Hazleton tells us about the Llama Shearer
Oh, the two years go around so very fast here at Old King Street Farm and before you know it …its shearing time again!
Unlike our alpaca cousins, who are sheared every year, our wool is slooow growing, so once every two years is just about right for us. And with our increasingly hot, hot summers, its only right that we don’t go about in fur coats. It’s good to get our itchy coat off and let the sun get down to our skin.
The problem is……(whispers) ‘we HATE being sheared’
I know, I know, barber Colin is very speedy and frankly it’s all over in a jiffy, but the whirring of the clippers and the strange people snipping around our under parts…well it’s not nice I say!
Some of us (Maes Howe) knows it will be over soon and stands there, going to her happy place and waiting until it’s over…but others (Rollright) turns the whole thing into a drama which means it takes twice as long. He sat down at the end, Colin couldn’t shear his legs, and looks like he’s wearing jodhpurs – daft boy!
The strangest thing about the process, is that once we are sheared, we don’t recognise each other any more.
I walked right past Annie and said ‘who on earth are you?’ and she’s my sister!!
So, we llamas are much more visual than you give us credit for but after twenty-four hours, we have sorted it out and get back normal.
Trekking again tomorrow, and we will be very smart in our crew cuts…I wonder if the village will recognise us! They might think new llamas have arrived in Ewyas Harold!
