I Survived Shearing Day
Shearing Day
Stress Stash Enhancement Shearing Day is over and we have survived.
For most alpaca breeders, shearing day is the most stressful day of the year. Sure, some wealthy breeders invite prospective clients to shearing day parties and entertain while hired help does the dirty work. Not so for most alpaca breeders. In general, shearing is a hands-on process for all available help. It can still be a social process, since breeders gather to help each other out on shearing day. By the end of the day, however, all involved are covered in a mixture of shearing oil and tufts of fiber.
Shearing is stressful because it's hard to find a good shearer. Then you have to schedule shearing and get the area ready. Invariably, it rains or threatens to rain so there is (potential) wet fiber to deal with. There are a million little details into planning for shearing, and that's before the first tuft of fiber is shorn.
Shearing is stressful for alpacas. These two-leggers catch them up, tie (or hold) them down, and a stranger with a very noisy and vibrating pair of clippers starts removing hair. It's got to be scary for the alpacas. If they struggle, the humans hold them harder, which can lead to bruises. Any sudden movement can result in shears cutting skin -- human or alpaca.
Shearing is stressful for alpaca breeders because their animals are stressed and because the slightest mistake in handling the animal can result in bloodletting or injury.
Alpacas, of course, can recognize a stressed human. Simply being around a stressed human -- particularly a stressed and familiar human -- can increase an alpaca's stress level.
This is our fourth year shearing. We're doing better. Shearing day wasn't as stressful this year as it has been in the past. It was still very stressful.
The Positive Side
There are two positive sides of shearing day. First, it's a social occasion. Alpaca-owning friends help us shear our alpacas and we help shear theirs. Much gossip is spread above the whine of the shears. It's also an excellent time to evaluate alpacas. There are few times of year when one can touch so many alpacas so intimately as shearing. Once can learn where the warts -- literally warts -- are on a given alpaca, as well as thoroughly evaluate the fiber and temperament of the animal.
For a fiber artist, the best part of shearing is when it's over. Shearing day is too chaotic and tiring -- did I mention how many times I bent or squatted to pick up fiber or hold an alpaca this weekend -- to appreciate fiber. The next day, however, one realizes that the stack of plastic bags in the living room is not a garbage dump, but a stash.
Yes. A new stash.
There are 29 bags of alpaca fiber in my living room that weren't there on Sunday morning. That's what I call a stash.
As a handspinner, my stash is part of how I measure the wealth in my life -- rather like the amount of firewood I have at the beginning of winter.
The task before me now, is to process this stash. Pictures of fiber and shorn alpacas are likely to follow later this week.
For most alpaca breeders, shearing day is the most stressful day of the year. Sure, some wealthy breeders invite prospective clients to shearing day parties and entertain while hired help does the dirty work. Not so for most alpaca breeders. In general, shearing is a hands-on process for all available help. It can still be a social process, since breeders gather to help each other out on shearing day. By the end of the day, however, all involved are covered in a mixture of shearing oil and tufts of fiber.
Shearing is stressful because it's hard to find a good shearer. Then you have to schedule shearing and get the area ready. Invariably, it rains or threatens to rain so there is (potential) wet fiber to deal with. There are a million little details into planning for shearing, and that's before the first tuft of fiber is shorn.
Shearing is stressful for alpacas. These two-leggers catch them up, tie (or hold) them down, and a stranger with a very noisy and vibrating pair of clippers starts removing hair. It's got to be scary for the alpacas. If they struggle, the humans hold them harder, which can lead to bruises. Any sudden movement can result in shears cutting skin -- human or alpaca.
Shearing is stressful for alpaca breeders because their animals are stressed and because the slightest mistake in handling the animal can result in bloodletting or injury.
Alpacas, of course, can recognize a stressed human. Simply being around a stressed human -- particularly a stressed and familiar human -- can increase an alpaca's stress level.
This is our fourth year shearing. We're doing better. Shearing day wasn't as stressful this year as it has been in the past. It was still very stressful.
The Positive Side
There are two positive sides of shearing day. First, it's a social occasion. Alpaca-owning friends help us shear our alpacas and we help shear theirs. Much gossip is spread above the whine of the shears. It's also an excellent time to evaluate alpacas. There are few times of year when one can touch so many alpacas so intimately as shearing. Once can learn where the warts -- literally warts -- are on a given alpaca, as well as thoroughly evaluate the fiber and temperament of the animal.
For a fiber artist, the best part of shearing is when it's over. Shearing day is too chaotic and tiring -- did I mention how many times I bent or squatted to pick up fiber or hold an alpaca this weekend -- to appreciate fiber. The next day, however, one realizes that the stack of plastic bags in the living room is not a garbage dump, but a stash.
Yes. A new stash.
There are 29 bags of alpaca fiber in my living room that weren't there on Sunday morning. That's what I call a stash.
As a handspinner, my stash is part of how I measure the wealth in my life -- rather like the amount of firewood I have at the beginning of winter.
The task before me now, is to process this stash. Pictures of fiber and shorn alpacas are likely to follow later this week.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 6:20 PM
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