Located in central Virginia, just 20 miles west of historic Richmond, our family farm is home to an award-winning herd of consistently high quality huacaya alpacas. Here you will discover quality, colorful, friendly alpacas, raised with individual care and attention in an atmosphere of trust by full-time breeders. Nine of the 25 show-age alpacas in our foundation herd are Champion/Reserve Champions, 20 are blue ribbon winners and 21 have won at least a second place at Level III or higher alpaca shows! You can meet our award-winning herdsires and our beautiful dams and cria here on our web site. Then come on over, handfeed carrots to our herd and discover why alpacas are so much more than a valuable investment - every home should have some! You will find outstanding alpacas at reasonable prices, with favorable payment terms and the support of experienced, caring mentors. Come and see for yourself - we look forward to welcoming you to our farm.

Summer / Fall 2010 Event Calendar:

Thistledown Heather Nikos is Lot #54 in the Breeders Edge Invitational Auction, to be held by Double "O" Good Alpacas in Gainesville, Virginia on August 27-29, 2010! Come and enjoy Dixieland jazz, Cajun food and a Mardi Gras costume contest where America's best alpacas are up for auction. AOBA-certified judges Diana Timmerman and Wade Gease will be available to help attendees evaluate and select alpacas for purchase. Visit www.breedersedge.info to RSVP today.

23rd Annual Fall Fiber Festival of Virginia, Montpelier, VA - October 2-3, 2010. Here's hoping for another perfect weekend at the Virginia Fiber Festival - last year was sunny and mild with a gentle breeze. We look forward to seeing many of you again. We plan to bring along some beautiful fiber/pet quality alpacas for sale, plus a selection of our natural fiber products, all grown and processed entirely here in the U.S. For more information about this event, please visit www.fallfiberfestival.org

5th Annual VAOBA Expo, Lexington, VA - October 16-18, 2009.
For more information about the largest alpaca show in Virginia, please visit www.vaobaexpo.com.

4th Annual Thistledown Alpacas "Champion Production Sale" - begins October 15, 2010 and ends November 30, 2010. 
We are celebrating our 10th year as full-time alpaca breeders in 2010. Check out our "Sales" page today to see the alpacas available this year. We have a selection of fiber males available - $500 each, two for $800 or three for $1,000 - as well as show-quality colored alpacas for your breeding herd. Scroll through our "Sold" page, if you can bear to see what you missed! Thanks so much to all our customers - we truly appreciate your confidence in our breeding program over the past 10 years and remain committed to breeding quality, colored alpacas for the future. 

Check back soon for updates to our sales list!

4th Annual Thistledown Alpacas Open House & Sale, Manakin Sabot, VA:
Saturday 6 November, 2010 - 12.00 p.m. until 5.00 p.m.
Sunday 7, November, 2010    - 12.00 p.m. until 5.00 p.m.
Rain Date: Saturday 13-Sunday 14 November, 2010 (same times)

Come visit our 4th Annual Open House to get "up close and personal" with our beautiful, friendly alpacas here on the farm. Take advantage of this great opportunity to make an early start on your Christmas shopping - we offer craft kits, socks, yarn and roving made from our own alpacas, which make unique and environmentally- friendly gifts, each for under $20! We have a selection of fiber males available - $500 each, two for $800 or three for $1,000 - as well as show-quality colored alpacas for your breeding herd. As always, you are welcome to call and arrange a personal farm visit at any time to learn more about alpacas. NO DOGS PLEASE. They scare the alpacas, plus we have working Great Pyrenees livestock guard dogs, who live with and protect our alpacas 24X7 and do NOT welcome other dogs! 

Visit our News page to read about events in 2009 and previous years!

Spring 2010 Event Calendar:

CABO Alpaca Show, Concord NC - February 13-14, 2010. Heather won a first place in her first ever juvenile halter class at this Level IV show, and Raspberry won first place in a large spin-off competition, with Meli placing third in the same class. We also brought needle-felting kits and yarn to this show, held over the Valentine's Day weekend. We were just beginning to see the grass again in VA after three major snowstorms, then drove right into another blizzard in NC, which made our alpacas look at us a bit sideways!

16th Annual Virginia Classic, Lexington, VA - March 13-14, 2010.  Meri won a blue ribbon in halter at this Level III show and the judge raved about the density and uniformity of his fiber. There was no Championship class, but Meri went on to win second of eight in the breeder's best bred-and-owned male class, beaten only by the white Champion at this event (who went on to win Judge's Choice of all the Champion males at MAPACA this year)! Heather won a second place in the Walking Fleece Fiber Futurity, judged by Cathy Songer, and our daughters won numerous performance ribbons with their alpacas, and our vet's llama, including first place costume and Reserve Champion Intermediate Youth.

37th Annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, West Friendship, MD - May 1-2, 2010. We enjoy exhibiting at the Maryland fiber festival every year, offering our colored french angora rabbits for sale, and selling natural fiber yarns, rovings and craft kits made from our own fiber animals. For more information about the largest fiber festival in the U.S., please visit www.sheepandwool.org 

PAOBA Breeder's Showcase, York, PA - May 8-9, 2010. We attended PAOBA as a vendor again this year, and if you were there, you may have met our eldest daughter helping out with the shearing throughout the weekend. Meri and Heather both placed second in their color class in the fleece show, with Heather scoring only 1/2 a point less than the grey Reserve Champion! For more information, visit www.paoba.org.

Virginia Renaissance Faire, Lake Anna Winery, Spotsylvania, VA - May 29-30 and June 5-6. The RenFaire takes place every weekend from May 15 - June 12, 2010. We brought four of our alpacas along over the Memorial Day and Pirate weekends, plus alpaca yarn, socks, roving and craft kits for sale. Our "long-necked sheep that fell off the back of a Spanish galleon" are a very popular attraction, and we enjoy meeting all the patrons at the Faire. Come and meet the dedicated cast and crew at this wonderful family event - learn to dance around the maypole, make Elizabethan rag dolls, to stamp leather bookmarks and bracelets, try your hand at archery, enjoy wandering minstrels, acrobats, magicians, theatre productions and the progress of the queen and her court, dressed in amazing historical costumes. Visit http://www.varf.org to learn more about this unique Virginia event.

Blue Ridge Classic Llama and Alpaca Show, Lower Sherwood Farm, Charlottesville, VA - June 19, 2010. This was our first time attending this event and we had such a good time, we hope to add this one to our regular show calendar. Along with alpaca halter and fleece classes, this show offers the opportunity to see llamas and alpacas being shown together in performance classes, at a wonderful local venue, in a relaxed and sociable environment. Our eldest daughter won Reserve Champion Senior/Intermediate Youth, showing our alpaca Meri, against llamas. If you have ever seen well-trained, majestic llamas in performance classes, then you understand what an amazing feat it is for an alpaca to place over llamas. Meri also won first place in a large composite class (judged 50% on conformation, 50% fleece), while Heather won Reserve Champion Mixed female, and our black Tundra son, Excalibur, won Champion Dark Male. Meri and our youngest daughter also won first in a large Junior obstacle class, competing with llamas and alpacas. Check out www.llamalife.com/classic for more info.