Hillybilly.drp over at the Self Sufficient homestead asked me about a cost analysis on raising Angora Rabbits and what started out as a quick reply turned into an epic post! Hope Johnny Max and Queen didn’t mind! 

I decided to go ahead and post my reply here as well since I was planning on posting this information sooner or later anyway so, here we go!

You can find the forum here:

We haven’t done a full cost analysis of the venture yet – there just wasn’t enough information on the web that I could find. We may be losing our shirts on this deal but if the worst happens, at least we’ll be warm.

36” Cage for a Doe runs about $30.

30” Cage for a Buck runs about $26.  (Rural King)

My husband built a rack for the cages out of 2×4’s with a sheet of plywood and leftover shingles for the roof (actually one of them has a roof made out of slats from an old pallet covered in shingles).

I love my handy hubby.

During the Summer a 40 lb/ $7 bag of Rabbit Pellets lasts 4 weeks with 7 adult rabbits – that’s roughly ¾ a cup a day (some days they’ll eat more, some day’s they’ll eat less). With the addition of 2 juvenile rabbits I’ve seen that figure drop to 3 weeks and with cooler weather moving in it’s pulled back further to 2-2 ½ weeks.  Hopefully it will go back to at least 3 weeks once they’re done putting on their winter weight. This is with no Hay as a supplement.

Hay helps extend your pellets a lot.  I’ve seen some websites that are totally anti-hay because it gets in the fur and decreases the value of your harvest.  I haven’t seen that with my rabbits.  I only give them a handful at a time so it’s not like they’re rolling around it (which they will if they get bored enough!) And as long as you have a decent size cage they’re not going to wind up laying in it for lack of space.  Also brushing regularly (which is a must anyway) keeps this from being a problem also.

I am fully pro-hay.  The biggest health issue with Angora rabbits is Wool block – and the easiest way to prevent that is by feeding Hay.  Wool block is when the fur the rabbit ingests while grooming itself gets trapped in the stomach – this makes the rabbit think it’s not hungry and it slowly starves to death.  I read somewhere that the animal’s stomach can actually rot out with severe wool block.  Rabbits cannot regurgitate like dogs or cats.  Some sites recommend papaya tablets or pineapple juice in their water but I’ve read just as much stuff against those methods as for them – so I’ll stick to hay, it keeps everything ‘movin’ on through’ if you know what I mean.

I use ceramic crocks for water. I read about one lady who said water bottles were too much work for an animal that size when you take into consideration how much they have to drink while carrying that hot, heavy coat.  I liked what she had to say and it seems to work very well for my guys. Also the bowls keep them amused when they get bored – they push them around the cages with their heads.

I also use the crocks for feeders – you have to use the big 3” deep crocks otherwise they’ll tip them when their annoyed or bored.  The high sides also seem to cut down on them urinating in their bowls – something they’ll do when bored or annoyed – which equals wasted food and you have to wash them.

Washing the crocks is so much easier than a water bottle as well – a bucket of hot bleach water and a rag and you’re set!

The crocks were $1 a piece from the Dollar Tree (gotta love the Dollar Tree!).

Salt/Mineral blocks are $0.30 each (Rural King – $1.00 each at Petsmart!).

I have a slicker brush and a mat comb (for dogs – roughly $8 a piece).

I shear instead of pluck – plucking takes forever and the rabbits start giving me the evil eye after awhile; for that I use Fiskars Children’s safety scissors (with the rounded tips) – they only cost $1-$2 a piece. I may have to replace them after a full harvest but we’ll see.

I also bought plastic storage boxes to keep the fur in – and Ziploc freezer bags to put the stuff unsuitable for spinning in (keep it for felting!).  The boxes were $3.50 each (next size up from a shoebox).

