Bean Stories

Wow, I'm about six months in to having my alpaca farm so with your permission, I'm going to refer to myself as a farmer now. Of course I realize that having 6.5 acres and 7 alpacas likely means I'm nothing more than a hobby farmer so yeah, still a farmer! One of the topics that I feel is near and dear to my heart is poop because I am essentially a 12 year old boy and nothing is more fascinating than poo. I believe it also tells you a lot about diet, overall health and stress levels. Please know that I'm not an expert and most of this comes directly out of what I have learned as a parent to 3 kids, scores of cats and a few dogs and now, alpacas. I have observed a lot of poo over the course of 48 years. My focus today is on alpaca poo, or beans as it's usually referred to. I will consider your feelings and not post bean pictures as I've found that most people are not as interested in it as I am. Although the gross out factor is far less than having your son call you from the loo to come and see the big monster he left behind...trust me on this one.

Alpacas are very considerate animals as they tend to build communal bean piles, probably being prey animals they don't want to carry individual scent and to control the spread of parasites. Whatever their reason, alpaca farmers are happy knowing they can walk out in a field and not constantly be sidestepping mud pies. It also makes pasture cleaning a lot easier for us. Beans are a great fertilizer for gardens, planting beds, etc., whether on a large or small scale, you can apparently just mix the beans in and plant away. I have yet to experiment with using the beans as I've just spent the winter collecting them.

It's been a very cold winter here in Alberta, unusually cold, the coldest winter on record for the past 40 years I've heard. And all I can say is, of course it is, I just started a farm and that means that every challenge known to woman should be thrown at me right out of the gates right? I mean nature doesn't take kindly to some random start-up farmer who thinks because she can fix a sink and passably drive a tractor that she should be allowed to ease into farming. Hell no, let's throw everything we can at her so she'll tuck tail and run back to the city life where she belongs. So what started out as a very organized bean pile outside of the fenced pastures where it made sense in the fall, turned out to be an inconvenient location at best and a total pain to actually walk to with waist deep snow. I resorted to collecting beans in a massive pile out behind my barn and even with the new location I managed to snap the wheel off my wheelbarrow early enough in the season. So now I walk with my full grain shovel from the inside pile to the outside pile. Back and forth and back and forth...

They poop a lot because they are eating machines! Aside from the insanely warm and heavy coats they have, the calories they take in help to keep them warm. I've been really fortunate with my girls, and Newton, that they have not had any health issues. I know this because most of what I do every day is shovel beans, I get a lot of beans on a shovel on each pass so it gives me the opportunity to really have a look at what's coming out the other end. I'm not sure if the girls, and Newton, think I'm a loon because I tend to get really quiet when shoveling, rather than the running commentary I have with them at all other times. But poop is important!

I was cleaning out the barn yesterday and as I finished picking up most of the beans I had Gemma stand in the middle of the barn with her back to me and her tail lifted....I knew what was on the way and just as the beans began to tumble out onto the fresh straw she turned her long graceful neck to look me right in the eyes and smile. I love Gemma, probably more than any of my girls, including Newton, but that was just not cool. I got the same from Gecina when I cleaned the outside pile and now I just figure they poop to keep me running so they can laugh at me. I could almost hear Nila snorting and laughing at me from the edge of the herd. Those 3 girls!!!! I couldn't love them anymore than I do, they are my quirky jokers and I'm so glad they have so much personality. I can't even fathom what it will be like next winter with 4 more alpacas to clean up after, I mean at some point this has to go from manual work to something mechanized doesn't it? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work out but this is a 57% herd expansion, that's a lot more to deal with.

Fortunately I have been managing it well enough in the current location and there are other changes to the design of my primary areas that I want to address soon for next season. I think with that I will be able to figure out a more suitable collection area, or, if I keep the same location I will at least have the summer to build pallet collection containers for all this crap. I don't like a messy farm even if there is a certain amount of beauty in the beans. Once I get rolling this spring, if the snow ever does go away, I will post some pictures of what I come up with. I'll also be selling beans by the pail, so if you are in the neighborhood and bring a pail you'll be getting some good fertilizer for a good price! It's all part of my cycle of life sustainability project that I'm working towards.