Shearing scissors
Topic: shearings

One of the main questions I get from new angora rabbit owners is what kind of scissors or shears to use when harvesting wool from their bunny. I have been to a few workshops where all sorts of equipment was used and saw some of what others have come up with. The bottom line is, use whatever is comfortable for you to hold, and keeps a good sharp edge that you can replace when you need to. Electric shears are fabulously efficient if you get the right blades for them; if the motor stays cool enough so you can hold them for awhile and if you get your rabbits used to the sound. Not everyone can afford the hundreds of dollars for the good ones, though.

With my little herd of under 20 adults, for me the 5" scissor with short tips has come to be my staple piece of equipment. I have $45 Fiskars in that length and they work great, but I also have $9 embroidery scissors that work equally as well. The benefit of the $9 scissors is that I can replace them every year and feel very good about it, relegating the old (I write the date I started using them in permanent marker on the handles) ones to general household use.

These scissors I use are extremely easy to handle. The short ends keep the area about to be cut very small, with the likelihood one will snip skin by mistake almost nonexistent. I keep them in stock at Countrywool.

Bitter cold

This December will probably go on record as being the one of the coldest. With November being one of the warmest, the shock is great for all creatures living outside.

Each Monday I try to spend time in the barns hanging out with everyone, checking toenails, eyes, fur condition, etc., and doing a little cleanup. The past 3 Mondays have been inhospitable. Yesterday I mixed rabbit food and by the time I was done, I was thoroughly frozen.

There have been years when water did not freeze until December 10. This is not one of them.

So, I have started using flax seed a little earlier than I normally do.

Flax is one of the unsung heroes for rabbits. High in protein and fat, it also high in Omega 3 fatty acids and lignans. When I first started raising angoras, I had a doe who developed mammary tumors. After doing some research, I fed her flax seed in high doses for 3 weeks and her tumors shrank. (She went on to live another year). When I was raising English angoras and had to deal with molting, flax with its high fat content is something that helped prevent and, if necessary, recover from wool block.

So, now I use it when I can with them. Winter is a good season to offer it, as they need the extra calories. Too much and droppings get messy, so use a 1/2 tsp measure and feed only one a day to see how it goes.

Yesterday afternoon I gave everyone a spoon of flax seed in their bowls while I was out in the barns. By feeding time at dusk, all of them had cleaned their bowls. Even the younger junior bunnies who are living through their first winter and have not tasted it before.

(Almost) Cold Weather In The Barn
Topic: Feeding

Last week saw two days that stayed below freezing, and water bottles froze for the first time this season.

Like sheep wool producers who are serious about the fineness of the fleeces their sheep produce, and the amount of fat on their bodies, I feed my herd to keep them on the lean side. They get barely 3/4 cup of the 16% protein feed mix I use. I keep the rabbits a lighter weight through the summer and fall, but when the temps start to dip down, I start changing my feeding routine.

It always amazes me how easy it is to overfeed rabbits, even while using a measuring scoop. So over time, I have come to appreciate the "mounding syndrome" inherent in my feeding style. I use a 1/3 cup measuring scoop for the summer and fall, and when the first frozen water bottle appears, I exchange it for a 1/2 cup scoop. This I feed twice a day, and using the "big scoop" theory, they then get about 1 1/3 cups of feed a day. This will add weight to their bodies in as little as two weeks. This extra weight will help them in the cold temps that are coming.

But, when serious cold weather moves in next month, not only will they get that extra feed, they get a Tablespoon of oats/flax seed at night on top of everything. More fat calories in the flax seed and extra warming carbs in the oats. They will burn it off to keep warm. And, they love it.

Angora Spinning Retreat Plans
Topic: Spinning Retreats

Next Fall, Countrywool will host its first ever Angora Retreat that is open to both owners AND their rabbits. I have just gotten back from previewing the location for the gathering, and am very pleased that we, the rabbits and our spinning classes will all have plenty of room to work. This event will provide an opportunity for folks to learn new things about handling their rabbits as well as the fiber they produce. I am really excited about this Retreat.

