawn, they are both a year old and gorgeous little personalities.
Benedict is so small compared to our others but he was born in August so a late baby.
Once they have done a couple of training walks we will be taking them out on The Helm so you might see them at the top!
Not unlucky 13!
July 10, 2019
This year is letter E as we are in our 5th year of breeding. We only have 4 females so more often than not we only get one cria a year.... this year its Enzo.
Enzo is a light rose grey boy and weighed 8kg at birth.
The little monkey decided it was time to put in an appearance at the same time we were supposed to take some guests trekking. We made a decision for me to stay at home playing midwife while Paul did the trek by himself.
Ian and his family were so understanding, thank you guys, at least I made it to the very end of the trek and got to meet you all.
Come and see us at Skelton Show
June 23, 2019
We are going to our first agricultural show away from home but this time with a trade stand. Why not come and see us and some of our alpacas.
We will also be taking some of the products I make out of our own alpacas fleece, I will also have some raw fleece if anyone wants to buy some for themselves.
And Jura makes 12!
April 13, 2019
When my Dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I was joking when I said "an alpaca" but he said OK so I jumped at the chance.
Moving on a few weeks, after visiting a neighbouring alpaca herd, last night we welcomed Jura. He is 10 months old and a mid fawn colour and his fleece, where it isn't covered in hay, is so soft.
Jura will be joining our trekking team when he has settled in and we have done some training walks. He will be ideal for our younger visitors as he seems to be very laid back so far and he does love his cuddles!
For the next couple of weeks he will be staying at our home with 2 friends just to get used to us all but he will be going up to the big field before long so you can book to come and meet him, just get in touch.
We're going to a Wedding Fayre!
January 28, 2019
The Villa, Levens is holding a Wedding Fayre on Sunday 17th February between 11am and 3pm and Wreay Syke Alpacas will be there!
If you are newly engaged and looking for something a little different for your wedding why not come and meet our alpacas and see what we can do for you.
Another successful day out, this time at the Yorkshire Alpaca Group Show
October 26, 2018
For the first time we ventured out of our county and travelled all the way to York to attend the Yorkshire Alpaca Group show at York Auction Centre. We decided to travel over the day before taking 3 of our boys to show, leaving them overnight at the auction centre. They were all snug in their pen with plenty of hay.
The next morning after an early breakfast we travelled back to the auction centre to start the day, giving the boys their breakfast and getting ready for the show, meeting up again with a lot of old friends and making a lot of new friends too, the alpaca family is a friendly one.
It was a long but enjoyable and very informative day, you learn a lot at these shows and we had to travel back home 2 1/2 hours straight after the show eventually getting home at 9pm.
The whole experience was well worth it because beyond our expectations we did fantastically well, we are so pleased with our little show team.
The results are:
Little Eskrigg Quattro - 1st place in Adult Grey Male & Champion Grey Male.
Wreay Syke Carmelo - 1st place in Intermediate Brown Male & Reserve Champion Brown Male.
Almapacas Icarus - 3rd place in Intermediate White Male.
Carmelo - our Champion
September 12, 2018
Westmorland County Show
Today we took 4 of our boys to the County Show, it is a long day starting at 5.30am when we have to get up to get everything ready and make sure we can get to the showground by 7.30am.
The alpaca show is a 'halter' show which means rather than just a fleece being judged the alpaca is led into the ring for a judge to see. Attributes they look for are fleece density, brightness, fineness and crimp amongst other things. In addition to these they also look for conformation, how they look, do they have strong features which as a stud male they could pass onto their offspring (cria).
We had a successful day with our grey 'Quattro' winning 1st Adult Grey Male, 'Carmelo' our light brown male winning 1st Intermediate brown male and 'Idris' our dark brown male winning 3rd in the same class.
The bonus and icing on the cake was when 'Carmelo' went on to win Champion brown male which means he is the best of all the brown male age groups in the show.
We are so pleased with all the results, it makes the long day worth it.
A difficult birth
July 13, 2018
Getting home after our son's graduation day we checked on the alpacas especially Orchid who was due to give birth in the next week. It looked like Orchid was in labour, wandering round, sitting down then standing up. We kept an eye on her for the rest of the day and into the night but nothing was happening so we decided to call the vet who came out and diagnosed a Uterine Torsion. This meant Orchid was twisted inside and she wouldn't be able to give birth.
Luckily the vet managed to untwist everything and with a bit of brute force Carmelo, a little boy, was pulled into the world at 1am weighing 7.2kg!
Welcome Wreay Syke Chestnut
May 27, 2017
At 4.26pm this afternoon Chestnut was born to Trainriggs Smiley. Smiley is a maiden which is a first time mum but after the initial shock of the birth she has become a wonderful mum.
Chestnut is a little girl and was 8.2kg born and is looking like she will be a mid fawn colour.
After missing our 2 previous crias being born this is the first time we have seen a birth and our first girl. It was a bit of a surprise as Chestnut was not due for another 4 days and maidens usually go over their due date and with no signs at all earlier in the day we were definitely not expecting it!