Spinning Angora Rabbit Fur

Here is the brand new English Angora embroidery design. It is smaller, 3½ X 2½ inches, suitable for left chest on sweatshirt or jacket.
The top picture shows only the top layer of stitches. This rabbit is shaded, tho, so I put the "outline view" up too, on the bottom so that that shading can be seen. I might shade it more, but I think the colors look pretty much the way they do on a tort rabbit. (Chocolate tort). If you are interested in the design or having something stitched (even hats or computer bag, or tote), let me hear from you!

An interesting aspect of fiber growing came up on a rabbit list recently.
I decided to calculate my actual cost per ounce.

My pure Germans ate 1 cup per day on average, some more. My English eat 1/2 cup per day (I used to overfeed them, but Betty Chu, whom I purchased them from, advised me not to.) My crosses eat something inbetween, let's say it is 3/4 cup, but I'm not so sure of it.

Being generous, let's say the Germans give 12 ounces every 3 mo. (most don't meet this bar, 11.5 oz or 325 grams is the registration bar, and most don't meet that). Now, they won't give that unless then are on very high quality feed. Around here, King feed costs about $18.99/50 lbs. If I fed the Germans Manna Pro, they would not give that much fiber. A german will eat around 2.7 bags of it over a years time, so that is around $51. That means the fiber costs me about $1.06 per ounce

My English give 8 oz every 4 mo, so that is 24 ounces a year. (Mine probably outperform most, mine are from Betty.- Actually one doe gives over 9 oz in less than 4 mo, but the other one doesn't.) They only eat about 1/2 cup, or about 1.35 bags per year. But they produce that amount on less expensive feed, MannaPro, which is only $13.99 per bag around here. So the total cost is around $19.00 per year. That is around 78¢ per ounce! Even if they were not wonderful producers and only gave 5 oz every 4 mo (easily attainable), they'd still be in the same ballpark as Germans per ounce, just over a dollar per ounce.

My crosses also eat the less expensive feed, so I can figure the cost, but estimating production is much harder. I have a couple who give pure German type of numbers and a few that give English type of numbers. The larger ones eat more, but aren't necessarily the best producers. So I won't venture a guess, but since they eat less expensively, I'm guessing it is between the 2 above.

Both animals get the same treats, so I'm not counting that, but I suspect the ratios would be very similar.

I was delighted to figure out that my favored fiber actually costs less to produce too! Of course, if the goal is to produce the maximum amount of fiber in the smallest space, Germans are the breed to go with. However, since the fiber is superior, it is good to know that English fiber doesn't cost any more (in fact not as much) as German fiber does.

Cheers,
Donna

Everyone has their preferrences, I have mine. No rabbit breed is perfect, each has their good traits, ostensively what they were bred for, and some not-so-great traits that good breeders try to eliminate. But not everyone believes I my motives are information only.

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Here were are, late winter/about to be spring. And Indiana is cold, muddy, unpredictable weather, and the rabbitry is as messy as it ever gets. I got all cages cleaned today, but I need to empty the tarps under the suspended cages and plant grass seed early, so it will have a chance to grow and recover. How could such cute, cuddly little critters cause such a mess? Also I'll be working overtime to get all the fiber off of them before April, when humidity rules and there is a strong tendency to matt. Very busy time of year, not entirely pleasant. But the fiber sure is!
Here is a bunny pic for you to enjoy. It isn't an illusion, his body was really that long. It is what Germans are supposed to be. But, I think the rounder bodies are healthier and sounder, so my crosses are all shorter. Crossing immediately shortes up the body length.

Have a Happy Easter/Lenton season

After people meet me, it isn't long before someone declares they don't like angora because they are allergic and it sheds so bad. I never quite know what to say when they do this, because I would never utter disparaging remarks about their craft or hobby, even if I thought it was the worst waste of time in the world. I might say I didn't care for it as much as other things, but I wouldn't immediately declare the product of all their labor cr@p. Ah well.

So I'm using this forum to shed something other than fiber on the situation - namely a little light.

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