Hello wonderful HO of THS! I’m attempting to have a vacation this year, but am having a huge challenge finding a farm-sitter. I’ve been pro-active and welcomed several sitters who had the dates free on their calendar, but each either just turned me down or said they had other plans…not booked or evident on their calendars. I live in the SW of France with a dog, a cat, chickens and three alpacas. There are many lovely people who wish to sit, but do not have even livestock experience (“I knit with alpaca wool!”)…sadly. I know this is a specific animal, but I’m willing to work with people with at least horse experience (which I did in March and that one worked out incredibly well! Sadly she is not available for my dates.). I have told potential sitters I am flexible with my dates.
Also, it would be so lovely to be able to search for sitters with specific animal experience. Many do list “livestock” without any experience or evidence of said skill.
Any tips you may have or if you know of any sitters with alpaca experience, it would be wonderful to hear from you. Please let me know if I may elaborate or answer any questions to facilitate your advice.
Thanks so much!!
~Michelle
Trying to look for specific sitters is always going to be difficult. Even if you find sitters with the right skill set, they might not want your dates, or be available.
You could simply list, with the mention that dates could be flexible to suit the right person and mention what you prefer – livestock experience vs what you are willing to accept. I don’t know exactly what that is, but if it’s a willingness to come a few days early and learn that might get you willing eager sitters and you could make a decision based on their previous experience and a frank chat.
They might have a life: a job, or school. Or just not interested.
Thank-you, Marion. Yes…I’ve done all of that. I try to be kind, thoughtful, empathetic to all and to all situations…as well as be as flexible as is reasonably possible with my situation here in the SW of France. It’s also what found me my first farm-sitters which was a wonderful experience. If you think of anything else, please let me know.
Again, thank-you for your quick reply!
Michelle
Ignore sitters calendars, I don’t complete it (like a lot of other sitters), because the way to read it is totally misleading, it ends up looking like we are busy when we are free and vice-versa, and it looks different on a laptop to a mobile. It should be straight forward, but it isn’t, and THS haven’t fixed it, so a lot of us just don’t complete it.
There are plenty with chicken experience on THS and there’s some with horses, but less so, but if you aren’t attracting what you need then one solution would be to have a loving sitter arrive the day prior (or even two), and then they have plenty of time to learn the ropes, because I think a lot of sitters would love the chance to learn about alpacas.
We’ve sat a pig, geese, chickens etc since joining THS and we have loved learning about them and their personalities and characters, and I’m sure alot of sitters are like us where it’s hugely enjoyable learning about a new animal. It’s a little more hands-on, but very enjoyable.
The reason why sitters tick ‘livestock’, is because it is worded “Which animals are you interested in sitting?”. It isn’t about experience on that question that we are asked.
Whereas there is another question which asks “Pets you’ve cared for.” Where sitters can tick “farm animals”, but not livestock. So farm animals could simply include chickens in some peoples minds (even though poultry is on there too).
I think most sitters will have pet experience and not so much livestock/ farm animal experience, maybe apart from chicken. Even if some do have farm-animal experience they might not want to do that on travel. So that requirement could be quite limiting in regard to possible pool of potential sitters? But many are both responsible and have animal experience, so I would think most can learn what it takes.
One option could be getting a contact-person locally, either to do selected tasks that you feel require certain competences and/ or that the sitter can contact to get assistance. I have seen several similar arrangements for sits like yours. Someone that come by with a tractor with a hayball, a youth that take the horse for grooming or other. Just examples, the idea is to get a «team» together so that the sit can be successful.
You might want to, if you haven’t already, open for a family-sit. I’m sure lots of families would love a sit like yours ( and many youngsters have good and long stable-experience and horse-interest also). SW France-locations are often quite rural. You might want to look into transportation for a sitter, as has been discussed several times on forum, if you haven’t already. Means of transport could open up for International sitters that would arrive by air.
Unfortunately it’s not possible for a sitter to indicate the location that they want to sit on their available dates. So A sitter maybe available for the dates that you need but looking for a sit in Australia or Florida or London, the calendar doesn’t indicate that.
