Hey everyone!  This is Tina.  I haven't posted for a while because I've been busy preparing for a move out of state!  I'm moving with my family to Illinois.  Christine will still be in Georgia working with her herd of rabbits, but I will be out of commission for a while.  Once I get settled in and begin to breed my bunnies again we will have two areas of the country served through WeSpinAngora.  Those of you in the midwest will be able to come pick up rabbits at my farm, while others from the south will continue to travel to Gainesville GA for your "rabbit fix".

As I prepare for this move I've had to reduce my herd substantially.  To that end I am now offering my dear Sweet Pea for adoption.  I recently had Sweet Pea neutered as he was meant to be our house bunny and mascot as we travel to schools and fairs to spread the word about these wonderful Angora rabbits.  So breeding is definitely out, but neutered bucks are reported to have the densest fiber and nicest temperament.  He would be a great house bunny for some hand spinner or other angora enthusiast.

Because Sweet Pea was the smallest of his litter he was hand fed on a supplemental basis.  He is very used to humans and loves petting.  His coat is dense but low maintenance for an English Angora.  We've worked with him wearing a harness and leash.

 

Although he is a pointed white, Sweet Pea does not have the ruby eyes that are standard for this color.  His are a violet blue...very beautiful!

Please see our "bunnies Available" page for more info, and email if interested.

So many exciting things going on...where to begin!

OK, Olivia is doing great with her kits.  They're 8 days old now and growing fast!  Since it was a smallish litter (only 5 kits) we won't be able to sell one to everyone who has inquired.  Sorry!  But there is also good news!!!  We went to SAFF this past weekend and picked up a couple of new bunnies who are pregnant.  We are expecting a litter of French and a litter of Germans in about 2 weeks.  I can hardly wait!!!  They are both pedigreed does from good lines and should have nice litters.

Also at SAFF Tabby went to her new home in North Carolina.  Thank you Sherri!  We miss her, but are pleased to have her in a nice home.

With that space in my house "openned up", Sweet Pea has moved in.  On Monday I took him to be nuetered.  Now he's our house bunny.  He seems to be recovering well from his surgery.  He has met our other new house resident...Juno, our Great Pyreneese!

We found Juno wandering a high traffic area near the college where my husband teaches.  After trying to find her previous owner with no luck, we decided to keep her.  She's a sweet girl and perhaps she'll help with security around the rabbitry.  She and Sweet Pea get along just fine.  She's not too interested, and he's not too scared.  I'll keep a close eye on their blossoming relationship!!!

Check back later for updateson the nest boxes!

On day 35 of Olivia's pregnancy finally the kits have arrived.  They are so sweet and fat!  We are loving them already.  The darkest one has been given a milk name of Hippo. 

Have you seen our videos of how to hand feed a baby angora bunny?  If not click on the angora video link above and scroll down to the 2 videos.  That little starving kit you have seen in those videos has grown into a lovely junior.  Although Sweet Pea will never be a show bunny ( he's a white English Angora with dark blue/violet eyes).  The eye color indicates that he carries the chinchilla gene, but also are mismatched with his wool color.  So he would be disqualified at any show.  Regardless, he's to be our own house bunny!  After feeding him by hand for weeks and then also rescuing him after a neighborhood kitnapping incident, I just can't let go of him!  Here's his latest photo taken during a grooming session.  You'll notice that he has great furnishings, especially the bangs!

After grooming him, I also plucked a little of his wool as he was going through a partial molt.  When I'm not going to show my English, I often clip around the face so that they can see and to keep the grooming to a minimum.  Sweet Pea has such nice bangs though, that I didn't want to trim them.  I felt like it would take his glory.  So I put in a hair tie!  He looks so cute, although my daughter says he looks like a girl.  what do you think?

In other news...Tabby will be going to a new home next weekend!  I'm happy that she'll be going to a nice family who wants a house bunny, but I will miss her a lot!  She's such a sweet and well mannered bunny.  Farewell, my friend.

 

Olivia is on day 33 of her pregnancy and it has been a learning experience.  I thought that rabbits were pretty predictable about their due dates and things would go by the book.  I am looking forward to a safe and healthy delivery for all.  I will keep you posted!

So happy to say that Olivia seems to be happily pregnant (thanks Beethoven) and things are going just fine.  Her expected kindling date is October 15th and we are so excited. 

This is Beethoven, an English angora buck.

I've had Beethoven since last spring.  I got him from another breeder who for health reasons had to rehome all her rabbits.  When I got Beethoven he was in bad need of a grooming...his coat had molted, but had not been plucked or clipped.  As a result, he was badly matted.  I had to clip everything off with the scissors.  As his wool grew back in, the color was very faint.  This is what I have noticed happens when the English angoras are clipped rather than plucked. When his new coat was not completely grown out, I was planning to be out of town for 3 weeks, so I clipped everyone, including Beethoven down.  I didn't want to come home to matted bunnies.  When that coat grew in pale again, I wasn't surprised.  I also was not in love with this little guy yet.  He just didn't seem to have the beauty I've come to expect from the English angoras.  This time, however, I was able to pluck him properly.  He was bald for a week or so and looked very pathetic as they do at this point in the wool cycle.  Then he began to get a lovely wool, with color and density like never before.  At about this time I had another breeder take a look at him to see what her experienced eye saw in his body conformation.  She pronounced him well built!  So finally this little guy has bloomed into a stud!!!  In another two months he will be ready to pluck again...I can hardly wait.  In the mean time he's performing his job as "stud".  Go Beethoven! 

Today was Beethoven and Olivia's hot date. All went well and hopefully we will have nice little kits born sometime mid-October.

