At Autumn Sun Alpacas, we know that is no secret that this true black herdsire is an all-around package that you will want to cover any dam, light or dark colored! Secret is a black that had no fading at his tips or interspersed white fibers when he was showing (he's getting a few 'old man' white hairs now). This isn't surprising with a lineage that includes notable black sires like Othello, recently deceased, and Snowmass Nova's Dark Quest. With his distinctive head and leg coverage, along with his inky black fiber, many stopped and stared at Secret the ring. And worthy of that attention, his fiber has extreme density, bright shine, bundled crimp, and soft handle. These are traits that you want to add or amplify in your breeding program! This is obvious in the 10x champion true black son, AutumnSun's Black Maelstrom. We were fortunate to have had our program benefit from such an exceptional offspring, especially as he was just one of only a few we have performed to Secret! We have the fortune of several excellent herdsires, including grey and black, so Secret has had to be patient. And, Maelstrom is just as a precocious stud just as his sire, as both started breeding under 2 years old. Father and son both breed black well into our program. As our Secret is getting up there in years and we we don't want to overtax him (he is still breeding for us), we are closing him to outside breedings.

If you are curious to know... Aika is a 'love song' in Japanese, and it is pronounced 'AH-ee-ka' or if it is easier -- 'EYE-ka'. Aika is the paternal half sister to our Special K, a multiple champion fawn dam of our many time champion Black Maelstrom. She is out of Song, who has lingering fiber quality and had produced a slew of excellent dams (and an occasional herdsire) for us over the years. Song has also produced black more than once, and those dark genes have been passed on to Aika who has had her own black crias and whose progeny has produce black as well. Aika's light fawn girl, Fresca, sired by the multiple champion Matrix son Red Granite's Mr. Ben Franklin, boasted a luxurious, shiny fleece with a staple past our hand length and a crimp all the way to her skin! After being shorn, we were really impressed with her regrowth of even more beautiful fiber that was delicious to handle. Fresca, had a worthy show career with banners earned before producing first a black male in 2021 with spectacular fleece and then our very nice 2023 fawn girl named Champagne Bubbles that stole everyone's heart so that she secured her spot in our reducing herd. Then Aika honed her breeding skills on her white male cria by the white Accoyo America Seneca Warrior, who sold as a juvie. Aika showed herself to be a really great mom with this second cria that quickly exceeded all the other crias that year in growth rate and overall weight /size. With Axios, our fawn herdsire with grey lineage, she produced... well, a beige ;). But it is often said that fawns and beiges often still have the genetics for grey though they themselves are expressing as a light. This 2021 well-developed girl grew fast under Aika's devoted attention as a juvie and solidly filling out as a yearling. Carolina has been bred to our champion modern rose (roan) grey, LibertyAlpaca's Magistrate. Aika produced a black girl by our champion black Dark Secret! Producing black when bred to black, not a bad trait to have in a dark breeding program. Mina has a nice crimp, density, and brightness -- and a fist sized silver grey spot on her hip, so we know she wants to breed grey!. For her 2024 cria, Aika was bred to our AOA black fleece champion, AutumnSun's Guinness. She has produced a healthy MF boy! This boy reminds me of Fresca, her keeper daughter from a similarly pedigreed sire.