love of Llamas

This Post reminds me that I love my honeybees too. Here I am still in South Texas, and my bees are in Ontario Canada. I'm leaving here on the 31st, and will be home in time to open them up, usually by April 15. Bees are always an interesting topic, albeit from a distance. I once had an Apiary on rented land near the owners house. This older guy believed he knew a lot about bees, and was in the habit of walking around the hives, in nice weather when the bees were working and friendly, and he'd never had a bee sting. Once, when my Brother and I were working in the hives, all dressed in white bee suits,complete with hat and veil, he came along, and began to make fun of us for being scared of the bees (because we were dressed for the job) he told us the bees knew him and wouldn't sting. My Brother who quickly tired of this, hauled off and kicked a hive with his boot. The bees, instantly mad, came pouring out of the hive, and began to sting this guy on the head. He took off, like a house on fire, and we never saw him again that summer. This is a big reason why I love my bees!

All I can think this morning is a book I bought one of the nieces when she was little, Llama in Pajamas. It came with a stuffed llama that had its own pajamas.

They really sound like amazing animals, Pat. I love to read about the way you care for so many animals, including the unusual ones...

Animals have very long memories--which puzzles me as to why they are so full of love and compassion, even when mistreated. Your llamas obviously love and respect you and trust you that you will treat them well.

The 2 I have (1 male, 1 female) don't like to be touched, as is the true nature of Llamas. They were not handled before I got them, so I am anxiously awaiting the birth of the cria the female should have in June, so I can raise it to be accustomed to handling. That is pretty good for not having been handled for a year. We just did the same thing with our 2 horses. We hadn't rode them since last year, not once all winter, and went for a ride a couple of days ago. They were both very well behaved. The one actually hadn't been ridden for a couple of years as I was raising colts off her, so I was really surprized that she did so well. But she is a Standardbred, so she is very good natured anyway.

That's a lovely story, Pat. Near where I live in Dorset, there is a farm that needed to diversify to survive. They now offer holidays with daily llama treks of between one and four hours where each person leads a llama which is wearing a tailor made pack to carry coats and picnics,etc.

I have so enjoyed the beginning popularity of llamas around my part of the country. I "accidentally" discovered my first information about them in Kansas about thirteen or fourteen years ago, looking up something else in the phone book. Since then I have seen them at petting zoos and the State Fair and as 4H projects. I know it is very satisfactory to have this kind of a relationship with the animals. I think animals sometimes know more about us than we know ourselves.