I’m in SW France also (Ariège) and we just had a couple from Wales sit for us who might be capable. The young woman grew up in the countryside and her family had horses and other farm animals if I recall correctly. You can look at my listing and check out the review by Tom and Kiani.
Have you been able to look through other listings to find those with alpacas, and see if their previous sitters are interested? I know I’ve seen alpacas on listings, in Ireland I think and maybe other locations too.
Hi @mapgrrl
As someone has said, and as has been discussed a lot on the forum, there is no point inviting sitters simply because it looks like they are free. My calendar will show I’m free when I’m not booked for a THS sit, yet I’ll soon be off for a 2 week trip to Spain, then a cruise then looking after a friend’s home for nearly 2 months. I also sit via another website. None of those are marked off my calendar as it’s just not intuitive.
As for looking for people with horse experience for your alpacas, why is that? I have had two sits with alpacas - the first 23 alpacas, 2 dogs and 3 cats in New Zealand. When I explained I had no experience with alpacas the owner told me they were easier to look after than the dogs, and that proved to be true. My second sit was for 9 alpacas in Canterbury, and 2 cats. Again, it was easy looking after them. I would have no hesitation accepting another sit with alpacas. I’ve also had over 40 rare sheep on a sit, some Pygmy goats on another. I have had lots of chickens on various sits, including 12 rare breed chickens.
I would love to be able to help you but am booked up for this year.
Hi @mapgrrl I would also like to know why horse experience is necessary to look after alpacas. I’ve hand fed cattle, sheep and brushed and fed horses with the owners showing me what to do and I’ve got no horse experience. They all survived! I’m not afraid to be around large animals but have no idea what to do with them if they need something not included in the instructions. I’ve also had an alpaca “experience” leading one around and hand feeding it, albeit only for an hour, and it was really gentle. We would gladly come to SW France from Australia, as we love that area, if you included a car for our use, but we can’t do it this year. Wishing you every success.
@mapgrrl you best chance of success is for a suitable sitter to notice your listing and apply.
Your listing doesn’t show a photo of the bed and bedroom that the sitter will have use of , sitters want to see that .
Your listing is written in French (with English further down the page ). Looking at it on the app it appears only to be in French , so many sitters unable to read this will skip past without expanding the text and scrolling down to see the English translation.
If you switch the paragraphs so that English appears first you may get more sitters stopping to look at your listing ( and subsequently applying )
If you add in the responsibilities section of how long these tasks will take each day, then sitters will know how much free time they will have .
We’d be totally capable of looking after alpacas as we both grew up on a farm & in the mountains respectively. That said @mapgrrl we don’t list horses on our “care list” so you would have ruled us out in your current selection system. Why don’t you post the listing & ask for “a capable couple with rural or farm living experience” as a selector and that will widen the pot? IMHO if we can care for wild boar & sheep (which we do list) then we can care for an alpaca with a couple of days overlap & some clear instructions. The calendar is useless as it only shows THS sits not a sitter’s true availability. Invites are a slow and often pointless process through no fault of a sitter. Share the listing on here and you might be lucky with a forum member being able to help. #alpacaallure
Oh, i would totally love to take care of Alpacas! They’re so cute! IMO you should be open to sitters coming a couple days early to learn the routines vs requiring people know what to do when walking in the door. I’ve done small farm sits before and when it was for animals I hadn’t worked with before, I just came early to learn. No big deal. And even those with experience might want a refresher. I have a lot of horse experience on paper, but it’s been a long time since I cared for them so I would definitely want a review.
And just to pile on: the calendar is worthless, don’t even waste your time with it.
Thank-you Tom/Kiani!
Hello Diane,
Yes…since last year and before I used my first THS earlier this year. Normally when I do a search, because I know where the brunt of alpaca farms are, I search that particular country, e.g. Ireland or the U.K.
Merci bien,
michelle
Sometimes I’m lucky and when I’m searching, they most definitely have indicated all of the above…
Thank-you Garfield.
Hello Marion…I always do exactly what you’ve mentioned. I’ve only listed actual livestock experience but horse care if they have it is preferable.
Hello Deb,
This is exactly what I did with my first THS back in March. She owns and cares for a horse, so she arrived early and of course we had video chats and discussions before…I also provided resources.
Great insight on the THS site too. THanks.