Everyone needs more fiber in their day!

[Niele da Kine]

Well, maybe everyone needs more fiber, but I suppose it matters as to what kind of fiber?

In any case, another reason to keep rabbits is for their fiber. We have a thread on Meat Rabbits, but I don't see one for Fiber Rabbits. Even the pet trade has folks keeping a herd of rabbits, so maybe we need a Pet Rabbit thread for them, too? There's loads of different reasons for keeping bunnies and, IMHO, exquisite fiber is a great reason.

We're primarily 'yarn farmers' here in Hawaii at Hillside Farm, with fiber rabbits and new this year two woolly sheep. Since we have a space in a small resale shop here in town, we have a way to sell the Hula Bunny yarn at retail so that really helps with making the bunnies profitable.

As 'micro-sheep' the angoras don't take up a lot of room and they are much quieter than the sheep so they are a great 'backyard herd'. We're in town and it is literally a back yard. It's a pretty big back yard, but still less than a quarter acre of 'farm' area. Which is perfect for the bunny herd.

We chose English angoras because they have the softest fiber of all the angoras and because we wouldn't be in direct competition with the commercial Chinese & French angora production. It's a softer yarn than commercially produced angora and as the smallest breed of angora (not sure if the dwarf angora someone has been working towards counts as an official angora breed yet?) it isn't one that is used by the commercial operations. Also, with the face 'furnishings' an English angora has more grooming requirements.

They have been a surprisingly profitable back yard herd for us, though. I'd originally just wanted somebody to eat the insanely fast growing grass we have in the backyard here and its 'cut and carry' because they live in hutches but they at least eat it. With the sales of livestock pretty much covering the cost of keeping the herd, that adds more profit to the wool harvest and yarn sales.

This is the uncombed DaffyDill. There's a rabbit under there somewhere although the coat isn't quite long enough to harvest yet.

He's been groomed and didn't have many mats in his coat, but he will go back to shaggy in a day or two. He's a year and a half old black tortoiseshell English angora buck and his wool is used to make the 'Beach Bunny' color of Hula Bunny yarn.

They're being bred for as soft, silky and crimpy as I can get their coats as well as friendly temperament since they get handled a lot due to the coat care. We also select for coats that don't mat up much if possible.

So perhaps you need a back yard fiber herd? Does anyone else keep angora rabbits for their fiber? Has it been successful for you? Profitable? What's been your best success from it so far?

 

[Baymule]

What lovely bunnies and I love all the green growth in your yard! I don't have rabbits or any fiber animals. Angora wool is soooo soft. How many rabbits in your herd?

 

[Niele da Kine]

There's too much green growth out there, we're constantly beating it back and it's still winning. We got two sheep about a month ago, hopefully they will start making a dent in it.

For the bunnies, currently, there's 29 of them, but two of them are flying off to Maui most likely next week and six others heading off to various new homes either next week or the week after. That will bring the number down to about 21, however, then there may be two new litters on Friday with an additional litter on Sunday, so the herd number is kinda variable at the moment.

One or two bunnies don't take up much room, should you want to be a yarn farmer, too.

 

[animalmom]

Do you sell your yarn online or just at your retail shop? Pricing? What would shipping by slow boat cost, in general terms. Inquiring minds would like to know, please and thank you.

 

[Niele da Kine]

Hula Bunny yarn is just sold at the retail shop, although it's a resale shop more so than a retail shop. We keep running out of it with just with the one place selling it.

It's 'Hula Bunny Yarn' and it's 40% English angora for ungawdly softness, 40% fine Merino sheep's wool for spring and bounce and 20% silk for shine. Spun for me by a small mom & pop mill on the mainland since we don't have any mills in Hawaii. Two ply, fingering weight. The 'standard' colors are a silvery gray 'Moonlit Dance', a creamy tan 'Beach Bunny' and an off white 'Coconut Dream'. It's put into one ounce skeins and it sells for $16 per skein.

I've got to go get the new batch of 'Moonlit Dance' taken into the shop and there's some 'Coconut Dream' at the mill but I don't know when that will come back yet. The mill takes about nine months from the time the bunny fluff is sent in until it comes back spun into yarn but they do a really good job of it. I also need to go shear some more bunnies since all the fluff has been sent it to be spun. The mill needs a minimum of six pounds in order to do a run and that's a lot of bunny haircuts. It's a good year if I can get a run of all three 'standard' colors. For awhile I was short on white bunnies but we have some more white ones now.

We're not really a commercial yarn production, but we're a notch above the 'hobby' level, perhaps. There's usually between about sixteen to twenty four adult bunnies here. When a doe has a litter, we don't usually get a wool harvest from her since she pulls the wool to build a nest, but it's still fun to get baby bunnies.

 

[Niele da Kine]

What lovely bunnies and I love all the green growth in your yard! I don't have rabbits or any fiber animals. Angora wool is soooo soft. How many rabbits in your herd?

Yesterday there was twenty nine, this morning there's thirty six. Yay, Daisy! Woot!

It will take a day or two before the colors are definitely known, but at this moment, I'm guessing at least three Ruby Eyed Whites, two of the really pink ones may turn out to be some sort of really dilute color like a lilac tort or something. The grayish pink one at the top may be lilac, blue or some other slightly darker diluted color. The dark black one at the bottom will be black with the ability to engender albino and tortoiseshell offspring if bred to the right mate.

They're probably about eight to ten hours old when the picture was taken.

 

[Baymule]

Are those Angoras?

 

[Niele da Kine]

Yup, English angora, they'll have fuzzy faces and ears eventually.

This is the same litter, they're a lot less pink now. Daisy is a good mum bun. She had seven and more than a week later she still has seven. This is her second litter, the first one she only had two, so she's doing much better on her second effort.

About three days after Daisy had her litter, then Rose had hers. She had a litter of eleven and I didn't expect her to keep very many, but it's a week later and she still has ten of them. This is her third litter and after one this big, she will probably rest until next spring.

These are also English angora and they're just now thinking about opening their eyes. A touch early, but the competition for food must be pretty high in a litter of ten. They're active and fed but not fat. Rose is drinking and eating a lot, I'm stuffing as much food and water into her as possible since she's feeding so many.

I think we're up to forty five bunnies now, although three of them are flying away tomorrow and a couple more will be moving out pretty soon, too. There's one litter due in October and then no more unless we have some bunnies meet up.