We will spend from 2 pm Friday through 11 am Sunday together with our rabbits. We will shear them, clip toenails, check eyes/feet/ears and spend time on feed quality and routines. Then we will card, wheel spin, drop spindle spin, ply and sample widely differing angora yarns for the rest of the weekend. The Winterclove Inn will provide us with our meals and rooms so we may focus totally on practicing new skills.

There is even a provision to rent-a-bunny as well as a spinning wheel for the weekend!

Now that my Fall teaching schedule is calming down (a bit) I have looked at the planning sequence for this retreat and see benefits to having folks plan their bunny's coat care and harvest for a September 15, 2006, clip. To that end, I encourage folks who are considering coming to make their plans with me by April 15, 2006, so that they may be added to the Retreat newsletter list. This list will send reminders and information about coat care in a timely fashion so that everybunny coming is on the same page.

Blending Bunny

I spent all day yesterday outside with the bunnies, clipping toenails, trimming nether parts, dosing with ivermectin and flea powder, and loving them up. Rabbits are incredibly soft to hold and cuddle. My crew all have 2 week to 1 month coats, so they are getting softer and rounder by the day. The weather was delightfully balmy and I totally enjoyed myself. These are the kinds of days when all goes well and I am thankful for my life and my work.

The weather WAS chilly a week or so ago, and I spent time indoors blending Bunny and Sheep to make some new color combinations for the Bunnywool Mitten Kits I keep in stock. I love spinning wool and angora blends. They behave beautifully in your hands and are wonderful to wear against your skin.

End of The Season Report on Wool Mites
Topic: Wool Mites

Each month that goes by gives me better perspective on my wool mite treatment regime. Here's where I am this November.

5 months of aggressive treatment has resulted in the following situation: right now there is no one exhibiting wool mite symptoms. None.

I found the monthly oral dosages of .5 cc of 1% bovine Ivomec for adult rabbits to be too little for the mites/conditions I have here. It was sufficient for bunnies under 6 pounds. I have decided that since ivermectin is only guaranteed to work 30 days according to the bottle, then I simply have to use it that often.

After 4 months of dosing every 2 weeks (until this month), I have come to the conclusion that my barn hosts the mites here. The vet finally got a skin scraping to examine and what we have is the common fur mite, nothing unusual there. The problem seems to be that the field mice, outside cats (there are 5) and hay that is present in my barn is contributing to reinfection. This in spite of monthly dosing of the barn walls, floors and cages with Sevin, which kills the mite, also.

I can, however, report that my barns have not been this clean in years .

My current dosing involves the use of generic bovine Ivermectin from Jeffers, not Ivomec, and I am finding that 1 cc per adult rabbit keeps the mites away, but seems to upset the rabbits' stomachs for 48 hours. This is unacceptable, so I have ordered Ivomec, which was easier on them for some reason. (The generic Ivermectin is $24/bottle, vs the $32 that Ivomec is. I am using up a bottle every 2 months with my herd, so tried to economize).

I am finding, too, that the length of the coat is a factor for reinfestation here after 3 weeks. The shorter the coat, the less I see mites. I assume the rabbits are grooming them off better.

The final word on this (for this year) is that Ivermectin alone will not protect a rabbit in a long coat. I use it AND Happy Jack flea powder in the last 2 months. Waiting for that treasured 5" clip, which has taken me years to get right, means that every 2 weeks in the last 8 weeks of growth, the rabbits need to be treated with flea powder containing carbaryl.

I have appreciated responses from all of you in the fur mite situations you do or do not have in your barns, and what treatments (if any) you use and what works. It seems to me that folks who have concrete floors under their cages just may fare better, so this is something I will look into for the future.

More shearing pictures
Topic: shearings

Kirk stopped by yesterday just in time to be helpful with the camera. Here I am clipping Betina, who's sister went home with Rebecca on Sunday. Notice how close one can clip to get maximum fiber length in one snip.

