Oriontree Alpacas & Poultry

02/09/2026

Yesterday, half of the lambs — along with Pez, our retired geriatric ewe — had their dreams come true. They were the lucky winners of a winter on tack. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to graze these lovely fields for a few months and no one is more grateful than the hungry mouths who put their heads straight down upon arrival.

Unfortunately, the journey was a little longer than expected and it looks like a few decided to lie down and act as sponges 🙈 a bit of rain should clean them up again! No one wanted to be first off the trailer!

It is incredibly frustrating to not be able to upload a photo with a video... So there is a photo in the comments of them all loaded for transport with a cute little face peering up 🥰

31/08/2026

A few photos of some scruffy youngsters, but we're really excited about one of our colour projects that came along in leaps and bounds this year. Check out this gorgeous silver dun araucana. She looks like a silver duckwing that's been frosted. We love the pastel hues. We've got a couple of really nice girls this year.

In the other photos, you can spot a dun red, splash red, silver duckwing, gold duckwing. The latter three are all standard - official - colours.

30/08/2026

So far, our boys have been in for two cycles and who knows whether they've done anything 🙈

We do two things: we synchronise our ewes, so we have a week of sleep in between batches, and we bring forwards their lambing so it's over and done with by the time we start hatching. Or at least, that's the plan.

This year, we have four groups:
- Henry is in with the Brookside Farm Suffolks, one mule ewe and one mule lamb who insists that's where she wants to be...
- Bramwell, our 17 micron merino ram is covering all our merino girls
- Izzy is in with our Portland girls
- Nigel, the Suffolk lamb, is having a go with five Portland ewes.

We are switching and swapping a couple of the boys for the last cycle. It's funny to think that it's already nearly time to take them out!

29/08/2026

A little health service announcement:

Keep an eye out for fly strike in your birds with the sudden warm, wet weather.

On Monday, I spotted this guy showing all the symptoms in the first photo:
- tail down in a cockerel is the biggest symptom. If you see that, check IMMEDIATELY
- damp-looking feathers (not as common as they mostly get it on the underside and you can't always see their underside very well from a distance)
- drops of fluid in the house. Look at the floor of his hut; whether it's blood or plasma, he needs checking.

Sure enough, this chap had a bad case of flu strike. I didn't take any pictures of the maggots as I was on my own and setting a tripod up was the least of my worries. He was treated immediately and the second photo is of him later on Monday afternoon. Treated correctly, they recover the same day. No bathing, no trimming, just treatment. Without treatment, I've never had one survive.

Check your birds, peeps. It's a horrid way to die and birds die very quickly.

14/08/2026

Easter egger / tutti frutti 2026 pullets (75% chance of blue or green egg)
Araucana 2026 pullets in black red, splash red and blue gold

Blue red araucana cockerel 2025
Crele araucana cockerel 2025

Black copper Marans 2026 cockerels
Blue copper Marans 2026 cockerels
Splash copper Marans 2026 cockerel

All vaccinated for cocci

Roaming outside

£15-25 each

08/08/2026

Delighted to see Arnold settled into his new home down south with Lisa and Nicholas. Thank you to Lisa and Nicholas for choosing our breeding line. Wishing you the best of luck with him, and we look forward to seeing how he gets on in the show ring next year.

23/07/2026

21/07/2026

Yesterday was an emotional day. We said goodbye to 11 of our girls as they left us for fabulous homes. They have the loveliest new owners who have fallen in love with them, which is how it should be.
With 18 leaving us this year, our herd feels decimated and the fields look bigger than they did, some big characters and household names will be missed, but we are so happy our girls have found the right people.
We wish both the owners and the alpacas all the best in their new lives together ❤️

16/07/2026

Nathan!
I really like this boy. He's always been a solid chunk. The Top Gun lambs have all had width from the start.
Sire: Russo Top Gun
Dam: Russo (Jenny)