I've been using the drum carder to blend my angora rabbit wool with other nice fibers.  Although the cranking on the handle gets my shoulder tired, watching the colors blend is really addictive!  I've blended angora with mohair, sheep's wool, and alpaca.

The most difficult thing for me has been getting good photos of these batts.  The colors seem more washed out in the pictures than in real life.  I think the problem might be the sheen of the mohair.  I've tried a variety of lighting situations, and get a glare from that mohair each time.  I'll keep trying!

In the mean time, take a look at the photos that I have.

 

 

I call this one "sea foam".  The actual color is a bit more green than my photo.  I blended natural white and gray angora with sheep's wool that had been dyed green, blue, purple.  I added some undyed, caramel-colored alpaca and a bit of dyed mohair for streaks of blue, green, and purple.  The resulting color is pure oceanic.

 

This one is called "salmon flip".  It's a playful, rich salmon color with splashes of orange, yellow, fuchsia, and turquoise. The fiber content is dyed angora, sheep's wool, mohair.

 

 

 "Plum pudding"  a rich and decadent blend of dyed angora, wool and mohair.

 

 

"Midnight serenade"  I started this one with some natural black alpaca, added undyed gray and white angora, then mixed in some turquoise and purple mohair.  It will make you sing!

 

Finally, we have one I call "hurricane season" for it's stormy blend of gray, blue, green, and purple.  This one's made of angora, sheep's wool, and mohair.

 

These batts will all be up for sale in our etsy store as soon as I get them posted.  If you can't find them there just go to our "contact us" page to shoot me an email!

I just posted a new video showing Tabby going in and out of her cage.  She does this everyday when I first let her roam the house in the morning.  She's so proud of this!  It has helped us with the house training because she can return to her cage when she needs to pee!

To see the video go to Angora Videos and scroll down to the photo of Tabby!  Happy Viewing!!!

I am so excited about the two French does that I will be picking up at SAFF this October.  One is a gorgeous ruby eyed white and the other is a beautiful lilac.  I am so happy!  Our Evans software has been a blast...plug in the doe, plug in the buck and instant colors of the offspring.  I can't stop doing it over and over. It is *almost* as fun as seeing the tiny litter in the nest box.

Tabby has discovered the cat's water bucket.  At first she was just drinking, then she noticed how nice the water felt on her feet.  Who says, "bunnies don't like the water"?

Emery got his first haircut today.  It was his baby coat which is always much finer than the later coats and lacking of guard hair.  Because of that it was beginning to matt.  I'm sure his next coat will be much nicer!  Emery is a German x French cross buck and about 3 months old.  Her are a couple of photos...before...

 

and after....  He looks like a different bunny, doesn't he?

                                                                                                                                                  

It might not look like it now, but his coat will grow back in 3 months.  Check back later to see!

 

Tabby seems to have learned that a house bunny is not to pee on the floor.  She has spent the past 2 mornings hopping around the dining room (this is the only room in the house that has linoleum, my choice for house training activities!) without an accident.  When she feels the urge she jumps into her cage and does her business there!  Great!

Now we're working on the fine points of a house bunny's training...namely not chewing on unacceptable wood.  By this I mean baseboards, chair legs, table legs, etc.  What I am doing is this.  When I see Tabby chewing on unacceptable wood, I clap my hands loudly and say, "NO" loudly.  Then I very calmly hand her an apple wood stick from outside and say, "here, chew this." Check back to see how this goes.

Working with the rabbits is always so much fun.  Today I have Olivia, Lolly and L'Oreal out in the run for some girl time.  Olivia had fun chasing the girls but now has settled in to acting like a lady.  I have rearranged my rabbit area again to accommodate another hutch.  Always more to do with these buns.  Christine

I think we have this litter box training figured out.  Instead of placing a box in the house, I have made it possible for Tabby to access her cage when she needs to.  That way she can roam around the room and when she feels the urge she can go to her cage which doubles as the litter box.

 

Tabby lives in an indoor cage which is a couple of feet off the ground.  I have left the door open and placed a chair in front of it.  She jumps out the door onto the chair and from there onto a stool then the floor.

Tabby is proud of her new skill and likes to show off.  She quickly darts back and forth from the cage to the floor to the cage again...over and over.  Then she takes a break until the mood strikes her again.  What a clown!

I've been grooming and litter box training.  It's like having toddlers again!  One day the bunny uses the litter box the next day she uses the floor.  As with children it takes patience!

Tulip (my English Angora doe) is recovering from the pregnancy and nursing of her last litter.  She had such a lovely litter of 9.  I can hardly wait to see the next litter.  I decided to keep two from this litter.  A black doe with grey blue eyes and little Sweet Pea.  The doe will be bred in the spring to Beethoven (opal, senior from Bumblebee Acres).  I hope to have lots of variety in that litter!  Sweet Pea will be our house bunny.  I just couldn't part with him after hand feeding him on a supplemental basis.  To top it off when he was just 2 weeks old he was kidnapped from my barn!  We later ransomed him...a neighbor kid had taken him home in a shoebox!  Well, we are very attached to the little guy and he really loves to be with the family too.  He was handled so much as a baby that he is very comfortable in our hands.  

Today I groomed Tank and he is gorgeous. Mary is a lucky lady.  I have been busy getting toenails clipped and coats conditioned.  It seems as if everyone is blowing their coats at the same time. 

So much has been happening these days...lots of grooming going on. Today I finished up grooming Olivia for a friend. Payment will be 2nd choice from her first litter! I am really happy about that because she is so beautiful.  I also groomed King Black and harvested 1 ounce of prime fiber.  I just have to box it up for photos.  Busy day but I got a lot done.