Thickly Spun Angora Yarns
Topic: Spinning Retreats
Angora yarns that are extremely quick and fun to spin are not the longest lasting ones, or the ones with the most halo. But they are very dramatic and satisfying, I find.

Starting at the left, a MARLED yarn that is composed of one strand of angora (tortoiseshell, in this case) and one of natural brown wool. This kind of yarn is easy to make, and beginning spinners like it as there is a minimum of carding involved.

At the center is a HEATHER BLENDED yarn that uses the whiteness of angora (from a black rabbit!) as a stark contrast to a wool dyed Scarlet with Cushings Acid Dyes. The class kept some before-and-after samples to see how the wool color changed with the addition of angora. It is always amazing. Careful blending on handcards keeps the angora from being shredded while carding, one of the biggest problems folks have with blends.

At the right is BULKY ANGORA 2-PLY. This is the yarn I make for all the knitting kits I sell at Countrywool. This stuff knits up between 3-4 stitches to an inch and I can fill a 4 oz bobbin in 1/2 an hour. This fiber started off as roving carded on an electric Supercard.

Angora Yarns
Topic: Spinning Retreats
At the spinning retreat this past weekend,one of the yarns we made was the "standard" 2 and 3 ply fine angora.

Angora, because of its tiny micron, spins best/evenly at a lacy weight. At this stage it is easier for the spinner to get the fibers aligned, and will provide the maximum fluff, and wear. To make this kind of angora yarn thicker, many plies can be worked together.

This kind of yarn is real work for me, because I tend to fall asleep while making it. I much prefer to make thick and chunky yarns with angora IN them. They will be posted later this week.

But, it was a good exercise for all of us to make this yarn. It does require a very light take up on the wheel, and we had fun experimenting with getting Louets, which have a very strong bobbin lead draw, to behave. But, we whipped them into submission!

Scotch tension wheels have always been easier for me to adjust for varied yarn thicknesses/twists. I spin all my angora yarns on Ashford wheels, with the JOY and ELIZABETH 2 being my favorites. But Shelia tells me her double drive wheel Winsome Timbers "Patience" does all this.

Now, I need to visit Shelia and try it!

Lake George Angora Spinning Retreat
Topic: Spinning Retreats

Beautiful Lake George was stunning to gaze over all weekend while we were spinning away. We had a wonderful time, made new friends, and lots of angora yarn got sampled and made.

This was the first all-angora spinning retreat I taught. We experimented with 50% and 100% and 12% angora blends, along with 5 different colored wools, and made a pile of yarns. Tomorrow I will post pictures of what I brought home, and if any attendees will send me pictures of what they made, I will be glad to put them up here for all to see.

Right now I am delighted to hold the yarns in my hand. They simply radiate warmth. Just like the bunnies!

Silky Fiber

I spent yesterday carding angora for the retreat. When starting up the electric drumcarder, I generally put many coats of the same color together, taking a handful of each together to better mix the results. I was again amazed at the difference in texture I have here among my rabbits.

The chocolate German cross doe I started with 4 years ago had the silkiest coat. She was part French. When Leslie Samson saw it she remarked on its "satinized" sheen. Her offspring have predominantly exhibited the same texture, but others from other lines, even crossed into her , have not. I bred two of her kids (different fathers) together and THEY ALL had this coat.

My new goal is to keep that texture going. So, when I select rabbits for breeding, that will be one of my criteria.

Both Gretel and Liebchen have these coats (they are daughters of the wonderful Matilda) and one of Gretel's daughters that is earmarked for breeding this Fall, Gretchen, also has this texture. Neo, over in the buck barn, is Mr Silky himself. So, no surprise who is going to see who in a few weeks.

Getting Ready For The Angora Spinning Retreat

Greetings all! Two rabbits have been bred and now we sit and wait for bunnies to brew.

... but while that is happening I am busily packing angora and wool fibers for the Lake George Angora Spinning Retreatwhich happens next weekend. Three days of spinning angora and chatting by the lake. I am SO looking forward to this outing.

