Angora in January
Topic: chocolate

Cathy sent me a note to see if all is well. All is well! I have not been posting due to some complicated geriatric family situations. Sometimes there isn't time to do it all. 

When I sheared Sydney in December I promised some chocolate pictures of her for the new UARC website, and I took them but haven't sent them to Angie yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun was too bright for a good picture, but I only had 15 minutes to spend, and so this is what I got. I then tried to get her less-than-brown eye:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So how about an old picture?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 She is sheared to the skin now, so we'll try again in April for a better picture. 

This warm weather has been a blessing and a curse for the rabbits. They are all hot-to-trot and I have been hard pressed to keep everyone calm, BUT, their water does not freeze, and so they are in really, really good condition this January for a change.

 I have been continuing a massive angora spinning project. I hope to get all my extra angora spun by the summer and on the shelves at Countrywool.

Two days work...
Topic: Handspinning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've cleaned off all fibers-in-process on my drumcarder and wheels to get to the angora on the left, but have come up with a neat game plan for the shop. I am spinning skein sizes with projects in mind, and will sell them with a pattern. 

Starting at the left: 

• 100% angora for mittens 
• (Cotton Candy pink angora for my second cousin's Christmas mittens ...doesn't count)
• Cormo wool and angora for Pointless Gloves
• Romney wool and angora for Handspun Countrywool Socks
  

Back to the drum carder. I just heard that my regular Tuesday Knit Night buddies will be coming to me this week, so I can keep going! 

Spinning Frenzy!
Topic: Handspinning

The wind has been a blowin' lately in Columbia County, and I am truly cold.  I sink my hands into the rabbits' coats in the barn and am instantly warmed. To that end, I am spending a lot of time at my drum carder these days turning this:

 

 

 

 

 

to this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then at both my Norm Hall AND Ashford Elizabeth II wheels making this:

I am on a mission to create enough handspun angora to restock the handspun yarn shelf in the shop. 

I have roughly 10 pounds of angora to spin through. Will post pictures as I go. Watch this space!

Now Playing: Barn cleaning for the Fall, and better nutrition for cold weather

Yesterday I spent an few hours whipping things into shape for easier Fall feeding, and started to give the barn the once-over for winter. I am down to few enough rabbits to have them all together for frigid weather, for this has been my goal the last 2 winters. With my time away teaching, this makes feeding the rabbits very simple for my helpers. I now have the luxury of dedicating a barn and nursery cages to JUST that: being a nursery. Next spring I will be able to house 4 pregnant does so they can leisurely kindle their litters in good environments out of the weather. 

I also brought in and stacked my hay for the winter. I just LOVE good smelling hay as the whole place takes on a homier feel. 

As no grooming chores were looming, I took some time to move rabbit positions in the barn, scrub & reanchor cages to the wall, and give everyone clean bowls as well as new water bottles. The pace looks great!

 I also started my winter feeding routine, and am adding a twist this year. I add 1 teaspoon flax seed to everyone's bowls in late afternoon to increase fat content and add fiber to their diet. Feeding this by itself when they are hungry is insurance that they get it. This year I will feed 1 Tablespoon Doc's Rabbit Enhancer as well. So my late afternoon visit will be especially welcome!

Rip Van Winkle Angora Spinning Retreat
Topic: Spinning Retreats

Getting ready for the up and coming Angora Spinning Retreat in 2 weeks, I have been working on finalizing some knitting projects with the various yarns we will learn to make that weekend. 

First in the plan is a BULKY WEIGHT 100% angora yarn. This makes the best mittens and scarves in the world:

I have to say this is one of the most satisfying ways to spin, knit with and wear angora. This kind of yarn is not found commercially produced anywhere, and so a handspinner can create a truly unique product. This freshly knit mitten will eventually bloom into something totally furry...like the bunny the fiber came from. 

And my MOST favorite way to make SOCK YARN with angora, using a sturdy wool as base, is this 3-ply sport weight:

There is still room at the retreat for anyone who might like to come:)

Here we go again...

Extreme heat and humidity is forecast for the Hudson Valley for the next 3 days and 3 nights. Last night the dew point did not go under 70, which makes breathing difficult, and cooling off almost impossible. But animals endure. And survive.   

Or not. 

One of the things that rabbit breeders will discover about their herd in this weather is who can take it and who cannot. Variable weather conditions are stressful, and a day or two of unusual weather is generally tolerated. When a string of days presents itself, then immune systems are pulling out all the stops to cope. 100* with dew points in the 70's is tough for my crowd to take as they do not normally live that way. They have handled 95* days just fine, but the humidity lowers at night normally around here to 65*.

