Follow black beauty

So after three months my beautiful momma bunny has let go of all her kits. Well she did over a month ago but I had to just last week. They have all found great homes now. Momma was looking pretty shabby for awhile, I remember what I looked like after my first baby though, it wasn't pretty. at least i didn't have to pull out all my hair to make a warm bed for her and i only had to produce enough milk for one baby and not nine. considering what she experienced i think she looks even more beautiful now. her wool has fully grown out and is ready to be plucked. i thought i would have my friends follow the process of what i do with my angora wool. i have posted a picture of black beauty before and after her plucking. i will keep you up to date on what i do next, the spinning.

Preparing for winter

I am getting ready for my first winter with my angoras outside in their sheds, already not liking the frozen water bottles. Sold my last baby from black beauty's litter this past week,can't wait for my breeding next spring of two does! My goal was to go into the winter with as few as possible and I am happy with the number I have, currently 5. Gibbs is in need of a plucking this weekend and then I should be good for another month or so. My black beauty did such a wonderful job with her first litter but her coat really paid the price.her wool is just now starting to shape up.
Slowly starting my sales on hats and fingerless gloves. Wish I could do more but the time just isn't there. A friend of mine will be putting some on display at his salon in waterville so we will see how that goes. I need to figure out a price for locals because I can't imagine many people buying a hat for 80 bucks. I do need to figure in my cost and give me some profit though.
So another friend of mine has designed an awesome business card for me, I am real excited to get them in print. With a beautiful business sign and awesome business cards I am slowly getting ready to market my products. I also have a business email, agapeangoras@gmail.com

Agape Angoras

Summertime definitely flew by for my family. Much harder to blog when the weather is nice out. This weekend i am preparing for the big hurricane, or tropical storm, we'll see how hard it hits us in Franklin county, but i don't need any rabbits or chickens blowing away or my neighbors will think they are in Kansas when they see an animals flying by their window. With a new computer I am in high hopes to get this blog going again. I should start by letting you know that my hobby/business has a name! We are now Agape Angoras. Agape is Greek and translates into English as love, not just any love but the unconditional love that God gives us and that we should strive for in our lives. I felt like it was very fitting since John and I are working towards that daily. I also just like the word and how it rolls off my tongue. So Agape Angoras is currently 15 rabbits large and one rat ( i will explain later). I bred Black Beauty and Leroy this summer and ended up with the most beautiful litter ever. I may be partial to this but they are so colorful and so many. She gave birth to 9 kits back in the beginning of august. They are three weeks old now and extremely cute and playful. of course I will throw some pics of them on here. Other exciting news is I sold my first pair of fingerless gloves! I had finished making my own over the 4th of July weekend and was showing them off to friends at work. A co worker wanted a pair, I hope all my sales are that easy. I had high hopes of having enough products to sell this fall so I could enter a craft fair but I am afraid that won't be happening. My motivation is there but my bunnies only grow wool so fast. I would need more rabbits to get this task done and if that were to happen I would need more space and time. I have decided to take it slow. I have finally got my rabbits out of my basement though and into their own sheds. These sheds will be temporary until our garage is built but that is still two years away probably. My litter will be ready to go the first week in October so if anyone out their would like a fiber pet just let me know since i will have about 6-7 for sale.

Spinning wheel

Spring has really arrived, yesterday was so nice outside. I am finding that blogging is much harder to do when the weather is nice. After much practice I can use my spinning wheel! I am still not very good but it is such an achievement for me. I still need to tweak the wheel some because as I spin the wheel keeps slowly moving away from me. I am going to a fiber farm in Augusta this week hopefully tomorrow. The lady there will show me how she has her rabbits set up and also show me her fiber studio. I am in need of wool roving,which is the raw form that I use to spin. I have my angora wool but it is easier to learn on sheep wool, plus not as expensive since I am making plenty of mistakes. My goal that I have set for myself is to have spun enough wool to make enough items to have a table at some of the craft fairs this fall.

spinning wheel

Gibbs, 5 month old chocolate tort german/english/french angora



Leroy my 1.5 year old french/german angora



my ashford traveler spinning wheel!

