Cage Cleaning
Topic: Cage cleaning

Lana wants to know how to get cages spotlessly clean. I am happy to share what I do.

I use a propane torch, wire brushes, and count on the sun to help me. I keep extra cages around whose job it is to sit in the open air out in the field and bleach themselves extra clean.

Years ago I agonized over every case of fur mites that erupted, and I spent a summer using Sevin (a pesticide) on the wood walls of the barns to get every last mite. That helped me for almost 9 months, but then they were back. I decided the chemical dousing was not healthy for anyone and have accepted living with a controlled mite population. However, that experience taught me the value of leaving cages in the sun, which was one tool I used to get the wire ultra clean and mite free.

I feel that after a long and dreary winter, each rabbit deserves to get a (spotlessly) clean cage and a new perspective. So, every rabbit gets one along with a position shift in the barn. I do this again in the fall after bunny season is good and done as we settle everyone down for the winter.

So, here's what happens.

Cage looks dirty and it's time for a change. I pop a new CLEAN cage in a new spot (barns are not crowded...remember that you need air space between the rabbits to keep P. Multocida, Bordatella, etc. at bay!) and put in a clean food bowl (dishwasher sterilized) and a new water bottle (bleach sterilized sipper tubes with brand new plastic 1 liter (former) seltzer bottle). If it is winter time, a plastic (bleach sterilized!) resting board gets clamped in to keep their little paws off the cold wire.

In goes bunny. He/she always gets a handful of hay plopped in the middle of the cage to chomp on while exploring the new home, the new window, and the new neighbors! (Every now and then an uncontrollable urge comes over me to have them ALL face East, or West and they get aligned spots. Very Feng Shui, eh?)

Out goes the old cage. It is unceremoniously dumped on the ground upside down. The wire brush makes quick work of whatever is hanging on the bottom, and the inside and sides are quickly brushed to get rid of the majority of hair felted around each wire. Now it gets to sit in the sun for a week upside down. After a week, out comes the wire brush again. Another brushing will get rid of whatever had been lingering. Out comes the propane torch, and the cage gets hung on the outside of the barn so I can stand while I torch every square inch at eye level. That takes about a half hour per cage. Then the cage gets put back in the sun to bleach/weather until the next season.

Once every few days, after feeding everyone, I go around both barns with wire brush in hand and scrape the bottoms of the cages. This takes 10 minutes and has a HUGE payoff as the cage bottoms cannot get truly clumped and matted in the "latrine" corners. This scraping/jiggling spooks some of the rabbits, and I can tell more about their personalities from this maneuver.

To read more: I chatted about some of this a while back here in the blog.

Bunnies at 4 1/2 weeks...the games begin!
The clowns have arrived! This is the prelude to Mom losing all patience; the time when all of the bunnies are mostly weaned; their curiosity is almost at peak and they can have human visitors.

This is the little guy still for sale. He is addicted to hogging the food bowl.
Eight to twelve year old children adore bunnies at this age if they have no fear of small creatures and can hold without squeezing. I am waiting for one of my FAVORITE wee customers to arrive on the 15th to play with the bunnies.

I have a 15 month old Golden Retriever who has become quite a handful. Penny requires daily 2 mile walks to keep her in-line. We are very fond of the show "The Dog Whisperer" and hang onto Cesar Milan's every word. (He is on from 6-7 every night on the National Geographic Channel). Cesar talks alot about how dogs "alpha" humans and this can get households into trouble. One of the things they do is to put themselves, or a paw, over another member, and while we think it is cute, it is a sign of dominance.

I think the bunnies have been taking notes:

Bunnies at 3+ weeks
They continue to charm me.

This little sweetheart (above), daughter of Gretchen and Zwart, will stay here. One of her brothers is going to live with Trish, and one of her brothers (below)will be looking for a new home in 4 weeks.


Grindle's bunnies are all spoken for, and it continues to amaze me that so many tortes were born in that litter. Unreal! The odds of getting that much light color in a litter with one black parent are pretty small.

