Alpacas on the Farm

Our two teenage boys have been settling in really nicely to the domaine – they love eating hay and carrots, and are gradually getting more confident. For those of you who follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you’ll have seen that we had some new arrivals on Domaine Mirabeau last month; two alpacas!

Jeany Cronk, co-founder Mirabeau May 2020

Back in April 2020, Jeany and Pascal, the Domaine’s Estate Manager went off to Les Alpagas de Bourbouton, a local alpaca breeder who is based just a couple of hours from the Domaine, and fell in love with these two alpacas. Pascal set about building them a shelter from repurposed oak wood from a barn on the domaine, and finally at the end of May, they arrived!

We ran a naming competition for the alpacas on Instagram, and you came up with some hilarious, creative and clever suggestions.

We ended up naming the duo-tone alpaca “Pablo” [Picasso] and the blue-eyed one “Vince” [Van Gogh] after the two artists who loved Provence, spent time here, and encapsulated Provence in their famous paintings.

Vince and Pablo are great companion animals to goat Zoë, our pigs Digby and co, as well as the chickens and ducks.

The alpacas keep the grasses and bushes in the forest short, so we don’t need to use any machinery to keep the area clear, and their manure gets used as fertiliser in the domaine’s gardens, as it’s a great, rich soil conditioner.

While the vines are dormant, they are really enjoying munching on the crop cover in the vineyards, which we planted after the harvest.

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