And I mentioned how I proceed to clip in rows across the rabbit, from tail to head. When this gets working right, one hand holds the fiber already clipped away just a bit from the skin, so the next cut is clean with no short pieces. And the already clipped fiber will fan out, just as it does when shearing sheep. If you consider the use of your forearm as a retaining wall, the fiber stays altogether until you take your arm away.

This is Lucas holding still while I used both hands to snap this picture. Bless him, although from just his/my breathing, this is a bit fuzzy. You can see the fleece rolling away from the skin, and it cooperated by staying put for you to see.

How to hold a rabbit for shearing
Topic: shearings

GG and Anke came over for a lesson on how to work together to take off an angora's coat with kindness and care. They both did FABULOUSLY! In less than an hour and a half, Anke was trimmed and happy.

The key to stress free clipping is a relaxed rabbit, which means a relaxed handler. And here are a few pointers I'll pass along:

1. If you have the ears, you have the rabbit. Dr. White, who has been a rabbit judge since I was a child, has always impressed this upon his 4-H kids at shows, and he is right. So, if things get wiggly, go for the ear clamp. You can position a rabbit so his/her ears are always under them when you need to flip bunny over for a belly trim. This keeps their head stationary and they cannot wiggle much, making working with scissors much safer.

2. If you get the weight off their feet and onto their belly/sides/back, they will give up and relax quicker. Anytime bunny startles and gets back into a sitting position, start all over again coaxing them to drop their feet off your lap. GG got real good at this as the clipping progressed, and you see her holding a fully relaxed Anke above.

3. Pick a line from tail to head, and scissor a narrow path to begin from, then rotate the rabbit as you shear off a parallel line of fiber away from you. This allows you to see the skin and cut just above it (more pictures to follow when I get a bunny to hold still long enough).

4. If you line the floor with plastic, you can let the fiber fall as you clip and sort it later. This allows you to fully focus on neat and careful clipping.

5. After you clip bunny, trim toenails, check teeth and treat for fur mites with the medication of your choice. Feed ONLY HAY for 24 hours to allow loose fiber to be groomed off and safely disposed of in bunny's intestines. As soon as you see droppings of a good and generous size under the cage, you can start back with regular feeding.

More pictures coming tomorrow if the three I clip today will cooperate :)

Empty Barn!
Topic: shearings
Back from Rhinebeck and 3 rabbits lighter, the barns look so empty. Miss Merry Martin, who I picked up from Jan at the fair, will be in quarantine for a month, and so even her spot is vacant.

But, I am down to 12 rabbits at this point, and need to let 2 more go to make my winter chores easier to contend with, so I adjust to the new reality.

Sonya traveled home with new angora owner Rebecca; Groot went to Angela's and the beloved Angus to Jen's.I wish them all well. What a GREAT feeling knowing where they are and that I can stay connected to the folks who will care for them.

So, I swept barns yesterday. Today, GG is coming over for a shearing lesson with Anke, so I'll make some inroads on the last 6 left to shear. Beautiful weather here for a change and it'll be nice to be outside all day. I am hoping to take some shearing pictures for the blog tomorrow if the bunnies will cooperate, so check back.

Early Fall in the Barn

Oh, those hormones, they are singing again. And in the rain this time. The rain has been merciless here! All clipping schedules have been put on hold for a week, while I pack for the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend in Rhinebeck, NY.

Two lovelies are coming with me for sale: siblings from a May litter. White doe Sonya, and black buck Angus. I have left their coats intact, and there is a 5" staple on each of them. Groot

is moving to Maine to live and prosper with Angela, and he'll also travel to the festival this weekend.

Clipping last week was enlightening. The coats grown this summer were not as heavy as I normally get, and I suspect the heat was a factor. We'll see what the next harvest yields. I still saw fur mites on two rabbits (the same two as last month) and I upped their Ivermectin dosage. (I have switched to a generic brand of Ivermectin and it may be that it is not as good as IVOMEC. Stay tuned for that report.)

I look forward to saying hi to BareHare blog readers, so stop by...I'm in Barn 3.