Turkeys roam free - under the watchful eye of ALPACAS

Daily Mail ^ | 25 November 2017 | Iain Burns

[mairdie]

A Berkshire turkey farm has recruited an elite team of security guards to protect its precious flock of birds in the run-up to Christmas.

King's Coppice Farm in Cookham Dean has 30,000 free-range turkeys, but has previously suffered hundreds of losses after foxes sneaked into their hutches - until the owner brought in some alpacas.

Managing director Tom Copas, 32, said foxes would leap over electric fences, evade armed men and dodge traps to get at their birds.

So, Copas told The Times, he had to take drastic measures - by adopting a couple of alpacas he named Sage and Onion.

Alpacas instinctively guard livestock and have been used for the purpose by farmers in South America for centuries.

[mairdie]

Who knew????

[Grampa Dave]

Some of the sheep ranchers on the coast from Bodega Bay to Gualala use Llamas to protect their sheep.

Twice, I have seen these Llamas really kicking and pounding coyotes until the coyotes crawled away. Once with one of my adult sons and once with my wife.

[1FreeAmerican]

And after you get enough alpacas then you need some llamas to guard the alpacas!

[Georgia Girl 2]

I think llamas are more aggressive and larger.

[mairdie]

5th great grandfather, Henry Livingston, lost sheep to wild dogs. He would have loved learning about alpacas. His cousin, Robert Livingston, wrote a book on Merino sheep, which they were trying to raise in NY around that time. Because they couldn't afford to hire shepherds as they did in Europe, the early NYers built stone walls to hold the livestock in and the predators out. The fashion for expensive sheep died out quickly, along with the poor sheep.

[BigEdLB]

Plus alpacas produce their own kind of woll. It’s a win win

[mairdie]

Excellent point!

[leaning conservative]

Made me smile : )

[Grampa Dave]

Llamas are bigger than Alpacas.

We had friends, who raised both and had more aggression problems with the Alpaca mothers.

They sold all of them, when they really got into raising wine grapes. Imagine a herd of Llamas and/or Alpacas getting into a vineyard and going down a line of grapes eating them.

The only thing worse is a big flock of wild turkeys feasting on your grapes.

[Fantasywriter]

This is a HILARIOUS video about a llama desperate to cause trouble. At first no one will play the llama’s devious game...then along came Joel.

[Fantasywriter]

Forgot the link:

https://youtu.be/dGinm6KIC4Q

[KavMan]

Wolves are scared of Alpacas?

WTF kind of Wolves are these? SJW's? lol

[Grampa Dave]

The history in Free Republic’s is so great.

[mairdie]

And a very detailed essay on cultivating grapes written by 6th great grandfather Edward Antill in 1769. He won an award for the greatest number of vines, not less than five hundred, which produced 'those Sorts of Wines now consumed in Great Britain.'

My only problem with the article is the use of a mortar of clay and horse dung mixed up with strong flaxseed tea to close the bung hole. YUCK!

[mairdie]

I learn so much here. The discussions just take off and go from one end of the world of topics to the other. And people recommend so many interesting things to see and read. Absolutely love the people on FR!

[Larry Lucido]

Sign of the alpaca lips.

[smalltownslick]

Right here in Ohio we have the Yellow Butterfly Winery - they also raise alpacas.

[mairdie]

Yellow Butterfly Winery

[GnuThere]

Alpacas are so cute - they look like giants among the turkeys!

[mairdie]

I wonder what the alpacas and turkeys think of one another. They seem willing to stand very close.