Preparing for Winter

First and foremost, the bunny must be protected from wind.  Wind can be quite bitter, and we must remember that for our rabbit's health.  Although the rabbits don't need protection from the cold, they absolutely must be protected from rain and snow.  It is not only because of the various sicknesses that can occur (pneumonia, snuffles), but with angora rabbits rain or snow can completely destroy their wool.  When their wool gets wet, it mats, and then the body heat from the rabbits can totally felt the wool, which can make the rabbit really uncomfortable.

During the winter, around the Sierras, sometimes the semi-trucks carrying hay and feed can't make it over Donner Pass.  This can be pretty serious because you can't just suddenly switch the rabbit's feed to something else; rapid changes in feed can be fatal.  And of course, you need hay.

When temperatures drop below freezing, water bottles can freeze and even burst.  For a thirsty bunny you want to get it water as soon as possible, so it isn't such a bad idea to store one or two extra water bottles.  That way the bunnies don't have to wait for you to thaw their water bottle inside the house.  On bitter nights it can even be a good idea to get up at midnight to change bottles.  Rabbits won't eat if they can't drink.  It can also cause kidney problems later in their life if they go long periods without water.

It is a good idea to buy extra food for those days when the semi doesn't make it.  It causes a lot less stress when you don't need to worry about feeding your rabbits.  I would recommend three extra bags of rabbit feed (for my ten rabbits).  It isn't likely that the semi would actually take that long, but you don't want to be going to the store once a week asking if they have food.  People who didn't store food before winter can get stressed when they go to the feed store and there is no feed.  They can then end up buying a bit because they don't want that to happen again.  This happens with multiple breeders.  Even though the semi eventually made it, it can be bought out quickly. 


In areas that experience freezing temperatures

Feeding Naturally

Along with pellets and hay, we also give our rabbits greens from the garden.  Not only do these greens help keep our rabbits healthier, but they also help us keep feed costs down.  Therefore, feeding rabbits greens from the garden is not only easy, but also a big money saver.
 
What greens do we feed our bunnies?  We feed our bunnies grasses, weeds, strawberry leaves, corn stalks, lettuce (only a very little), broccoli leaves, beet greens, and carrot tops.  We never feed any plants from the nightshade family (tomatoes and peppers) because they are poisonous.

weeds

broccoli leaves

carrot tops

wheat grass

strawberry leaves

corn stalks

A Sad Bit of Angora History

Any historical information on angora rabbits is pretty hard to come by.  There are little snippets here and there in encyclopedias on online, but just not a whole lot of detailed information.  Even books dedicated to angoras are a bit sketchy about their history.

So today I came across an intriguing link on Facebook.  I checked all over the website, but I couldn't find their rules governing reprinting their articles, so I hesitate to post the article here.  I'm including the link so you can read for yourself (and so I can find the article when I want to). 

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nazis-secretly-bred-angora-rabbits-at-concentration-camps?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page

I already knew the basics that the article covers, and I'll share them with you so that you can decide whether it's something you want to learn more about. 

The author tells about the raising of angora rabbits in Nazi Germany at the concentration camps.  Of course, the rabbits were treated vastly better than the Jews.  While the subject itself is disturbing to ponder, there are not any photographs in the article to worry about showing to children. 

Novelty Yarn (Don't Throw Those Little Mats Away!)

Our view count is down some days, so I had hoped that the traffic from icky sites was shrinking, but alas, such is not the case.  I wish it didn't bother me so much, but it does.

Anyway, on to a topic that people raising angoras don't normally discuss in public.  Mats.  We just don't want to confess that we sometimes get them in our rabbits, and we want to believe that other breeders don't have this problem, either.

