Summer Temps here already

It's Friday and time for a update:)
Spent the better half of the day yesterday clipping down a few more angora coats, time to get the last few winter coats clipped down and bunnies comfortable. Temperatures here have settled in right at around 90 degrees now, and I have been using my A/C in the enclosed Barn to keep pregnant mom's and litters comfortable and cool. Every morning before work I flush out the refuse trays and gutters to remove urine accumulated through the night, to help the air quality inside the building during the day when the A/C is running. Nothing worse for Rabbit health then a stinky, ammonia filled room :(

Have several pounds of angora fiber to weigh, bag up and place in my etsy store for sale, something to do for an evening in the near future to get them advertised and hopefully sold. A few fleeces and colors I'll keep for spinning myself so that I can sell some yarns as well:)

My friend Julie from VA mailed me a surprise box with several samples of sheep roving's and some Mohair. What a sweetie she is :) I have not had much time to look at and work with all of the fibers, however, one ball of roving caught my eye, CORMO . I know as much as that it comes from the Cormo sheep :) , a rare breed I guess ?? The roving was super soft and is super white, a trait of Cormo I also guess. Well, I spun up the ball of Cormo, and it was a joy to spin. I plied the one ply of Cormo with a ply of white French Angora that I had already spun. I washed the yarn and let it dry ..... and to my surprise, the Cormo is as white as the angora ...... a very bouncy, soft as heaven and springy yarn :) It's hanging on my skein tree still, and I touch it and pet it every time I walk past it :) Now the next question to ponder : dye it or leave it ??? I have 3 even skeins, all 70 wraps around my niddy noddy, still not weighted off or otherwise fooled with :) I have never spun Cormo before, but I am impressed with the yarn, and think that Cormo / Angora is going to become a favorite blend around here :)
Thanks again Julie for turning me on to a new fiber experience :)

My Rabbitry is slowly filling up with nest boxes in a lot of cages, babies hopping around in a few cages, and more pregnant does to care for..... a first time record for my Rabbitry since I usually breed very few at a time and normally only have one, maybe two litters at one time. But, the more litters you have, the more choices you have to choose keepers from :) In the past I had no outlets for none keepers, had to struggle trying to find homes for all that I couldn't keep, now that problem has solved itself. Now I can breed my girls more often, keep them happy and keep the hormonal frustration level to a minimum ( lets face it, some girls are only happy when they can nurse a litter and fuss over babies). I in turn can produce better rabbits by having more chances for different pairings, and have nice show bunnies for sale in the event of a person contacting me for a Bunny.
My oldest litter is now 4 weeks old, out of Spang's Denise. She had a blue and a chocolate baby, and both look to be bucks. Good, I need bucks in both colors in excellent quality. Might just keep both of them, if they end up looking nice, good type, good wool, no DQ's. So far I can't find any DQ's on them.
My next litter is out of AA's Kate, she had 2 REW and 2 blacks, I am trying to determine if they ARE black or maybe dark seal. In the Rabbitry they look black :) Have to try to sex this litter soon, they had their nest box removed from the cage, they are eating pellets hay and oat meal now and are drinking from Mom's water bottle. Next door to Kate is Cinnamon with her litter, all babies sleep inside the nest during the night, and out of the nest during the day. They are starting to eat pellets mixed with oat meal now, and venture over to Mom's water bottle for a drink. Too early I think to take the box out for good, a few more days. Colors are vibrant on this litter, am keeping an eye on smut, 3 weeks old now to the day and getting ready to be sexed for the first time as well.
My last two litters are still small, AA's Meghann is nursing her babies well, all are doing fine and are growing real well. black and blue. AA's Fantasia's litter is being nursed well, blue and black plus one REW. The REW baby is not feeling too well but is hanging in there, it was paralyzed at birth in the lower half, then the next day it could move it's body and legs. It was the biggest at birth, and is now the smallest and skinniest in the litter. Not sure if it wants to nurse or if it has an internal problem :(, only time will tell. I check all of the new litters twice daily.
More breeding's to do before I'll take a break with babies etc and let the current " crop " from this spring grow up and develop, I have more Doe's to breed and then call it done till Fall. The doe's that I plan to breed today and tomorrow are a chocolate agouti doe ( for an agouti litter ) , a smoke pearl doe, a REW doe and a Giant Angora doe. Wish I still had a chin line going in the barn, miss that color :(

Happy Memorial Day weekend,

Angie K:)