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.

Groot...5 years in the breeding
Topic: black

I am watching this wonderful fellow grow, and I am continually delighted with him.

His lines are the best. From CW Neo (son of Kim Kaslow's Nordic Glinda) and CW Gretel, his mom CW Gretchen has been a super wool producer and excellent mother. His dad was the much loved Honeybuns Zwart, from Charlene Schultz, with parents Greenberry Punxatawny and Honeybuns Honeydoo. He looks just like his Grandma Gretel.

He is a sweet, sweet boy and his coat is stunning already at 11 weeks. His brother Bart is just as grand, and he is living with Trish. His sister, Annemie, a delightful tortoiseshell color, will make an appearance here soon.

This whole litter has been super. This does not always happen, and I feel very fortunate, while I am knocking on wood while I type!

Wool Mites/Fur Mites (again) and Heat Loss
Topic: Wool Mites

It's been a tough week here. The summer heat and humidity have moved in for good, it looks like. This is 2 weeks sooner than I generally deal with it, and it caught me unprepared.

As a result, I juggled clipping coats with the rest of my business and got to everyone as soon as I could. I think I misjudged the timing on a young buck, and I lost him last weekend (during the 3 days of 99*) to what looks like heat exhaustion. I'm keeping the barns quarantined for 7 days after JUST to be sure it wasn't RHD, and although it didn't look like it from what I have read, I want the time to pass with everyone still healthy to be sure. The breeder I bought him from and I have compared notes (and misery), and she thinks it may have been the Ivermectin I gave him when he first got here a month ago, and the fact that he kept his super dense coat through the first 2 days of hot weather the week after he arrived, weakening his ability to withstand the heat. All things are possible, and since I did not have an autopsy done, I don't know for sure.

At any rate, I feel totally responsible for his senseless loss and miserable. I haven't lost a rabbit to heat in 6 years, but then again, I do not have climate control in the barns or quarantine area and the summers have been relatively mild. I wonder, too, if my desire to breed for denser coats might not be unfair to the angoras I keep with no AC available to them in summer. I will now install two huge fans in my two barns to give everyone an edge.

I'm always learning something new.

Which brings me to fur mites. They are unbelievable this year in my barns. I did have 6 animals I used for breeding, and did not treat any of them for 90 days during breeding/lactation, and now the itchy critters are running rampant. So, aggressive control measures are in place, and I am continuing to do more research on mites in general. I am taking this opportunity to get the exact mite here identified by my vet. Who knows...perhaps something unusual is going on. Or not.

I would LOVE to hear from breeders who are dealing with this issue with success, and have information to share that worked well for them. I will summarize all your responses into a checklist here in a few weeks.

In particular, do you use Ivermectin? What dosage? How often? Sub-Q, topical or oral?

Do you use Selamectin? Advantage? What dosage? How often? Sub-Q, topical or oral?

Do you use Carbaryl flea powder? Sevin? Do you treat your cages, barns with anything when you clean? Do your animals have access to wood in/near their cages that they gnaw on? Does IT get cleaned?

Do you use herbal things? Rosemary? How about Listerine?

The eyes have it
Topic: eye color

Eye color gives clues to underlying genetics. I thought I pretty much knew the genetics of the parents here: above is Neo, a tortoiseshell Dad with clear brown eyes; whose genotype I am pretty sure is:
aaBBCcD-ee
and Sydney, a chocolate doe with brownish eyes, pictured below, whose genotype is
aabbCcD-E-:

But wait! They had a litter that came out in surprise format!
4 of the bunnies were white, which is fine:
aaBbcc---e, and 4 of the bunnies were black, which is also fine:
aaBbC-D-Ee. So far, so good. But, as they reached 5 weeks of age all of a sudden I got a clear look at the eye color of the black bunnies:

Fully black bunnies have brown eyes, and the fellow in the front has grey eyes. Grey eyes in a black rabbit can be caused by having an incompletely dominant "C" gene allowing only SOME of the black and yellow pigments possible in a rabbit express themselves.
(To read all about the black and yellow pigments in any given rabbit's genetics, check out this older post)
So, now we are looking at a "chmc" expressing or a "chdc" expression. Which parent is the culprit?

To get ANY white bunnies in a litter BOTH parents have to have a little "c" gene, which leaves them ONLY one spot to have a big "C" gene. So, one of them has eyes that are not as dark brown as they could be. Mama is the culprit, I can assume. She is the ONLY chocolate rabbit in the barn, and I have had no one else to compare her eyes to. Since her coat has stayed pretty dark, I will rule out the chl gene (although I am open to reinterpretation if someone can suggest further information about this!). That leaves chd and chm as possibilities.

The info I have gathered to date tells me that chm will allow light brown eyes and dark fur. Hmmm. Chm is one of those in-between "C" genes that some color genetics texts discount, preferring to use either a chd, or chl in its place.

So, I am still in a quandry, but I have a little more respect for genes that can modify a color's full expression!

Production spinning on a Norman Hall wheel
Topic: Handspinning

I've been spinning since 1992. I have spun on Louets and Ashfords, and have tried out many other wheels, but the day I sat down in front of a Norman Hall Traditional wheel I felt transformed. Maybe it was the wood, or maybe it was the flyer on the right, or maybe it was the HUGE (to me) drive wheel or maybe it was the smooth flow of fiber as it could RACE through my fingers. Whatever the reason, I had to have one. Mr. Hall had a waiting list, and I got on it. Luckily my friend Carolyn who is WAY ahead of me in her fiber tool acquisitions, decided to drop out of the running and made me (happily!) her slave for life by offering me her spot. So, my wait was three years instead of five.