We started raising French angoras because we don't want to deal with mats.  And we still prefer to avoid them when at all possible.  The senior rabbits the girls have here all grow relatively carefree coats.  They really only need two minutes of grooming per week until they are close to shedding their coat.  But junior rabbits usually are an entirely different matter.  Sometimes they have coats that mat way too quickly, even with grooming several times per week.  Usually it is just the nature of the baby fiber, but it can also happen when they take a fancy to rubbing against their water bottles or playing in water crocks, or rubbing against each other if they are sharing a cage.

It used to be so annoying because I viewed it as a complete waste of beautiful fiber.

But now I've come to see it as not a complete waste.  I become a lot less stressed when the girls miss grooming an area on the rabbit and find some mats.  It's good to chill out.

Anyway, the mats are spun into the yarn and provide an interesting texture.  It gets called novelty yarn, and I've been told that novelty yarn actually sells better and commands a higher price than evenly spun yarn.  I can't comment because I can't compare.  I've only sold two mini-skeins of yarn, and those were both novelty yarn.  I've got a couple of skeins to put in our Etsy shop, one white novelty yarn skein and one chocolate lace-weight yarn skein.  We'll see which one sells first.

I think it makes beautiful mittens. 

Bad Stuff Happening

We haven't been posting much at all because we're just depressed about what is going on with the blog.  Unfortunately, for some reason, our traffic has jumped about eight-fold, from the normal 30 hits per day to well over 200.  And it's all due to hits coming from sites dedicated to the number one internet use, which shall remain unmentioned in the hopes of not attracting more of that attention.

So I'm going to delete a bunch of the posts that I think attract that attention and hope that it will correct the problem.  It probably won't, but I have to try.

My First Yarn Sale

Charlotte and I spent this past Saturday (oops, apparently I didn't publish this last month and just now found it) at the UNR Field Day.  Once again, I forgot the camera (and I have only a stupid phone), so no pics.  Anyway, we were there for Charlotte to share her rabbits with youth and adults and talk about raising the bunnies and spinning and knitting their fiber.  Charlotte had her teeny tiny angora bunnies for sale and was pretty happy to bring home $40 for the ten she sold (she probably could have earned twice as much if she'd remembered to get them out before lunch).  Her last buyer wanted four, but she didn't have any cash on hand.  Hmmm....

We were trying to figure out a way around this dilemma that didn't involve us making a special delivery later.  I couldn't remember my PayPal account password.  I suggested our Etsy shop, and she could buy everything there.  Unfortunately, I somehow set it up so that only one teeny tiny bunny was listed, and not the dozens that are available.  So that wasn't going to work.  Ugh.

Erin had already asked about whether I spin angora to sell, and I told her that I don't.  If I spin it, I want to knit with it.  She ventured to ask whether I would sell the two mini skeins of pure white angora novelty yarn that I had brought to display.  I had plans for that yarn.  But anyway, I wanted Charlotte to be able to sell her bunnies, so I sold the two mini skeins.

And now I'm wondering whether I should spin more novelty yarn to sell.  Hmmm....

Who's Buying Bunnies?

On average, the people who buy our rabbits fall into three pretty evenly divided groups:  one-third are for show, one-third are for spinning, and one-third are for homeschool families who want the whole rabbit-raising and showing and spinning experience for their education. 

This past month, however, all our bunnies have gone to homeschoolers.  I wish I would remember to take pictures of our buyers with their new bunnies, but we're usually so caught up in demonstrating holding and grooming and spinning that I totally forget about photographs.  It happens almost every single time. 

Anyway, our first family bought two of Charlotte's does for their daughters to start showing in 4-H and to start spinning and knitting.  We look forward to seeing them and their bunnies at local shows.  The girls were so excited to be taking Lyra and Vela home and we know that they will be very much loved.

Our second family just got settled in Reno after leaving the military.  They decided to begin their angora journey with our two wool bunnies Leo and Jasmine.  And the whole family (well, maybe not the three-year-old) is planning to be involved with the bunnies, with the girls feeding and loving the bunnies, and Mom grooming and spinning, and Dad--a Marine--knitting and maybe even spinning.  They're going to have a great experience.