For this retreat, 5 rabbits have shared their coats with me and we will spend time working on making perfect spinning fiber blends and fine tuning our wheels to work with angora. I am bringing raw clipped angora fleeces as well as rovings created on the Supercard. Also in the line-up: rambouillet and merino wool tops and rovings, as well as superwash wool top, which makes a fluffy blend with angora.

I have had one last minute cancellation, so if any of you would like to join us, there is one opening. The Retreat class fee is $160, which includes all materials and a handbook, and the hotel has a single studio room left for $120/night (you'll need it for 2 nights for the retreat). Do e-mail me if you are interested so I can tell you how to get the low room rate and pack fibers for you.

Cleaning and Fall Breeding Plans
Topic: Breeding

Clean, clean clean....it's all I do right now. I've bleached and blasted every surface I can in the barns to get them into shape for the fall breeding season. After using the same space for almost 10 years, there are spots that needed it desperately! Yesterday was quite nice for barn work, and so I swept and cleaned even more.

All the cages have been outside in the sun for almost a week and I think on Monday I will move them back in. We are due for one more week of humid weather, and then a Canadian cold front is predicted to drop in, which will be nice for all of us.

I have been chatting with potential parent rabbits while I have been cleaning to see if I can pick up on their vibes. Gretel and Liebchen, who have been this route MANY times, are somewhat detached from any commitment, but Gretchen, who is new at this, seems delighted with the potential activity. As does Zwart, who had a few opportunities last spring but wasn't too eager for some of them. Neo is always ready, but he is on hold while I get his fur mites under control, and will be out of the breeding game until later in the Fall when the Ivermectin now in his system wears off.

The first breeding will probably be in 2 weeks, and I suspect I will try Liebchen, Gretel and Zwart. Two weeks later, Gretchen and Zwart. Breeding in the Fall is somewhat dependent on the viability of the buck's sperm, and if he has been affected by the heat of the summer, it can take 6 weeks for him to be fertile again. This first go-round will probably be too soon, but we'll give it a try.

Wool Mites
Topic: Wool Mites

Diana sent some questions about wool mites, and I thought it a good idea to answer them here. All are situations I can identify with!

Are the signs for wool mites conclusive? (e.g. dandruff, wool matting? Other?) Yes, yes and yes! How about this one; eyes tearing. I have one rabbit whose eyes will tear and crust slightly when (untreated and unchecked and multiplying) fur mites end up near her face. The "normal" cycle generally runs like this; a rabbit will have a free flowing coat with two small mats near her ears and a tail area that seems compacted. This rabbit is about to be invaded with many fur mite colonies. Treat this bunny with Ivermectin now and again in 2 weeks. If her quarters are sterilized at this time, and again in 2 weeks, then you may be symptom free for a good long while (6 months). As I have written, and will repeat here, Ivermectin is a pesticide and its misuse/overuse MAY alter genetic information in any creature it is used on, so don't treat your breeding stock for 60 days prior to breeding, which means you WILL have fur mites in your rabbitry from time to time if you are breeding your bunnies.

This brings me to the story of Neo. I used him a lot this past winter and spring as stud, and as a result, could not keep up with the fur mite colonies that moved in. The wet and warm summer gave them license to thrive, and the matting of his coat has been a nightmare. I have had to clip off his last 2 coats and just toss them, but he is one of those rabbits who mats to the skin, and I hesitate to clip too close until the Ivermectin wipes out the colonies under the mats, which takes a week or two of growth after treatment to happen. We are, just now, after 3 Ivermectin treatments, getting to the point where some of his coat may be salvageable for the October clipping.

Do some rabbit lines tend to mat, and is this a factor with wool mites, also? Yes, some rabbit lines tend to mat. And some rabbits tend to get fur mites more easily than others. The finer the undercoat, the more this happens. I dealt with the matting issue by moving to German crossbred angoras exclusively, as they tend to NOT mat no matter what. I deal with the fur mite victims by treating them every 1-2 months WITHOUT FAIL in order to get a nice coat. Mites are not easy to keep at bay without Ivermectin here in my barns. I have tried lots of other things, and they all work to some degree, but that pesticide, if given at the right times, works no matter what.

