A quick look at two week old baby bunnies in the nest

Pretty new babies!

We have successfully identified Love as the mother of this litter.  Based on the fact that none of them have broken coloration (i.e. patches of white like Reed and Arnold) we can make a well-founded assumption that Haystack is the lucky father.  We have one fawn - he's out front here-that looks to be a buck.  Drew named him Cracker.  The ruby-eyed white is a doe we've named Rosabelle.  The other three are tortoiseshell, probably chocolate, maybe black, and appear to be two bucks and a doe.  Drew will name them later.  We'll confirm gender in a couple of weeks but I've gotten pretty good at identifying them- just not keeping them away from each other!  I could have wished for more does and fewer bucks but we're lucky to have such beautiful rabbits.

I'm an idiot

Today Drew found one of our does pulling fur and building a nest.  Apparently, I didn't separate the boys and girls fast enough before getting the boys neutered.  Totally my fault. <sigh>

Shearing day

Snowflake is sheared!  It took about an hour but she is sheared, wearing her two layers of fleece shearing jackets and under a ceramic heat emitter.  She is eating which is a good sign that she is not going into shock from the change in body temp.  I gave her a few dried blueberries for being such a good sport about a rank amateur clipping her.  Wool everywhere!  Four gallon bags full.  Not all of it prime, of course, (3 inches) because, hey, first time and all.  I feel really good about the whole process.

Snowflake

Today, Drew and I ventured into new territory when we acquired this German Angora doe from Shelby Rose Rabbitry in Salem, WI.  The International Association of German Angora Breeders (IAGARB) had a rabbit registration at Simons Feed and Seed in Elkhorn.  Michelle France of Shelby Rose invited us to attend so we went at 9:00 and stayed until noon.  Leslie Samson, co-author of Completely Angora, the "bible" for all things Angora, is the current president of IAGARB and she came down from Canada to do the registration and judging.  She is a really great person and I was so happy to meet her.  She talked me through the judging and had me try my hand at evaluating body conformation and wool.  I was getting the hang of it by the time we left.  Everyone there was very welcoming and helpful and I learned a lot.

I haven't posted in a long time as I have been dealing with chronic lateral epicondylitis, commonly known as "tennis elbow."  I've been avoiding using my computer at home since I have to use it so much at work.  I've been having acupuncture treatments in the last week and it has helped tremendously really quickly.

Anyway, Drew and I sheared rabbits at the end of October and have had all our French Angora bucks neutered as we don't plan to breed anymore.  As a result of that decision, we discussed acquiring a German as they are bred for commercial wool rather than as show rabbits.  The focus for Germans is the wool, which is what we are interested in.

French seemed like the way to start because they can be acquired for less money.  We paid between $40-$50 for the rabbits we purchased and then of course we bred for more.  An unregistered German goes for about $175, a registered German for about $300.  Periodically, some breeders import new breeding stock from Germany.  Their body type is different from the French Angora, their wool is quite dense, and prime wool (at least 3 inches long) can be acquired from nearly every part of their body.  I saw a rabbit today that had nearly 3 inches of wool on the bottoms of her feet!  To be registered with IAGARB, they have to produce at least 325 g of wool at a judged shearing of a 90-day coat, producing 1300 g by the end of a year. You can read more about that here.

One of the benefits of having Germans and being a member of IAGARB is that they have a wool co-op.  You can send in a minimum of 5 pounds of wool at a time and get spun yarn back.  One of the things that disappointed me when we started is that there is no fiber co-op in Wisconsin.  I don't spin and so we would be selling raw wool to hand-spinners.  Having the option to have spun yarn for sale would expand our options.  We haven't committed to any of this yet.  We are going to see how it goes with our new doe Shelby Rose Elka.  We call her Snowflake. :-)

Photobomb!

Cherry is a notorious photobomber!

Cage-free

After many weeks of work, we finally have all 13 rabbits out of cages and living harmoniously together.  The last addition was Antonio, who was neutered after siring three successful litters.  He and Ray had to scuffle a bit when we first put Antonio out with the others.  We re-caged each of them on every other night for about three days until they settled down and accepted one another.  Today Drew and I groomed all the rabbits and trimmed their nails and took photos.  We had a great morning for it with 60 degrees in the enclosure so everyone was comfortable.  We also have our new straw shed up and ready for use.