Hi everybody, I can't believe it's already half way through April. I am very excited that spring is finally here to enjoy. My father even heard the frogs peeping the other day. I think listening to the frogs peep in the early spring as the day is ending is so peaceful. Ok so this blog isn't about frogs, it's about rabbits. I just had that thought in my mind and wanted to share it. I am now down to four rabbits which is about where I want to be for now. My two bucks, Leroy and (no name) and two does, Black Beauty and Ashley II. The big news is I bought a spinning wheel!!!! It is called the ashford traveler. Ashford is a good brand name and the traveler is a smaller version and easy to transport. I have been practicing some but I am having my first lesson this coming sunday. I am practically jumping out of my skin to make yarn and crochet my first finished product from my rabbits. I now need to come up with a name for my farm. I want something original but something that people will know it is a fiber farm. When I sell my finished products I want to have business cards eventually. Any ideas are welcome. The photos of my babies are after they have been plucked so as they grow out their wool i will post more photos.

Bunnies for sale

aren't we cute?

last group picture 7 weeks old

I have been slacking on my blog as you can see. Since my bunnies are ready for sale this week I thought this would be a good time to write about them one more time. I have 7 cute fluffy bunnies for sale. Two males and three females. Genevieve has claimed the black female one. On march 30th I will be bringing them to the Wilton tractor supply store and they will be selling them for me. If anyone wants one let me know so I can save it for you. Two of them are over a pound now and the rest are one or two ounces behind. Annabell and Arthur went to a new home yesterday together. They now live in albion with a nice gentleman that has grandkids, so they will get played with.
My angora's are doing real well, i even purchased a new one yesterday from fairfield. My new little guy is 5 months old and a beautiful chocolate tort color. His wool appears more apriocot like but it is gorgeous. I plucked Leroy completely and got close to five ounces of wool which is good for my first time plucking I think. Black beauty is not ready for plucking but I still get a lot with her grooming sessions.
I have taken a back seat with my drop spindle since angora is easier to spin on a spinning wheel. I have found two good priced wheels but they have been both too far away to travel. If anyone knows of a used working one let me know.in the mean time I will continue to stock up on wool.
Goodbye bunnies you will be missed. pictures of the angoras will be coming soon.

new angora rabbits



just some of the angora from leroy



baby eating all by itself

leroy looking shabby, in the middle of plucking him

french angora i may call her black beauty

Well I have my hands full with 12 rabbits now. Last weekend I drove to harrison to purchase my two new angoras. I have a 1.5 year old buck who is german/french cross. He is the best of both worlds. He has the size and white dense coat as the german and the coat of a french angora, which makes grooming a little easier. I do have to say though that it is not easy grooming him. The biggest reason now though is that he is ready to be plucked so his coat is at it's longest right now. I started plucking him last night around 9pm. He sat in my lap and was a real good boy. I tried to find a method of plucking that worked for me. Basically you comb him all out and break up his body in sections (visually, no rabbit slaughtering jokes here), grab a small section of wool from the base of his skin and pull, it comes out real easy so it's not like i am pulling so hard it hurts him. I plucked and plucked and plucked till my fingers and hand starting aching. I managed to do the top of his back and a little on the sides and decided the rest can wait a day or two. When i went back inside the house it was midnight! Plucking apparently is going to be a very long process. I hope that with practice it will happen much faster. Now my other angora is a beautiful black 100% french angora. She is just a baby though at only 11 weeks old. She is a lot more timid then the buck and tends to scratch me more trying to get away. I hope with time and patience she will enjoy being held as much as leroy. I call the buck leroy only because that is the name he had when i got him and i have yet to come up with good names of my own. The baby will be ready to pluck by summer I think and she can breed in august. leroy and her will be mates when she grows up some more. As far as the bunnies go, they are all doing real well. They eat grain and hay on their own and drink out of the water bottle too. They are very curious little puffballs. Annabell is doing a great job with them. She has shown no signs of getting irritated with them. Arthur is a little lonely a think due to the fact that I had to put up a piece of cardboard so he couldn't bother momma and the bunnies. He misses his girlfriend but he is just gonna have to wait because i don't want any more jersey woolies. I have arthur and 7 bunnies for sale. help me spread the word please!