So, how about fiber that is infested with wool mites? It is weaker than prime wool, for sure, so do everyone a favor by recognizing that and marking it as second quality if you intend to sell it. The critters will eventually die, but sooner is better than later, so sprinkle flea powder containing CARBARYL into a bag of harvested wool and leave it for a few days. Shake out the excess and you should have "de-mited" fiber.

My advice if you are testing your herd for the matting/fur mite tendency before deciding to breed them as is or add new blood in...Give up on breeding for 6 months and treat them through 2 coat harvests. Treat with Ivermectin at month 1, 2, 3 (first coat off), and again month 5. Then see what coats you get with the second harvest. The whole treatment regimen was fully discussed in a few older BareHare posts:Ivermectin and
Fur Mites and Shearing

Barn Cleaning

Long time no post. It has been hot, humid, overcast, rainy and cheerless around here. I am SO READY to have the seasons change, and yesterday morning a dry front moved through. As soon as the dew point dips to below 55* I get incredible energy and want to clean. It dipped to 58* and the barns were so dirty that I went with it.

I have been plagued this summer by drippy eyes and sneezes. Aside from treating the bunnies medically with ointments and antibiotics, I have decided I need to sterilize everything to get a fresh start. Perhaps P. Multocida and Bordatella are in overabundance. I bought a gallon of bleach, cleaned out my propane torch, and set off to work on this new project.

This should take a week of mornings to complete.

First of all, I spread all rabbits out and away from each other and out of the barns. The weather is so great that many of them are parked off the chicken coop, or in the outside hutch I rarely use anymore. The nice thing about wire cages, is that you can hang them anywhere, put a tarp over the top and two sides, and you have an excellent shelter for warm weather living.

Next; using the propane torch, I will burn off the debris on all empty cages. Then, I will spray them with a 10% bleach solution and let them dry in the sun. Then, the torch will be used to clean off the wooden walls of the barn, after which the bleach spray will be used to coat the surface, hopefully reducing the population of bacterial organisms. Then, I'll let the barns air out for a week before I move bunnies back in.

SNUFFLES AND RESPIRATORY AILMENTS
Topic: Snuffles
Lana wrote me with some questions about what Snuffles is and what to look for with new rabbits, and so I decided it was time to tackle this issue on the blog. If this post educates just 5 rabbit breeders about this disease, then I will feel all my time working on this blog has been well spent. So write me if you learn something new. Some Angora rabbit breeders do not consider the condition of a bunny's immune system, rather concentrating on fiber quality, body size and rate of growth as they choose stock. Back when I was new at this business, I bought a $175 pedigreed buck whose owner said he had a "cold". He was dead in 14 months from pneumonia.

SNUFFLES is an advanced case of severe bacteriological respiratory invasion. It is a permanent bad cold, put in human terms. It will never go away as the bacterium that causes it lodges in the nasal/sinus bones of the rabbit, where it cannot be eradicated with antibiotics (enough to do so would kill the rabbit). Symptoms include any or all of the following that REAPPEAR ON A REGULAR (every 4 - 6 months) basis: sneezing, watery eyes, runny nose, and nasal thick mucus discharge. The symptoms will become more severe as the rabbit experiences stress. The bacterium that is commonly the culprit is Pasteurella Multocida, although other bacteria can trigger "colds". Once the P. Multocida organism has a firm hold in the rabbit's system, and it reigns unchecked, then the rabbit simply loses vitality and slowly fades away. Snuffles can be around a LONG time, and is considered, like AIDS in humans or Feline Leukemia in cats, a chronic condition. While the rabbit is "fading", which can takes years, he is prone to other things cropping up: abscesses on the body (feet and genitals); pneumonia; wry neck (dizziness and crooked posture) and other assorted ills.

