Mature coats and black color
Topic: black
All of you as entranced as I about depth of color in mature angora coats will love this post.

I am discovering some wild stuff in my aging does.
The line that I personally love for their gorgeous heads/ears/body/personality type are uniformly graying out as they age. (see the coat on the right in the photo above). The line that I am having a hard time with in the health, personality and conformation area is staying darker (see the coat on the left).

So here is the single angora I have been able to feel good about in that line:

Grindle has a phenomenal coat. Her health was shaky in the beginning and I did not breed her for a season to keep an eye on her. Of her two litters, half of the bunnies born have issues of some sort. I have two of her offspring from the last litter, and only her son DeVoss looks good enough to breed, while the coats on all of them were excellent at 4 months. One from her first litter has moved back after using his teeth too often (!) on his owner. He is settling down fine here, but I will always wonder about him.

But her coat, her coat. Such a rabbit! I hold out hope that finding the right buck will correct some of the issues I am wondering about. Here are her true brown eyes, but I see a SLIGHT lighter color:

If you look closely on her coat you can see the white tipped black hairs, which has me wondering what is going on underneath it all. Her face does not exhibit "steel" coloration, but her coat sure does. I would LOVE some feed back from angora breeders who have mature black coat pictures they can share!

Handspun sweater...done (really) at last
Topic: Handspinning

Hallelujah. And just in the nick of time. Next Monday this sweater travels to the judges at the fair.

That last reserved handspun skein (and here I was lamenting about making too much yarn!) was an almost-match for the other sleeve, so I am as happy as I can be about this sweater. I had to hang it to get all of it in the picture, and my lovely shaping pleats are obscured, but you can see the color shadings very clearly this way.

I posted some knitting details about headbands on BareNeedle if they intrigue you.

The heat here has finally lifted and I have been out in the barn with the bunnies the last few days. I cleaned and scrubbed floors/bowls/cages and brushed a few coats. I check for bot flies every few days and when I see rabbits looking odd, so I cuddled a few fur faces, manhandling entire bodies looking for odd lumps just to be sure. And all was well, as it usually is.

I have also ended the self imposed RCD/RHD quarantine and we welcomed our first visitors yesterday. Consequently, two bunnies have moved out (that was quick!) and just two are left for sale right now. One wee white doe (nameless at 5 months) and Gretel, who has been my most prolific fiber and bunny producing doe. She is black with a silver coat, just over 4 years of age, and I want her to retire to an indoor life where she will be coddled and fussed over.

So what do you do with odds and ends of handspun yarn?
Topic: Handspinning
My handspun sweater is done, done, done, and is drying as I type. Its appearance on the blog will be forthcoming shortly. I have a slew of yarn leftover, which I can be only grateful for as I desperately needed an entire skein to use for the alternative sleeve.

I had started a headband with the first yarn I thought I wanted to use for this sweater, and then added in 15 yards of the second on a whim, and then used a partial skein of the final yarn to finish it off for wearing.

You can clearly see the early yarn mix on the bottom (browner and just two ply); the less brown but still too light mix in the middle...also a two ply; and the final more blue-gray 3 ply I settled on for the sweater, on top.

I love headbands, They are probably, hands down, the most useful garment I knit. Our winters here in the Hudson Valley can be brutal in January and February (although it's hard to believe when you stand in the noon sun in August). I like to walk daily in winter and hats are OK, but HEADBANDS are better. I usually have one lolling around my neck (in all angora) and one snugged up over my ears and forehead. The wider they are, the better, for they cover more skin. They are useful when the air is so cold it burns your skin, for you can pull the neck one up to cover nose and mouth and simply breathe through it. I am knitting them a minimum of 5" wide now, as well as a tad on the small side, for they stretch into shape and narrow their coverage a bit once on.

They are great for gifting and use up small amounts of precious handspun. 50 yards of bulky is all you need.

Annemie and Rabbit Personalities
Topic: tortoiseshell

Denise sent me a note asking about rabbit personalities in general. Are they friendly like a cat, dog, bird, hamster? Do they like to be petted?

In each litter born there can be a mixture of healthy rabbits, rabbits that do not grow as well as the others, coats that are not as good as the others, rabbits with birth defects, rabbits with issues, color surprises and best friends waiting to be made.

Annemie is the later. She is a lover.

I don't often get a doe who is so friendly, for a doe's hormonal mission/nature is to protect and defend the nest. I give does a LOT of room to be who they are, and do not ask too much of them. They mostly learn to live with my occasional intrusion into their lives, and we come to a mutual respect over time (I adore each and everyone of them and they know that). My herd rabbits don't get handled as much as an only rabbit would be, and it takes longer for friendliness to surface. But they generally, here in my herd, don't like to cuddle in the first 10 minutes of any grooming session. Once they have been on my lap for 10 minutes they relax and love cuddling...it just takes longer. Annemie, at 4 months, is an exception (as is her half sister Betina). She presents her head for stroking every time I open her cage door.