growing bunnies

These bunnies sure are growing up fast. They have double in weight in 5 days! All eyes are now open except one of the white ones, he keeps closing up. I flush his eye with warm water and artificial tears occasionally and it seems to be helping. Since one of the white ones jumped out of the nest box the other day I decided it is time to ditch the nest box. It is recommended to take it out between 12 and 18 days anyways. The risk of eye infections go up and they pee and poo so much now that it starts to become unsanitary. I placed a small board in the cage so they have an area that they can get up off the wire if they choose, the open wire bottom cage doesn't seem to be bothering them at all though.So as you all know now these cute things are not angora. They are a cross between jersey woolies and something else, maybe angora. they will make great pets though. I have decided to sell them all except the one I promised Genevieve. I may also keep Annabell as a pet too because she is such a good girl. I have plans on getting a french/german angora buck and a french doe this saturday in harrison if all goes well. I will write another post about them later on. I have added a video on my facebook page of the little guys playing around. i tried to load it on here but it was taking way too long.

A hiccup for my angora farm

The hiccup being I don't have angoras! They may be an angora cross though but either way I can't start a business raising mutts. I started doubting myself when Arthur's wool was not growing any longer. I started doing a liitle research on genetics and I learned a little bit more on the breed standard for French angoras. I emailed a nice lady from spang angora in new York. I sent her some pics and she told me they were not purebred angora and may be crossed with jersey wooley. The weight standard for French angora is 8-10 lbs and when I weighed my rabbits they were only 5.5 and 5 lbs. This was and still is very upsetting. I have bonded with these guys and their litter and a part of me doesn't want to sell them. What I want is purebred french angoras and I don't have money or space to keep these guys and what I really want. I don't know what I was thinking just taking a person's word on their breed.I now have some real cute PET bunnies not fiber animals for sale.
I will be purchasing a breeding pair of purebred French angoras in the future. I will pay good money for them but they will be the real deal.I also am looking into becoming a member of the ARBA, the American rabbit breeders association. I will go into more details at a later time and I also will be updating you on my bunnies progress soon.

One week old

Well Annabell did a great job this first week.The first 24 hours were scary for me because I was afraid some were not getting fed but everyday since then there has been eight full round little bellies.The fur is growing,the gray one has turned brown and the black one appears more gray,the pink is all gone and replaced with beautiful white fur. They have grown so much, I see a change every day. I bought a scale to weigh them and also to weigh the angora wool since you sell it by the ounce.Last Saturday the babies ranged from 1.4 to 2.3 ounces or close to it I forget exactly but I did write it down.Five days later i weighed them again and my runt is 2.5 ounces and miss piggy is 4.3ounces. One concern I have that may be normal is they don't keep covered up anymore in their nest.They still pig pile on each other so they have that warmth but nothing on top of them.I am probably over thinking this, I mean rabbits were having babies long before my time.if anyone has some awesome b names they want to share let me know.I have some ideas but I won't be naming them for a few more weeks. I want to get to know their personalities first and hopefully their sexes also.I will be selling some,will not be till April but if anyone is interested let me know or check out my ad in uncle henrys online.

one week old bunnies

Bunnies!!!!!!!

