Bunneh in Repose

Rosalind, taking a break.



She was shorn just before Christmas, below you can see exactly how poofy she was prior to her haircut. I haven't listed it on Etsy, but I could be talked out of her fleece. The clip was 4.5oz prime fiber this time.

Rabbit care: Recycling assistant

More photos of Rosalind, who has the biggest character of the bunnies in our house. Occasionally I give her a used box to "play with" (i.e. destroy). Those of you with cats and children already know boxes are awesome. Apparently bunnies know this too. Roz will dig at it, chew on it, move it, flip it over, and hide in it. Just before I took this photo she was completely in it, with only her periscope like ears peeking out. But also like cats, bunnies know when you're going for the camera.

This isn't just a funny post, though. Activity and entertainment is important for the health and happiness of bunnies, just as it is for any pet. Boxes are cheap or free and can provide hours of fun until they're destroyed, at which time the remnants can be swept into the compost pile or sent to the recycling bin. I generally remove all tape and labels, then fold one end of the box in the overlapping style and drop it in the cage. And of course, don't use any box that may have contained hazardous materials.

Neverending Shearing Cycles and Snappy Mitts

This is the fleece on our young doe Empire's Rosalind, litter-mate to Walter, who is called Sherman by his new owners, I believe. Both born on New Year's Eve 2009. You may also remember Ros' evil conference with Chutlulu. :)

The fiber on these babies has turned out wonderful. At clipping time, she had 4 inches of densely packed, lusciously soft bright white wool. (Ignoring the bits of hay she manages to get in there...)

Its impossible to get a good photo of her, seems she's always moving. Below you see her after part one of a three part haircut. Pretty funny looking, yes?




I find it is easier to trim in stages because it is a time consuming process. They get restless. So any shearing is done in 2-4 stages over a couple days. It might be easier if I were to actually invest in clipper, but I'm still doing this with a pair of ordinary scissors. For those of you who have never done this: The back is easy, the stomach and legs can be a fight. Invite a friend for backup.



And I've also added a photo of my Endpaper Mitts, made while at ASM conference in San Diego and on the flight. Great travel project.

The swatch for the project was also knit in pattern in the round. It was finished off with ribbing on both sides, and my sister now uses it as an extra snappy coffee sweater. No one else at Starbucks has a better dressed latte.

I found that my gauge was off, and rather than bother to try to fix it with a different set of needles, which would likely have required purchasing something smaller than sz1 for ribbing, I proceeded with the needles I had but altered the chart to remove stitches - 48 sts were cast on. A single seam st is used along the thumb, and the color pattern repeat is continuous between.

I used Knit Pick's Palette from my stash for this and it performed very well. The project uses hardly any yarn, however, so if you have partial balls of palette, you can probably make a pair of mitts. Admittedly, I made my mitts a little shorter than the pattern called for, but for reference total finished weight is 28g. So the pattern uses an estimated 15g of main color and 13g of contrasting color. Go forth, young knitters, and bust your stash.

Meet Marcus

Hi Folks,
Meet Marcus. He's a relatively new addition to our family. I can't decide what color he is, but his breeder called him a chocolate marten. Marten is not a phenotype you usually see in angoras, to the best of my knowledge, but Marcus is not of completely angora parentage. Somewhere 4 or more generations back there was an actual silver marten, a non-wool color breed. Marcus has the correct markings on his face, so he could indeed carry the marten genetics. Its just that, combined with the long angora coat which stretches out the color as it grows, its hard to tell for sure.

Regardless, though, he is a very attractive bunny with soft, cottony wool, and excellent house bunny manners.

Cthulhu attends conference with Evil Bunneh

Cthulhu discusses tactics with Evil Red-Eye Bunneh at a recent conference. Evil Red-Eye Bunneh, who is well known for her work in eating Arthur's Knights during the Holy Grail Quest, is currently available for contract work. She specializes in gnawing. Cthulhu, easily recognizable from his squiddy head, is currently on assignment at our San Francisco office.
Full story at 11.