My oak wheel arrived last fall and I promised myself I would spin a whole sweater's worth of yarn on it before I began to even THINK I understood what it could do. As good luck would have it, my friend Shelia-with-no-blog (what's up with that?!) also acquired a walnut Norman Hall Traditional and we have been each other's support group as we get to know the wheels.

I can spin for about 5 hours on this wheel before I get tired. I am very, very pleased to have this in my living room. I am almost 1/3 of the way through the sweater's worth of yarn project and I am beginning to get a good feel for what it can do. For instance, I know a very full drum carded batt of 2.2 oz. can be spun onto a single bobbin, and that 3 of these bobbins can be plied together to make a 6.6 oz. skein of yarn that fills a bobbin just about completely. This is very useful information for me as I plan a project to have the biggest unbroken skeins possible.

New Support List for Angora Breeders

I have been listening to your private e-mail, and will announce here a project near and dear to my heart: a support list for Angora raising and breeding.

The beautiful and wonderful angora rabbit is, at her best, a companion and treasured pet. She shares her wool with you gratefully, and will thrive under your watchful eye. But sometimes your watchful eye needs a little help and a place to go to get your questions answered by breeders who have been doing this a long time.

Thus is the reason for the Angora Community. This community will not be affiliated with any particular organization, but will exist to provide support for those who need a friendly place to get information about living with and breeding angora rabbits, and using angora fiber in various ways. Many of the breeders on the list have businesses where they do this full time, and some just dabble. All of the founding folks are dedicated to reasonably priced angora rabbits who are bred with careful concern for the health and future of of the breeds they work with. We are united in our desire to improve the overall health and personality of Angora rabbits here in the US, and with that in mind will pursue subjects that will educate us to help make the best choices we possibly can in choosing breeding stock from our home rabbitries. We hope to aspire to group defined standards for health in angoras, and to develop a network of breeders to rely on for quality animals as we add to our herds.

If you would like to try out the list for a while, send an e-mail to claudia@countrywool.net with your name and location and what angora rabbits you have in your herd or would LIKE to have!

The Handspun Sweater Project Continues...
Topic: Handspinning
The weather has turned hot and humid here in Eastern New York State, and I am spending the afternoons inside with the AC on...spinning.

Since my last post about this project, I have taken some pictures of what I am working with at the drum carder.
These 3 fibers, (clockwise from 9 o'clock)natural angora (black that appears grey); undyed Corriedale wool; and dyed Cormo wool:

are blended together in one pass on the Supercard to get this:

I worked out many sample skeins before I got to the one that had the twist/color blend that gave me what I was looking for. It ended up wanting to be a 3 ply:

Just for fun, I have calculated how long it took me to make this skein.
Since it is fruitless to figure the time I took to raise the rabbits and shear 4 of them for the angora used in this sweater, I will start from the raw fleece point.

I purchased a natural charcoal Corriedale wool fleece; a natural white Cormo wool fleece and washed both of them. I dyed the Cormo fleece with Cushings 100% Dark Grey and 25%Turquoise Blue and carded it once on the Supercard as the tips refused to open well enough through the five washes/dye baths. Then I made up 2.2 oz batts of 1/3 each angora, Cormo, Corriedale. Then I spun them as a pretty thin singles with moderate twist on my Norman Hall wheel (I really should put up a picture of this wheel at some point, eh?), plying three 2.2 oz bobbins to make 1 - 3 ply 6.6 oz skein of approximately 300 yards.

This took, allowing partial times for the dyeing/washing of whole fleeces, 15 hours.

The yarn looks like a worsted weight and although I haven't knit it yet (next week!) I think it will be around 4.5-5 stitches=1". So, I figure I need to make 2000 yards to have more than enough for an oversized sweater. This equals almost 7 skeins.

I plan on getting one or more skeins a week done, leaving the last one for finishing on my trip to Marie's in July. There we will toast this part of the project's completion, as I plot the sweater.

Bart the Bunny and evaluating bunnies at 8 weeks

Here is Bart, who goes to live with Trish this weekend. He is a real cutie and has been growing like a weed. His demeanor is calmer than his bigger brother, and I think Trish will like him.

Today I weighed all the 8 week and 3 week bunnies as some are leaving this weekend. I like to keep records of litters at this age to see which direction my breedings are going in. This is only the first step in a long series of checkpoints as I evaluate potential breeding stock. Some folks in the industry call this the first culling, and although that can be correct, "culled" rabbits here are simply ones that are removed from the breeding agenda and are designated pet/fiber quality.

So in Gretchen's litter, the three weighed 2# 15 oz; 2# 15.8 oz, and 3# 9 oz. Since the German standard is a rabbit that is around 10 pounds (I don't have the standards in front of me...there is a range) I generally pick the biggest and fastest growing bunnies as keepers. In this litter that is a black buck. So he gets a name and his own cage this weekend.

In Grindle's litter, we have 4 weighing 2# 15 oz; 2# 15.8 oz, 3# 1.2 oz and 3# 5 oz. The biggest one is a tortoiseshell doe, and she will get her own cage and name this weekend, also.

Sydney's 3 week old litter has a range from 6 oz to 10 oz. The little 6 oz buck will indeed be pet quality. He is just adorable and has great spirit, but is not filling out like his siblings. Sometimes these little ones do not do well after weaning, but I'll keep an eye on him and we'll see where he goes.