Bewl Rookery Alpacas
We have 16 alpacas happily roaming on our 10 acre paddock. There are nine Huacaya and seven Suri (more on the difference between them below). We have had two Cria born here each year since 2020. Bosky and Treacle were born in 2020 and then Pandora and Cotton in 2021. Then in summer 2022 two more boys were unpacked to mums Priscilla and Suzette. These gorgeous new additions to the team are called Smudge and Pancake.
Smudge and Pancake were born in late June and early July. Like the other Cria they are growing up meeting lots of people and seeing lots of carrots during the Alpaca Afternoon Tea season. You can find out more about our teas here. Along with the rest of the team, they love meeting people and posing for photos with guests!
We think you’ll love our alpacas so much that you may want to adopt one and enjoy all the updates, photos and fun that involves.
We are proud members of the British Alpaca Society and our alpacas are all registered with them.
Alpaca Facts
Alpacas come from the Altiplano in the Andes (Peru, Chile & Bolivia) and have been domesticated for 6,000 years.
They were treasured by the Incas and the fleece was reserved for royalty.
When the Spanish invaded South America they wiped out the alpaca population apart from a few who were hidden high in the Andes. These were the basis for the current population.
They are Camelids (as are Llamas) and are the smallest member of the Camel family.
There are two types of Alpaca, Huacaya (left) and Suri (right).
Alpacas have soft padded feet which makes them excellent grazers for our paddock as they leave it undamaged.
They only have teeth at the bottom and a pad on top so they are also gentle grazers
They tend to deposit their manure in set places around the field in areas called Midens
Their manure is great fertiliser – see more in my story on flowers
They can live for 20 – 25 years.
An alpaca pregnancy lasts 11 ½ months.
When a female alpaca gives birth it is called ‘unpacking’.
Alpaca fleece comes in 22 different shades of colour starting with white and ending with black with lots of different shades in between. Our herd are White, Black, Mid Brown, Dark Fawn, Mid Fawn and Light Brown.
