Week update.

Last Thursday the world was graced with seven new Angora rabbit babies.

That first day I was sure there were seven. Friday there were definately just six. Saturday five and Sunday only four remained. It was sad loosing those babies even though 1 and 2 were more than likely eaten by Flora and I had to only dispose of the one frozen little thing that wiggled out of the cozy nest.

They still haven't opened their eyes but they have nearly doubled in size and now have short white fuzz.

They are ridiculously small and cute. They make little squeaky noises too that makes you just want to squeeze them.

We got our initial rabbit, Duncan, after reading Jenna Woginrich's book Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life. She talks about Angora's being a good investment for small city ventures that can't have traditional livestock. They are small, inexpensive to feed and provide some good things. We've used the manure in the garden for over a year. I've been keeping bags of wool since the first shearing and hope this year I'll be able to blend it to make yarn.

One reason we haven't bred them yet is because we wanted to be responsible with breeding and plan to market the rabbits to people that knit or spin their own yarn, not just to anyone that wants a rabbit. Since they are higher maintenance than a short hair or meat rabbit, we want to make sure they have a good home that understands the commitment required. We won't be selling these as Easter Rabbits. I was also nervous about breeding and not being able to sell and having a barn full of very cute but high maintenance animals.

Thankfully, in our area Angora sales aren't saturated, there actually quite rare. I travelled over a hour each time I purchased my rabbits because there were so limited in the area.

Since this breeding was so successful, we will be selling our purebred English Angora buck in the summer after his winter coat is sheared along with the babies from this litter.

Though I may keep one for myself. They're just so cute!