I am starting this blog as a diary of sorts. Not sure if anyone will read it. And that doesn't really concern me. I see my children getting older...two have moved out and one will be in the next year or two. As many women before me, I have made decisions and done things with the children in the back of my mind. I don't want to cling to or live my life through my children so I am pursuing something that interests me and continues to touch a part of me deep down inside. Something that excites me. Raising rabbits for wool. I have had rabbits in the past and for various reasons had to stop. Now, it is time again.
I went to a local county fair last August with an open mind in search of angora rabbits to start a herd. I found what was being called a french angora. She was sweet and I thought, "Well, this is the direction I am being led." Here is a picture of her today:
I went to a local county fair last August with an open mind in search of angora rabbits to start a herd. I found what was being called a french angora. She was sweet and I thought, "Well, this is the direction I am being led." Here is a picture of her today:
Naturally, I later found out that she was really an American Fuzzy Lop/Jersey Wooly cross. I took her home anyway and wound up with the rest of her litter mates because I liked the little girl and the mother looked a bit desperate. So, now I found myself with 5 lovely little rabbits. My daughter found herself a little polish rabbit so he joined us too. I set up an outside rabbitry in the dog pen turned duck pen and just admired them and got back into the swing of having rabbits back in my life. In late November, I was able to build a tough shed and move them inside out of the weather.
I travelled to NJ to visit family over the Christmas holidays and had managed to find a breeder in Missouri who had french angora bucks. We picked them up and brought them back. They are lovely animals with good dispositions and good wool and a good body type. Here is Obsidian:
And here is Thor:
I had decided that it would be a challenge to breed the lovely mixes to good french angora stock and eventually have good and I hope excellent show bunnies and woolers. I know this may take me years and years and years and that is part of the appeal.
I bred the bucks and does (and discovered that one girl was really a boy) in January. Unfortunately, the does did not use the next boxes I had placed with them and the babies were born on the wire and I did not get to them in time. I do have a heater in the barn but it was not enough for the babies. There were 11 kits in all out of three does. I was sad, but figured this was part of being a breeder and so I re-bred them. They are due in mid-March, I am not working and will camp out in the rabbitry.
This blog will be part of a website I am in the process of creating. My oldest son is helping me. I do believe I will be able to learn this new-fangled technology despite being born in the dark ages.
My ultimate dream is to form a local co-op that offers hand spun, hand-dyed, angora, mohair, wool blends of yarn. I know this is way in the future but it is something I look forward to.
Meanwhile, I will be raising the bunnies, plucking the wool, getting better at spinning, knitting and enjoying it all.
I travelled to NJ to visit family over the Christmas holidays and had managed to find a breeder in Missouri who had french angora bucks. We picked them up and brought them back. They are lovely animals with good dispositions and good wool and a good body type. Here is Obsidian:
And here is Thor:
I had decided that it would be a challenge to breed the lovely mixes to good french angora stock and eventually have good and I hope excellent show bunnies and woolers. I know this may take me years and years and years and that is part of the appeal.
I bred the bucks and does (and discovered that one girl was really a boy) in January. Unfortunately, the does did not use the next boxes I had placed with them and the babies were born on the wire and I did not get to them in time. I do have a heater in the barn but it was not enough for the babies. There were 11 kits in all out of three does. I was sad, but figured this was part of being a breeder and so I re-bred them. They are due in mid-March, I am not working and will camp out in the rabbitry.
This blog will be part of a website I am in the process of creating. My oldest son is helping me. I do believe I will be able to learn this new-fangled technology despite being born in the dark ages.
My ultimate dream is to form a local co-op that offers hand spun, hand-dyed, angora, mohair, wool blends of yarn. I know this is way in the future but it is something I look forward to.
Meanwhile, I will be raising the bunnies, plucking the wool, getting better at spinning, knitting and enjoying it all.
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