There are any number of reasons why a rabbit sneezes, and while only one of them is from a bacterial invasion causing a respiratory response, one has no way of knowing by looking at the rabbit. Finding out what is going on with your sneezing rabbit takes a LONG time. Sneezing spreads large colonies of P. Multocida, as well as Bordatella, another culprit in Snuffles. If you have other rabbits, it is a good idea to quarantine your sneezer and take precautions to lessen the chance of infecting another rabbit.

Snuffles takes a long time to fully develop. In the meantime you have fleeting sneezing/discharge symptoms that crop up when stress occurs. Stress can be excess fright, excess heat, excess cold, excess wind, and excess ammonia from urine, breeding and lactation. These symptoms do NOT have to develop into Snuffles IF, and this is a big if, your rabbit possesses a strong immune system, and you work quickly to make him more comfortable and calm.

The first time you see any sneezing/nose dripping/eyes watering you should IMMEDATELY (and not tomorrow):
1. Separate bunny from the others. 20 feet minimum. There is some evidence that 10 feet is enough.
2. Bleach all cages and food/water bowls within 10 feet of where bunny was.
3. Set up a separate food source for bunny's feed. Feed the sneezer LAST and change your clothes/wash your hands before you visit another rabbit. Never feed your other rabbits from this food source.
4. Put water soluble Terramycin 343 in his drinking water. This needs to be mixed fresh daily and used for at least 2 weeks, or a full 7 days past any sneezing. If this is not available, use VetRx for Rabbits (herbal mixture that is FABULOUS for stress). I sell it here at Countrywool.
5. Consider using ophthalmic eye ointments for drippy/runny eyes. Two that I keep on hand are Chloramphenicol and Erythromycin. Use one as prescribed by your vet for 2 days, and if the eye does not clear, use the other one.
6. For the full-bombing treatment of suspected bacteria, Enrofloxacin injectible (Baytril), used twice/day for 4 days, will divert the bacteria. Dosages are outlined in RABBIT PRODUCTION by McNitt, Patton, Lukefahr and Cheeke, or check with your vet.

I give each potentially breedable rabbit one chance to get over a sneezing attack. If it goes away with minimal fuss (VetRx in the water and more attention to a calm environment) and stays away for a full 12 months, then the rabbit has, in all probability, a good immune system that is taking care of little negative bacterial invaders well. After all, anyone can sneeze from dust and allergies, and sometimes it takes bacteria triggering the immune system for the body to resist the bacteria, with a week of sneezing as it copes. But, rabbits that need this kind of treatment to STAY symptom free should never, and I repeat, never, be bred. You are diluting the possibility of a healthy and strong immune system for future generations.

So, new rabbits get quarantined for a full 6 weeks before they are mingled with your herd. Rabbits to be considered for breeding should be observed for a full 12 months, through a year of changing seasons and conditions, to see how their immune system is coping. Rabbits that show signs of developing Snuffles should be considered pet quality and kept away from other rabbits and breeding stock. But, after all is said and done, I have known pet rabbits with Snuffles who lived until the age of 6 when kept inside and treated carefully when a "cold" surfaced. So, single bunny pet owners can offer a fine life to a Snuffly bunny.

COLORS AT 4 DAYS
Topic: black
Grindle's litter is doing great right now, although one wee one did not look so good on day 2. We are down to 8, but all are being fed beautifully by this first time mom. Eight is a lot to handle for any doe, so I keep my fingers crossed.

Here are the three colors I am seeing, starting at top; black, white and tortoiseshell:

The white may not end up being white, but a pale version of tortoiseshell, either blue or lilac, or even a pale pointed white color. The last litter fooled me, as I had not seen a blue torte in some time, so as the color grows out on this bunny I'll know more. The genetics for these two parents are somewhat known to me, as both have been born here, but the colors on the pedigree of the damn's sire seem out of whack, so I harbor a healthy skepticism at this point.