I just got a note from a breeder about the symptoms her rabbits are now displaying after a few days of the intense heat in the Midwest. And these were rabbits with short fur. Runny eyes, sneezing, drippy noses and wet paws appeared a day after exposure to 97*. These can be precursers to snuffles, and the sooner these symptoms go away, the better. Sometimes they don't go away and you are looking at an animal that has, in all probability, been born with an impaired immune system that will, unfortunately, also pass this along to its offspring.

 I lost a few angora rabbits before I wised up, did some reading, and found out how pervasive, invisible and insidious this condition is in the rabbit world. You can spend $350 on an angora and have no guarantee about the animal's immune system. (Wise buyers will insist on a guarantee!) You can pick up a $5 angora at a craft fair and have the healthiest and strongest animal going. It's a toss of the dice. Educated and ethical breeders will not allow this condition to be present anywhere in their barns, but there will always be a few who will breed an animal without thought to this. So, educate yourself and be aware.

 A friend of mine faced a situation where all of her rabbits came down with snuffles, and after much heartache and soul searching, she neutered her entire herd, and worked hard with animal nutritionists to build up the rabbits' immune systems. The last time I checked, she and they were doing well after 2 years of herbal treatments. She is an inspiration and I hope she writes about her experience someday. 

So, how do you help your rabbits cope with heat if you keep them outside like I do?

Remove their coats right to the skin.

If there is no wind, keep the air moving under their cage with a fan (not directly on them) 

Freeze water filled soda bottles and lay them in or on top of their cages.

Replace their drinking water every 6 hours with fresh cold water. 

Mist their ears with cold water every 30 minutes during the toughest heat. 

Add herbal ingredients to their diet that help with stress. VetRX is a time honored concoction based on eucalyptus oil that will help them breathe.

 There are many breeders who use air conditioning for their angoras. This is certainly kind to the pet angora and allows for coat retention in hot weather. It is a subject of debate among breeders who wish to know what shape the immune systems in their herds are in. (If you plan to keep your animal outside, make sure you ask about this when you purchase your angora!)

Shearing...4...The Procedure
Topic: Coat Care 101

So, here we are all ready to clip our bunny. Off to the cage we go and coax the furry victim out...now what?

 Consider spending a few minutes talking to and calming your rabbit. While you embark on this, sit on your low stool, and place her across your knees with her head pointing to your left if you are right handed (to your right if you are left handed). Encourage her to drop her back feet off your lap, resting on her stomach by gently (!) holding her back feet together in one hand and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g her feet down and away off your knees. Some rabbits will respond to this easily if they are feeling mellow, and some you have to encourage. But persist with this as when the rabbit's weight is off her feet, she will settle down better and lay quietly. Now take a moment to clip off whatever needs shortening around her head and ears:

Use your hands to flatten her ears and clip away. 

Next, you want to roll her, on her side, so her feet rest up against your abdomen and begin shearing a narrow line from her back foot,

up her thigh, across her groin, alongside her belly and to her left front foot:
All the way to her eye at the front. This little pathway will be your guideline for the rest of the job.

Now you will attend to serious fiber removal starting at her tail:

and along her belly. Flatten the long fiber away from you, hold the scissors parallel to her skin, slide them across the base of the fiber just above the narrow line you are working from, turn them a tad up to leave a 1/4-1/2" of fiber behind, and snip. Do not try to take off too much at a time. Each lock that you snip can fall to the floor as you move along.

Work in successive rows to completely remove all fiber. I like to work in a section at a time, clearing 4x4", before I move on to the next section. It is helpful to position the rabbit so that the clipping area is on top, and you can roll your bunny to get the best position for your hands/scissors before you start. You will reposition her many times befoe you are done, and practicing patience will offer its own rewards in a calmer rabbit and an easier clip.

I work in successtion from the starting line to clear

• the left side (from tail to eye...)
  
• the top 
• the right side
• the belly
• the genitals
• the chin/chest
  

When working near the belly, be aware that mature does have large nipples...at least 6 and sometimes 8. They are placed starting on the chest just above the front underarms, and continue in pairs along the belly towards the tail.

Find them before you start clipping the belly fur and clip around them carefully. If you are in hurry, just leave all belly fur long at 3/4" and you will not hurt them. 

Whew! You both are ready for a break after 45-60 minutes of this work. Take it!

Shearing...3...Tools of the Trade
Topic: Coat Care 101
BareHare is back on line after a hiatus of 2 months (I hope that any vacation you take is as rejuvenating for you as mine has been for me!) The bunnies and I are gearing up for the Rip Van Winkle Angora Spinning Retreat There are 5 Wee Ones who will be ready for shearing at the retreat, and they are leaving their mamas next week for digs of their own. (Pictures will come when they settle in).

