Over the years John and I have employed various styles of shelters. I am happy to report that all served us well however some we appreciated more than others. In this piece I will outline shelters we have used along with their strengths and weakness that we experienced.

Generally speaking alpacas only require a sturdy 3-sided shelter to protect them from the severe extremes of weather-depending on your location "extremes of weather" refers to wind, driving rain/snow, or intense sun. In Maine, we are blessed to have all of these at one time or another!

Before designing the shelter itself, take time to think about an ideal location for it on your property. Aside from the obvious considerations of southern exposure, ease of water access, distance from the house, vehicle access etc….our experience has indicated that learning which way the prevailing winds blow on your property is vital. The wind's desired path will affect rain and snow whirling about or blowing into the shelter. Our initial location in Union was very protected and rarely posed significant wind challenges. However our present location in Palermo maintains exceptional gusts from the northwest (a price we pay for fields on the crest of a hill). The worse case scenario happened to us shortly after moving to Palermo. We woke up to find one of our 8x16' shelters had flipped onto its roof during a severe summer storm! It traveled only a few feet from its original location leading us to conclude that it flipped entirely onto its roof while airborne. Luckily nobody was hurt. Needless to say, we are now extremely respectful of wind and it is our primary consideration when placing shelters to this day! As time went by we heard several breeders cite similar stories of flipped shelters.

We were new to alpacas and wanted as many options as possible incorporated into our initial shelter-option to divide the shelter in half with two entries; option of treating a wound or compromised cria on a clean wooden floor; option to shear on a "sweep-able" surface; option to store the feed in the shelter. As it turned out, we employed our 2-car garage for all hands-on procedures and feed storage and only divided the shelter in half once to isolate an animal. Still all things considered-no regrets when building this first shelter because options are always good. The only downside of this design was the height off the ground-we added a female import to our herd who quite simply opposed to stepping up into the shelter. If the weather was truly awful she would go in but it would be reluctantly. When she was introduced to subsequent shelters with a reduced height, she walked in without hesitation. I am sure it was 50% alpaca personality and 50% step height!

Our second shelter looked like this:

There was no wooden floor in this shelter-we employed stone dust instead. John was employed at Dragon Cement at the time so stone dust was easy to get, easy to manage and cheap! Stone dust has its benefits in ease of use however it needs to be replaced regularly because when cleaning the dung piles you will inevitably shovel up stone dust-there is no way to avoid it. Another downside to stone dust is it collects in their fleece as the alpacas roll. The problem arises when the shearer finds his combs and cutters are becoming dull very quickly due to the stone dust.

Our new farm in Palermo required new shelters-the old ones were sold with the Union property. (Unfortunately, for some reason, I only have pictures of these shelters pre-painted stage!)

These 8x12' and 8x16' shelters clearly needed to be mobile to allow us to relocate them as necessary. Moving them is relatively easy using a tractor and skids. Depending on the shelter's location and length of time in that particular location we either offered a grass floor or a dirt floor. The dirt floor would be added to aid in leveling and/or drainage if the shelter was going to remain in that location for an extended amount of time. You'll notice this style also has windows. The natural light is great but an equally important benefit is that bugs are attracted to windows-the more time they spend on the windows the less time on your alpacas.

We purchased a tan 12' x 24' Cover-It to provide shelter while unrolling/dispensing round bales of hay during the winter months as well as tractor storage. Although we purchased the heavier anchors to firmly attach the Cover-It to the earth, we literally tied it down to the tractor when the winds grew strong-as I mentioned earlier, we have learned to fully respect the wind in Palermo. I must say the Cover-It stayed in place but we paid careful attention to it!

After hay season passed some of the alpacas adopted this shelter. Although not particularly attractive, it served a purpose. In the summer it was protection from the rain but it did not provide a significant cool haven when the temps were high, even after both ends were opened to allow the breeze to blow through. Luckily that particular pasture offered several trees for shade as an option so there was balance. What the Cover-It lacked in summer coolness it gained as a winter spa! The alpacas absolutely loved the bright, amazingly warm shelter! We again tied it to the tractor during severe weather "just in case"…once the Cover-It was frozen in the tractor was moved out and the alpacas had the entire space. We also placed straw bales around the perimeter to decrease the draft. Yes, it was alpaca spa heaven and it never moved an inch! But I never grew fond of looking at it-it just did not fit my image of a farm.

As we grew and our barn project got postponed we found the need to add onto our shelters. Doing so changed their status from mobile to semi-stationary but that was ok.

The only improvement that might be considered would be the addition of doors on the front for emergencies. Alpacas will seek shelter when they need it so there is no need to "lock them in". Doors would be advantageous in the event that the severe weather is blowing into the shelter. Generally speaking our alpacas seem to appreciate the freedom of choice-as soon as a door is closed they want it open even if they have no desire to leave!

We successfully, solely used shelters for the first 8 years of our alpaca business. The spring of our 9th year the alpacas moved into our first barn (40'x60' steel structure with 10' overhangs on each side). However we continue to employ the shelters on a regular basis. They have proven to be a "good investment"-that is an investment that required a small amount of capital yet is continuingly valuable in the daily running of our business.