So many things to learn!

Drew and I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan August 14-16.  We attended an all-day workshop with Colleen Boyd, a long-time Angora breeder.  She brought in about 20 rabbits of all different Angora breeds so we could see the differences.  She covered all the basics of housing and feeding.  We covered sexing and breeding.  She even mated a pair of black Giant Angoras while we were there!  Mr. Bunny was so eager, he started at the wrong end.  Colleen got her turned around though and there was a successful mating. :-)

We got to practice cutting out mats in the wool and she demonstrated shearing with clippers.  She blew out the coat of a white Giant that she plans to take to the national show in Texas.

Some of the most important practice was in picking up, flipping over, and carrying the bunnies in a football hold.  We can now look forward to far fewer scratches (me, because I don't wear gloves) and a lot more confidence that we will keep control without hurting our darlings.

It's been hot...

We put ceramic tiles in the freezer and then put them in the rabbit cages for them to lay on.  We've been going through a lot of them so I cleaned off these 15 and put them out in the sun to dry.  That took about 10 minutes. :-)

You can see Ray has decided not to use his today.

Moving out of Mom's House

Today is weaning day for Breeze and Grace!  We put wheels on their cage and then tattooed their ears.  These are our first attempts at tattoos and, boy, did the tattoos turn out bad!  I rolled the bunnies up in towels and had Drew hold them.  I warned him that they were NOT going to like this procedure but nothing prepared him for the wriggling and writhing so I may just say that the tattoos look great for someone who did them blindfolded. :-)  I do have quite a lot of tattoo ink under my left thumbnail, which will teach me to wear gloves next time.

It was another hot day so we provided everyone with ceramic tiles from the freezer and frozen water bottles to lie against.

I also shot a short video to mark the occasion.  I forgot the video function only works on the horizontal so the very first part is sideways.

We will move one of them out to her own cage in a couple of weeks, once they get used to being away from Mom.  That's how we did it with Cherry and Lizzie when they first got here and it seemed to work out OK.   Besides, I think Drew is tired of putting together cages right now.