That kind of friendliness is standard behavior for bucks from the beginning, and I can usually tell by 8 weeks of age what we've got. That is why I always suggest bucks for pet bunnies...it is in their nature to be friendly as they are always looking for a doe!

I've seen exceptions. You can get a rabbit with an attitude, regardless of gender, that makes him/her unsuitable as a pet. A rabbit that uses his/her teeth to defend territory is an animal that will not coexist well with humans.

The trick is to learn what makes a rabbit fearful and arrange their environment so they aren't, and to bypass the defense attitude entirely. Rabbits are basically creatures that like peace and harmony and will enjoy being petted as long as they feel safe.

What's wrong with this picture?!?
Topic: Handspinning
It took me three days to get up enough courage to face what was going on, and then a whole day of whining to my knitting friends, but now I can handle what I have to do to this sweater:

I know there is variation in most of the handspun yarn I've made for this project, but the skein that made the sweater's right sleeve is much darker (and fuzzier!) than the rest of the sweater.

Luckily, I have another skein that is very close to the one I am using for the almost finished sleeve, so I am confident(?) I can rip and reknit for a better over-all appearance.

The reason for the snafu? Two fold...I used less plying twist in some of the skeins (by mistake) AND I did not blend all the angora together first before I started blending the dyed and undyed wool with the undyed angora. Thus, the bag of bunny wool I used for that skein was a lot darker than the rest because THAT BUNNY was darker.

Spin and learn.

I still have 2 weeks left, so that third sleeve will be done on time for the Columbia County (Chatham, NY) Fair entry. Come and see it there!

Hay is for horses...and rabbits, too
Topic: Feeding

One of the surprises of my rabbit keeping career was discovering how much rabbits like, and benefit from, eating hay. The fiber that hay provides all but eliminates the deadly condition known as woolblock...IF the rabbits like the hay they are given and eat it daily. Hay keeps everything moving right along, and good gut motility is vital to good health in rabbits.

When buying, or growing, hay, keep in mind that rabbits thrive on timothy and other grass hays. Legume hays, such as alfalfa and clover, are thoroughly enjoyed, but can add too much protein to their diet if your rabbits are already eating 18% protein wool feeds. A high protein feed is best adhered to for fiber production, so the compromise is to find grass hay that will be just roughage for the rabbit.

If you are lucky enough to be around hay fields, you can keep an eye on them while they are growing and hand pick the mix when the farmer goes out to bale.

Hay fields are seeded and then will grow consecutively for 5-7 years here in eastern NY state, producing great hay crops at the beginning, and more weeds/less hay at the end. This is all well and fine, and rabbits will eat some weeds mixed in as the field matures. (They LOVE Queen Anne's lace (wild carrot)and Orchard Grass!). If the fields/hay you are looking at has a great proportion of weeds, then you have to educate yourself to look for POISONOUS PLANTS.

Rabbits are generally smart and will avoid parts of the hay that do not taste good, but you never know. So look through your hay and learn to identify what you have.

Just yesterday, I was out walking my dog and we passed a hay field we travel by every day. Something is flowering this week that looked very suspicious to me.

I took a detour to check it out and my fear was confirmed...nightshade. And not just one lone plant, but thousands sprinkled throughout this lovely 100 acre clover and alfalfa field.

I found some info on-line about nightshade and pets:
nightshade

I normally see 6 plants a year around my barns, and I keep an eye on them. (They like the south side of buildings here). They have not spread much in ten years, and I welcome their nodding star flowers as it's always a sign of late summer to me. I have never seen them in hay fields like I have this year.

...knitting right along
Topic: Handspinning

I have knit quite a lot this week on the sweater, and I hope to have the first sleeve done by tomorrow night. This is "my" first handspun angora sweater, and although I spun this yarn very tightly, and 3-plied it to have it wear well, it is turning out to be quite fuzzy while I am knitting it. Seeing that it is only 35% angora, and first clip bunny at that, I am rather pleased :) The Cormo and Corriedale wools I used are not as soft as the angora, and with the amount of twist I put into the yarn, it had a less-than-poofy hand when I started. Once knit, this fabric is as soft as cashmere on the surface.

When Trish was here she remarked how little the halo showed up in the first picture I posted, so I experimented with a patch of sunlight to see if I could portray it better:

Knitting with handspun angora is an act of faith. The bloom that you WILL get after the garment is knit and worn will far surpass your expectation when seeing the freshly spun yarn.