I do have a slew of shearing pictures for you that will arrive daily this week on the blog, but first, let's gather the tools you'll need.



Arrange these all on a low table near you BEFORE you start: (clockwise from bottom right)
1. Plastic tablecloth for catching all that lovely clean angora while you clip. If you just "let it fall", you'll proceed much faster.
2. Slicker brush
3. 5" Shearing scissors
4. "Guillotine" nail clippers
5. Syringe for administering ivermectin
6. Cat/dog flea powder containing carbaryl
7. Plastic netting for clipped angora storage
8. Low stool to sit on while shearing
9. Bucket to hold clipped angora on a windy day (and it will overflow if your angora is German!)

Shearing...2
Topic: Coat Care 101
Webbing is what coats do just before they are getting ready to mat or molt(fall off). The rabbit is either moving around alot or is scratching and causes the fiber to jumble back on itself. Webbing happens due to daily living and as a result of chemical changes in the shedding breeds. Or, from something that causes bunny to itch and scratch, such as fur mites, and, occasionally, from high humidity.

All breeds will web eventually, but the magic of awn hair in the German angora coat causes this to happen less often. It works like grease...it isolates the other fibers and allows them to resettle in a straight line. It is what allows me to leave an angora coat alone for 4 months and then just clip it off...much like sheep shearing. There is some waste, but not that much. The German lines were bred to not shed, allowing the coat to stay fully intact until one arrives with the scissors. The Giant angora breed has the same awn hair in the line, but can shed, so as long as one keeps an eye on the coat for its internal release time, they are also fabulously easy to care for.

Folks who show their rabbits keep ahead of webbing by brushing and blowing coats out on a regular basis. A healthy percentage of guard hair in an adult coat will keep even that at a minimum, so the French are, as a breed, a little easier to care for than the others. But a good English rabbit with a great percentage of guard hair is a wonder.

Over the years, coat removal has enjoyed a few swings. The predominance of shedding in the earlier lines of English and French led to widespread plucking of shedding wool. This presents a FABULOUS spinning fiber! It is not so fabulous for the animal if the coat is not ready for removal, but the spinner is. OR for the spinner who would like the whole coat, and not just the area around the shoulders, as coats release in stages over a week or so. It takes many, many hours to do it humanely and completely, and wool block is a real issue for these rabbits while the coat loosens over time.

Enter: The Clip. For an hour of your time invested, you can have 8 ounces (or more!) of same length fiber on a fully producing German rabbit. This is a skill worth learning if you are a serious fiber producer or an eager spinner.

Start by learning to control your bunny. This is easier said than done! Rabbits can have a mind of their own but there are a few gems to remember:

1. Towels are your best friend. Wrapping bunny will help settle him down and cause flailing appendages to be controlled.
2. When you have the ears, you have the rabbit. Learn to tuck those ears down his back and pin them there.
3. A rabbit without his weight under him will sit still. Get bunny off his feet and either on his side or back. Tuck his head under your arm and against your side to reach those nether parts under his tail.
4. Rabbits are touchy about their whiskers and their flanks. Do not hold and squeeze these areas (this is also easier said than done).
5. Stretch out his body. Learn to hold both feet and straighten out his back and legs.
6. Perfect the "hang". Sit on a low stool and drape your relaxed bunny over both knees.

7. Take your time. A well clipped left side might be enough for one session in the beginning.

Shearing...1
Topic: Coat Care 101
Getting a fully grown 3, 4 or 5 month coat off an angora can happen any way you can, as in Emergency Coat Removal, or you can carefully remove the full length of each fiber for spinning... This means that this animal:

can yield 3, 4 or 5" long angora, and end up looking like this:

Shearing to the skin takes practice. The first few years I sheared my rabbits, I was happy with a 1/2 inch of fiber left on the animal, leaving them looking like this:

and with no nicks, cuts or the like. And, in the winter, this is what I leave on the rabbit to help him keep warm. So, learn first to shear carefully. As you progress, shear to the skin where you can and when you and the rabbit are both relaxed enough to handle it.

I keep mostly German (over 60%) crossed angoras that do not require any brushing, and I don't do any at all for 3-4" coats. (I'll talk about 5" coats in another post). But, I do accept a small amount of matting at the armpits and the whiskers that are the result of daily living. These areas get clipped off and discarded, so the coats I take off have a small amount of loss (less than 1 ounce). I also clip under the tail and inside the back legs to the skin and toss it every month. It makes keeping more than 4 angoras much less time consuming for me. People that keep their angoras in full coat and show them have my highest admiration!!!