Ok, the bunny is actually not Evil at all. This is Empire's Rosalind, also known as GirliQ, after her first shearing. She is the critter we kept from the New Year's Eve 2009 litter. She has fantastic wool with excellent density, and enough personality for two rabbits. She recently proved to be an escape artist, managing to pop open her door at around 5AM I think. I'm sure she had to have been loose for at least an hour before she ran into the bedroom and spooked the cats, causing me to actually wake up fully. We do frequently let her out to run around the house, but 5AM? Not the best time for that. I'm more careful about fully latching her door now. Fortunately she is litter trained.

The Cthulhu amigurumi was a gift custom crochet for a friend. I used what I consider to be a 'standard amigurumi body shaping', and crochetted-on (crochet-on??) squiddy facial tentacles, angry eyebrows, and horns, adding two-hole button eyes, and wings that are essentially identical to the feet of my angry duckling pattern. His new owner found him very funny, and has since graciously employed him for the purpose of terrorizing glamazons.

Babydoll Shearing Day, 2010

Yesterday was the big shearing day for the Babydoll Southdown flock at Sweetwater Farm. Babydolls are still a rare breed, an old world variant of the modern Southdown stock. They are compact, standing only 24 inches at the shoulder, and come in a range of colors from white to black. The fleece is fine and extremely bouncy due to the tight spiralling crimp, lending an unparalleled stretch and memory to the yarns spun from this fiber. As a breed, they're gaining popularity as pets, spinners flock candidates, 4H projects, and weed control minions in places like wineries looking to minimize chemical applications.

The fleeces are always enjoyable, but this year they seemed exceptionally soft and yummy. It will be a delight to spin these up! this year I plan to try blending the Babydoll wool with some of our own Angora.

Above is a 'before picture'. Below are action shots and 'after' pictures.


Our esteemed shearer getting ready to start sheep #6. I think that was Dani, but its hard to tell from this angle. He starts with trimming hooves, then proceeds to shearing starting carefully around the head and neck, then proceeding to belly, sides and back. Sheep are supported against his legs, putting them in a more workable position while keeping them secure and calm. This a very physical technique, but generally yields very good results safely.

As the shearing progresses the ewe is moved around for better access to other parts. After the fleece is off, I take it aside to the skirting table to remove belly wool and tags, leaving only the best stuff.

Three of the ladies having a graze after their eventful day - Libby (black), Molly (silver), and Daisy (white).

One of the lambs re-discovers mom. The lambs kick up quite a fuss during shearing day, almost as if they're not initially sure which ewe is their mother without her fleece.

I will be working on taking photos and listing fleeces over the next few weeks. Right now we have roving listed. If you're looking for a particular shade of fleece or large quantity, feel free to email me or contact me through Etsy.

The Empire's Walter

I'd like you all to meet Walter. Walter is one of the kits born Dec. 31st here on the farm, and one of only two still at the house. The rest have all found homes. Walter enjoys sunflower seeds, apple slices, harassing cats, and running on carpet as fast as he can.

Walter is possibly going to a new home this weekend (hope I don't jinx it!), just in time for Easter, but we are now assembling a list of interested parties for our next litter, soon to be bred of Sadie by Fritz. To be added to our mailing list, please send a message to our new rabbitry email address. We shall miss his sweet face but wish him the best!

Bad Haircut Day

Fritz says, "Oh dear heavens, what have you done to me!?"
To see what Fritz looks like in full coat, click here.

It was time for Fritz to be sheared. As always, he looks horrible now. I generally go for the quick haircut, rather than the stylish approach. We use a pair of rounded tip scissors, like you might buy your kid to cut construction paper with. Since they're not pointy, I won't accidentally stab him if he suddenly decides to make a break for it, and since they're not razor sharp, I'm not likely to cut skin with it (again, if he suddenly moves or something). We do this about every three months, with periodic combing and checking for mats in between. Since it is currently cold in our unheated bunny basement, I didn't clip him very close.

Some folks also use electric clippers for their buns. I understand that there are special brands designed specially for rabbits, but as I'm to cheap for that I can't advise you on it.

Keep in mind also that some angoras shed or molt naturally every 3-4 months. Usually such bunnies are double or even triple coated, so that even though the outer hairs are shed, there is still a full coat underneath. The mom of our recent litter does this. She is a French angora. When they are in molt, you can gently pluck the already loose hairs.

Baby 'Bits Growing FAST!

The little rabbits are growing fast! They're now 28 days old and topping one pound each with an inch of soft fluff! Seems they've inherited their mom's lovely, delicate crimp as well. The photos below were actually taken last week, so the buns are a little bigger now. They seem to be gaining about an ounce of weight per day!