Gretel and Sydney are both due in two weeks and we'll see how they do. Both are eating like horses. If you will recall, Sydney did not do well last time, but she is a changed rabbit since then and I have high hopes. Gretel is getting on in years, and I expect only one or two in her litter, but who knows?

Dyeing wool
Topic: dyeing
Starting with raw wool fleece is always appealing to me. I love the smell of fresh fleece, probably because I do not have sheep. Washing fleece is a very satisfying task.

Starting with the hottest tap water I can collect, I fill a 5 gallon pail and add about 1/2 cup liquid dish detergent (I use AJAX) and mix carefully with no suds resulting. Then I immerse about a pound of fleece in this water and let it soak for 30 minutes. Then (and this is the fun part) I dump it outside on my deck, letting the dirty water run through the boards, trapping the fleece on the deck.

Years ago, I used to do all this in the kitchen sink, but when the septic tank guy came and saw the 8" thick crust on the inside of the tank, he asked me what the hell I had been dumping down the drain?!? So, now the first two washes get dumped outside, with all the lanolin(!)and the rest of the rinses happen in the sink.

So, back into the house goes the pail (empty) and more hot water is added + detergent a second time if it needs it (and this stuff did). THEN the wet and squeezed out fleece. Another 30 minute soak, and another dump. Then a fresh pail of hotter clear water for a 30 minute soak. Then a second fresh pail of hot clear water for a second 30 minute soak.

The fleece above is the natural charcoal I am using. I repeated this whole process with the WHITE CORMO I planned to dye. Once it was clean enough to dye (get ALL the tips clean!)I proceeded as follows:

I have this great electric roaster that I bought JUST for dyeing. It holds up to 2# of wool. So, I mixed my dye (3/4 CUSHINGS DARK GREY and 1/4 PEACOCK)in water and added it to 2 cups vinegar and about a gallon of warm water in the roaster.
This gets mixed for a minute, and then the wool is immersed, with more water (warmer than the wool feels to prevent felting!) as needed to cover the wool. A slight drizzle of AJAX detergent is added (Tablespoon?) to help with bonding. Then I cooked the lot at 200*F for about 2 hours. The water looks much clearer when the dye has all been absorbed.

(If you use a microwave, this happens faster, but you have to dye in amounts that will fit into your microwave.)

Then I let the dye pot cool for 4 hours until lukewarm...dumped it out on the deck again (look out below!) and washed it in HOT SUDSY water, rinsing in HOT clear water. This final wash is ESSENTIAL to get out extra dye. If your rinse water is not clear, your dye is not set, and you need to start all over again with the cooking and the vinegar and the soap.

A new sweater
Topic: Handspinning
While I am waiting for bunnies to grow and to be born (2 weeks) I thought it might be timely to include you on on a sweater project that is underway here at the shop. Starting this Saturday, a monthly class will meet to explore turning freshly clipped sheep's wool into a hand spun, hand knit sweater. WOOL TO WEAR will be the vehicle that FINALLY gets me a hand spun sweater from my bunnies, so I plan to include about 35% angora as I blend my fibers for spinning.

I have some lovely corriedale/rambouillet grease fleece in charcoal:

...and some cormo fleece that I intend to dye a dark gray/blue/green:

...and some charcoal angora fleece:

I have made some sample skeins of all the fibers blended together but left undyed, and decided there needs to be a highlight to make the yarn more interesting. So, tomorrow I wash all fleece and dye the cormo. Stay tuned!

These dumplings are simply adorable.

This is the age when bunnies get REALLY cute. They still have squarish bodies are a bit unsteady on their feet, but each day they scamper faster, nibble on hay more, and respond better. Their mom is not annoyed with them, yet, as they stay in the nest most of the day. We are still in the honeymoon phase.

