The photographs aren't great quality but they show the essence of Delilah. She is a little terror. Her favourite pastime is pouncing on Timothy until he turns and chases her. She will happily spend hours racing around the paddock. She is also responsible for our high mobile telephone bill this month. She is such fun to watch that if one of us sees her doing something we phone the other to look at her. She really is a delight to have around.
We should have had another couple of babies running around by now but even though the mothers look fit to burst they are not letting go. Chance's belly is absolutely huge and it is so low now that if she doesn't give birth soon it will be touching the ground. Larra has been bagged up for over a week and is looking really fed up with it all. I don't suppose I am helping much by following them around trying to look under their tails to see if anything is happening. The flies are annoying all of us. We have spent a fortune the past couple of years on various sprays and potions but nothing seems to work. The girls aren't keen on being sprayed a couple of times a day and it does seem a waste of time when it isn't keeping the flying pests off them. If anybody has found anything that does actually work then we would be really grateful for advice. We even resorted to listerine last year on the advice of a lady in the chemist who uses it on her horses. If we put any more garlic in their feed they will probably refuse to eat and lets face it, they don't have the sweetest breath at the best of times.
Si is off work this week to get on with more digging and stuff around the farm, I look at it more as community service to pay for his criminal act as described in the previous blog. He has been busy burying water pipes in preparation for a water supply to the barn and then hopefully there will be some landscaping done near the gate.
We get annoyed by the flies too, crovect is the best thing I have found, it does mean they have a blue stripe for a couple of days but it soon fades.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of Delilah types here too :-)
Hi Irene & Si
ReplyDeleteWhat fun...I think everybody has a mischief cria!
We don't have the greatest fly problem but I have found that using NAFF OFF works well. It is a natural product designed for horses (hence why we have it). Not sure if it is supposed to be used on alpacas but it has no chemicals in it so should be okay, I think. We haven't had any adverse reactions and I spray it on the cria.
Barbara
Thanks for the suggestions. We have been using NAFF OFF but it doesn't seem to last long and they don't like being sprayed every hour. It does seem to be the coloured girls that are plagued by the flies though so a blue stripe won't be quite so prominent.
ReplyDeleteI use Deosan Deosect..for flies !..on my horses and alpacas....it aparently last for up to 6/8 weeks..depending....mind you...it does seem to do the trick....but you have to ask for it over the counter !...its for fly control on horses and red-mite on chickens............just a thought.....Jayne
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