just a few hours old

This morning when I woke up I was very excited to go check on Annabell because today is her due date.When I went downstairs I was thrilled to see 8 baby bunnies! thats right 8! I only took a quick peek but they were all alive and squirming.It looks like most will be white,some white with specks and one is almost entirely black.Some of the kits are much smaller than others so I am afraid that I will lose some.I will be keeping my fingers crossed though.Arthur was spazzing out running back and forth in his cage and grunting, not usual behavior. He was clearly upsetting annabell so I put some cardboard up so she couldn't see him. I hope he doesn't upset her too much I don't want to think about what she might do. Later today I will cut up the fur she added because angora wool is so long the bunnies could get twisted in it, lose a leg or strangle themselves. If I cut it up into smaller pieces it will be safer for them. I have added a photo of them. It is not a great one because I was so excited and trying to walk on egg shells around momma.The bunnies pig pile on each other so that is why you may not be able to see 8 but they are in there.

Spinning

this is store bought sheep wool that has been dyed.This is what i am practicing on.

I had my first lesson this past Sunday with Sharon.She lives just down the road from me and has a fiber farm with Icelandic sheep.Starting with sheep wool is recommended because angora is so fine it is not as easy to learn on.I am learning on a drop spindle,a spinning wheel is much more complicated and expensive for beginners.The idea of spinning with a drop spindle is easy I think but getting the wool to come out all uniform like the yarn you see in stores seems impossible to me now.This is where lots of practice will come in.
In return for the drop spindle and lessons,I gave Sharon The 10 week old bunny,Ashley. Her name is now princess Anastasia and I can visit her whenever I want.I am not that upset since I know she has a good home and will be used for fiber,but Genevieve on the other hand is down right devastated.I promised her pick of the litter,even though this litter I was going to use all b names,her bunny will be named Ashley again.

preparing for kindling (babies)

Arthur

Annabell

All 3 in their own cage

Ashley

I moved the bunny Ashley, who is now already 9 weeks old, into her own cage last night.After a few minutes of checking it all out she seemed just fine.the cage is right next to her momma and they kissed between cages almost if to say "i'm right here momma".I have been doing a lot of research to learn about the process of kindling(giving birth) and how to prepare for the litter once they are born.I have been preparing myself for the possiblity of her not actually being pregnant, and if she is, the kits dying. It will be rough, but it will be a learning process and it will probably be mother nature's way of saying, "not now". Some breeders take the nest box into their home everyday for various reasons and some let the mother do everything.Either way I have found that as long as the mother is use to you and your scent, there is no problem handling the kits daily.It is actually a good idea since that way you can check their progress and make sure they are eating enough and getting use to you.I will be leaving the nest box right in with the mom since i have a chicken eating dog and don't want a rabbit eating one too.Yes, that's right, for those of you who do not know my dog Bandit opened the incubator and "played" with the day old chick and killed it.My angora's will be staying away from the dog for as long as possible.The next step is to make a nest box either out of metal or wood, I will be using wood or should I say John will be using wood :) He doesn't know it yet but i am in hopes of him building me the nest box.I will be putting it in her cage next weekend with the hopes of a healthy litter by tuesday or wednesday.i have posted some new pics of the three of them in their own cages and some close up's of each of them.

New adventure

Hey everyone this is my first post in a blog ever!I thought it was time I caught up to the rest of the world.so I have started my very own angora farm.I have one buck named Arthur,one doe named Annabelle and one of their kits named Ashley.they are the cutest things and very fluffy which is good since I will be using their wool.one thing I learned is that all rabbits have fur except angora,they have wool.I have had them since the 10th of January which was also John(my husband)and my 9th anniversary.I can't explain how excited I am and ideas are flowing with all that I can do with them.I recently found a lady that will be teaching how to spin.I can't wait.I am in the market for a drop spindle though.a drop spindle is what u use to spin wool into yarn.of course there is the spinning wheel but I want to start small.the latest excitement is Annabelle may be pregnant!she was bred Jan 11th so 31 days from then we should have bunnies.there is a way to check but when I tried to feel around I couldn't feel anything.I don't think it was because she is not expecting but because I didn't know what I was doing.she has a new found attitude that she didn't have before so I think it's the hormones.I will add photos as soon as I know how:)until next time
.