Looks like 4 boys and three girls right now. I will finalize my guess in another week, Two black bucks and one torte buck will be for sale, and I will hang onto the does and one buck for a while as I need tortoiseshell fiber rabbits.

Gretchen's Litter at 11 days
Topic: Kindling

They are simply adorable. When I talk to them they all lift their heads to listen, becoming as still as mice. Their coats at this age are dark and velvety and I love to stroke their heads.

There are only three remaining. One got stranded out of the nest box a few days ago and didn't make it through the cold night. I am heartsick over this, as I seldom see this happen once they are 8 days old. But, as my husband says: given enough time, everything will happen.

And so it goes.

Nest box liners are a convenience for the breeder, and I am starting to think I will abandon their use. I use drop nest wire cages, and the does simply make a nest in the massive amounts of hay and do well IF I leave them to it. It is almost impossible to get a FAST look at ALL the babies without bringing the nest out of the cage, though, and this is the reason for using the liners. But, Grindle hated hers' and I think our tug-of-war over it caused one of the bunnies to get lost in the unorganized nest that resulted in their first week. And, now this with Gretchen's litter. It feels like someone is trying to tell me something.

I will listen.

Tortoiseshell bunnies at 10 days
Topic: tortoiseshell

Grindle's litter is blossoming and she is calming down. She doesn't mind me borrowing the bunnies for a picture as long as I bring an offering. Fresh picked oats that are now growing lushly outside the barns is the preferred treat of the day.

These bunnies had their eyes open yesterday, but they keep them tightly shut in bright light. In a few days they will be scampering around the cage, driving their mama crazy. Their colors are nice and dark fawn. There looks to be one guy and three girls...I'll know better at 21 days. I will keep two, or three, does from this litter. Grindle, if you will recall, had a record (for Countrywool) 10 oz at her last clipping, so these bunnies will be fiber machines!

Today it is chilly and dreary and raining...a good day to sleep in. And bunnies grow in their sleep, so I'll leave them to it.

Tortoiseshell bunnies at 5 days
Topic: tortoiseshell

I finally got a good peek into Grindle's litter. She has an exceptionally large nest, and a lot of what Lil was complaining about in the comments is what has been happening to her litter. It started off at 7 healthy kits and they just kept getting lost in the nest. When Grindle went to feed the bunnies, some were swimming through fur trying to find her. We had a few cold nights when they were first born and some just didn't make it until the next feeding although I checked twice a day.

Part of the problem was that Grindle HATED the cardboard liner I put into her wire-drop nestcage. So after 12 hours of her being furious, I took it out. The nest got disrupted early on, and never got packed back correctly until yesterday and by then 3 bunnies had expired.

This bunny making business is fraught with uncertainty. Life is so fragile.

But, here on day 5 we have four healthy, well fed tortoiseshell babies. This color is much in demand by spinners and I cannot believe it is JUST the color of rabbit I need the most of (as does Betsy). So, I am grateful for them and that things are smoothing out in the nest.

Bunnies at 3 days

Here is Gretchen's litter. There are 4 blacks and 1 tortoiseshell. They are exceptionally healthy and wiggly. They are offspring of the lately departed and sorely missed Zwart, so I suspect I will become very fond of them. I am finding her quite a bit protective of these guys, so this may be the last picture for a while as I do not want to annoy her unduly. Some moms don't mind my borrowing the babies, but Gretchen seems to. I will keep my interference at a daily headcount and leave it at that.

I did not get a good picture of Grindle's litter. We are down to 5 in that one as there have been two unfortunate losses due to an over sized nest. Grindle will not let me put in a nest box, so I keep reshaping and packing the nest. Keep your fingers crossed for us with this litter. At this time there are 4 tortoiseshell (I think) babies and 1 black one, who is the runt.

I find that no matter how many litters are born here, I learn something new with each one. Does are picky about different things, and one never knows if interfering to make things smoother is the right thing to do. At least the weather is stunningly cooperative and two more 70 degree days are up and coming.