They'll be ready for new homes in a couple weeks. If you'd like to reserve one or ask more about them, please contact me.

Preserving Heritage Breeds

The following is a snippet from a NY Times article:

Located on a 45-acre estate in Newport, Rhode Island, SVF is the only organization in the country dedicated to conserving rare heritage livestock breeds by freezing their semen and embryos.

About 45,000 semen and embryo samples from 20 breeds of rare cattle, sheep and goats are preserved there in liquid nitrogen. Each time the foundation freezes a batch of embryos from a new breed, it thaws a few and transplants them into surrogate animals.

While commercial livestock have been bred for consistency, heritage breeds have not been continuously "improved" by humans. They have been shaped more by natural selection and survival-of-the-fittest forces. They are a valuable resource to the livestock industry.

Before SVF, the preservation of heritage livestock was through natural reproduction and organizations like the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

Read full article in New York Times

As a fan of heirloom plants, unique characteristics and genetic diversity, this piques my interest. Line bred plants and animals are for commercial farms. They're boring but predictable. They can be high output and uniform, but can also be rather demanding for feed and maintenance. Small farms and home growers have the opportunity to work with something more interesting and unique and self sustaining in heritage breeds and heirloom plants.

Looking further into the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, I find they also have several rabbit breeds listed. These are mostly rabbits originally selected for fur and meat, so not the true "naturally selected" hardy breeds I would consider heritage, but they are endangered as rabbits have fallen out of favor for fur, and though they are still bred for meat by some it is on a small scale only. Angoras, of course, are still kept and bred for *wool*, not pelts, but obtaining and propagating these heritage breeds, as well as careful interbreeding with angoras, may produce some lovely wool rabbits with hard to obtain color and different textures while improving genetic diversity of the angora. Of course, if you have space, you'll also want to help keep the heritage breed itself going, but by at least obtaining a kit from a breeder support is provided for those dedicated to the breed.

Something to think about.

Photos of the 10 day old kits

Maddie's kits are growing at a pretty fast pace. They're showing evidence that their ears are open and registering sounds, and they're eyes are starting to open a little too. So far, we think what we have is Ruby Eye Whites (which may carry either the Agouti gene or the Chinchilla gene) and Chinchilla babies. Most likely blue Chinchilla. They're all very adorable at this stage with their wobbly little legs and occasional peeps.

Mom is eating a lot these days, since she's nursing and regaining the weight she lost during pregnancy. We're giving her lots of alfalfa-grass hay blend, as well as still offering her typical timothy, and more pelleted feed with an added allotment of fruit and veggie slices, a few black oil sunflower seeds, and a little plain granola. She's happily gobbling it all up.

Baby Bunnies!

Our girl Maddie, an Agouti French Angora doe, recently had this litter of 6 kits by our German Angora Fritz, who is a Chinchilla Blue. At a day old, three of the kits are pink, and three are dark. In a few days we'll have a better idea of what colors they'll actually be. Babies will be ready for new homes around Valentine's day 2010.

I thought I'd post some of what we've learned so far for anyone thinking of breeding their rabbits.

First, Maddie's demeanor changed while she was pregnant. She became less tolerant of intrusions into her space (i.e. she would give me the hairy eyeball and grunt when I cleaned the cage). Within perhaps a week of breeding, she began nesting. She was constantly re-arranging the hay in her cage to different corners and boxes. Gestation is 32-35 days in angoras, and at 31 days she began plucking large amounts of hair from her body for the nest. That evening, I pulled everything out of her cage and cleaned it out. I removed the fiber from the box, cleaned the box she had chosen as a nest and put in fresh litter and hay, then cut up the fiber and put it back in the box. The next morning when we peeked in the hair was twitching. Further inspection revealed 6 tiny little buns warm in their nest of momma's fiber.

In talking to other breeders, we learned that as prey animals, rabbits protect their nest by not actually spending much time in it, in hopes of not drawing attention to the kits. At this age they only nurse once or twice per day for 5-10 min at a time. You will likely not see mom do more than check over the nest unless you remove the nestbox and only place them in the cage for a short period of time. But as long as the kits have round, fat bellies, and are warm and toasty, you will know they are being cared for.