And the countdown begins...
Topic: Handspinning
Shelia (of new blog fame!!!) wanted to know if I finished spinning and plying all the yarn for my handspun sweater.

Yup:

AND...I am almost to the underarm in the knitting of it:

I've learned a lot so far.
1. No matter how well you weigh your fiber, when you include angora you have to mix and remix all the batts together to get identical results. My yarn has a lot of (not unattractive) variation, and I am holding my breath that it will please the judges next month atThe Columbia County Fair.
2. My Norman Hall wheel likes to put a lot of twist in the final yarn in double drive even at the lowest twist ratio. This is all well and fine and my handspun/handknit sweater will wear very well as a result of this, but I want less twist on a day-to-day basis. I will explore the scotch tension setting next on the wheel, and maybe even call Mr. Hall to see about another whorl (!).
3. My 8 (!) skeins had a variety of yards/ounce variation. I stacked them up from 37 yards/ounce to 67 yards/ounce and am using them in order of thickest to thinnest, with the thinnest doing all the edging details. I had a couple of plying anomalies when I forgot to change the ratios I had decided on for plying, and those skeins are looser. Hmm. I have 3 extra skeins around and one became the gauge hat for the sweater calculations. That, too, will be entered at the fair.
4. This sweater will be seriously warm. I can't wait for January so I can live in it!

Weepy Eye
Topic: Snuffles
Betsy wants to know what causes weepy eye.

Lots of things. Some of them are benign and some are not. How can you tell which one your rabbit has?

That's the million dollar question.

A dust storm, mold in hay, smoke in the air, dust in the feed, an allergy, a bacterial invasion, pressure from the sinuses, pressure from (badly) growing teeth, stress, an injury...these can all cause the eyes to tear. Tearing eyes are not always a sign of a worst case, but if they don't clear up on their own then odds are you have something that is an issue. Tearing eyes that don’t go away, and end up dripping uncontrollably get the name Weepy Eye. Weepy eye is one symptom of Snuffles. (Please feel free to add more information to the comments section as I am always eager to learn more on this!)

Since I keep a breeding herd, I have arrived at zero tolerance for weepy eye. I have found in the past when I tried to fix it, that some cases respond right away and I never see them again, and some linger/reoccur no matter what I do. I found I could make it go away temporarily, (tea bags in their drinking water!!!) only to have it surface with another stressful situation. And I learned a hard, hard lesson about breeding a rabbit that ONCE had a weepy eye; most of his offspring from his first litter also had it. In his case, I suspect there was a genetic predisposition to pressure on the sinuses from a bad teeth/jaw formation OR to a weak immune system that will succumb to Pasteurella Multocida, Bordatella, or some other bacteria that rabbits do not ward off well. Neither of these conditions is fair to pass on to future bunnies. (I know breeders who routinely breed rabbits with this condition and are not bothered by it, so know thy breeder if it is important to you.)

Weepy eye will make its appearance here in summer, which is pretty stressful on my herd. I have been acquiring more information on the variations in rabbit keeping among other breeders and have come to the conclusion that I have to breed for my own environment/stress level, and it is unfair of me to bring in angoras that have been kept in climate control even though they are raised local to my area. You can’t tell by looking if an Angora will do well in high heat and humidity, but that’s how I keep my herd, so I need animals that can live well through it. With the occasional summer getting to 90*F or better for weeks on end, it is a challenge to weed out stock that won’t thrive here, and so I look for a pet home for a suspect.

Bunnies for adoption/sale
Today is barn work day. Everyone will get their Ivermectin treatments, and I will clean floors, bowls, water bottles. It is so hot and humid that days like these are a trial for all of us. Getting creative about the fly situation (keeping the population down!) has me wondering about using Angela's herbal horse spray. I have tried placing small bowls of Golden Malrin in the barns and so far the flies are not an issue, which they were a month ago. I live in dread of Bot Flies, though, and they are due shortly. Keeping rabbits in open air barns (my barns are three sided) has pluses as well as minuses, and dealing with the summer elements is one of the minuses.

Here are some cuties that need to move out.

Two little does (71% German) are all packed and ready. Of the three sisters, I am keeping one here, so we can compare notes as they grow:

These sweeties should be fiber machines and are in tip top shape.

One of Grindle's litter has developed weepy eyes and should not be bred because of it, so she needs to find a foster home. (Her grandfather had the same issue, and unfortunately he was bred...sigh). Anke is 63% German.

She should be an ONLY RABBIT just in case this condition is not just anatomical. At any rate, her fiber is tremendous and she will be an excellent spinner's rabbit and/or house pet. Because she will be free to a good home, she comes with no pedigree.