As for the animals themselves- I’ve seen prices on line all over the place, from $35 to $200.  I bought my pedigreed animals for $25 each.  The Amish auction bunnies sold for $7.50 each – a white animal at the same auction went for almost $60; although the auction route is iffier.  You can’t tell the health of the animal (you couldn’t get your hands into the cages to check their build under all the fur) – you have no idea of the age of the animal or why the owner got rid of it (behavioral/genetic flaw/etc.). You can read about my trials with my Doe Gertie on my blog.

Market wise – you’re aiming mostly at Hand-Knitters and Fiber Artists in general. You probably will never be able to compete commercially with the Asian Market. (Of course there is always the Eco/American Made market…).  Angora is 8x’s warmer than wool and is often utilized in the sports industry for hunting clothes and arctic wear.  Cabela’s (sp?) sells 3 or 4 yard pieces of yarn for fly tying.  Hubby wants some Angora knee warmers for hunting season.

For undyed/unspun fiber, prices seem to range between $4 & $8 per oz – although I’ve heard of prices up to $16 an oz. I don’t have numbers yet for the average weight of fur per rabbit yet – hopefully after our harvest in October I’ll be able to provide those numbers.

Handspun yarn seems to go between $16 and $30 a skein (I’ve not done any comparisons between dyed/undyed, yardage or gauge yet). I know a commercial spun 30 yard dyed skein (which is nothing – you could knit a single baby bootie out it maybe) was $16 – on clearance for $10 I think.

Our Angora Rabbits got mentioned on the Self-Sufficient Homestead Podcast! Squuueeeee!!!!

You can listen to it here. 

The forum post they’re reading is here.

Plus, you know, you should listen to it anyway – ’cause I recommended it! They are all about improving your self-sufficiency – living off the land you have no matter how little that is!

So the Gourds have eaten half the garden… and tried to take over the neighbors yard and the street for that matter. Apparently gourds cross breed – a problem I’ve had all across the garden, but lesson learned and the gourds look cool anyway. The leaves are getting a little die back thanks to the abnormally cool weather so it’s lots of fun to go out and see if I can spy any new gourd goodness on any given day. Hopefully the vines don’t die back too fast… the gourds have to lose a certain percentage of water before the vines give out, otherwise they’ll just rot… and then Judy B will be depressed!

Most of the gourds appear to have leaned towards the cannonball and bushel gourd persausion. There’s 2 snake gourds that I can find… one is really fat and about 3 feet long. I’ve only found 1 dipper gourd and it looks more like one of those penguin/swan gourds.

The gourds taking over the next section of the garden…

And shamefully… this is the grass taking over the rest of the garden…

So Cindy M and I went to the Grand Rivers Craft Fair down by Kentucky Lake (it’s like 45 minutes away – down the street from the famous Patti’s that I’ve never been to) – and boy were we impressed!

The people and the vendors were friendly (of course it was early so nobody and heat stroke yet) and there was an excellent selection of crafts – actual crafts for that matter, none of that factory produced stuff glued to a log and called craft. 

They even had the gourd guy there (I didn’t get his card – ’cause I suck). He had a flat bed trailer with bins made out of fencing and all the bins had different sizes and types of dried gourds! From the tiny spinning gourds for 4 for a $1 to 2 1/2 foot tall bottle gourds for $15 each.  The prices were more than reasonable and the selection was amazing! Cindy M got a dipper gourd – I believe she’s going to make an actual dipper out of it.

Of course there were at least 3 gourd crafters there (not counting Gourd Man). One was a bit ho-hum, one was pretty good, but the 3rd one gave me tons of ideas. Don’t get me wrong – her gourds were lovely – they just were not done to my style so of course now I have to make my own. (My gourds are doing well – but I’ll talk about that in the next post).

This lady had done everything imaginable with her gourds.  She had jewelry and bowls. She had cut sections out of some, all the way around, and used the ’spokes’ left in the gourd to weave around – the gourd acted as the ribs of the basket and then she took reeds or whatever and wove around it – it was so cool! Some had removeable tops, like boxes, and several of those were lined with fabric on the inside.  She’d made little nativity people with little gourds and then used a bigger gourd to serve as the barn – several of those had lights put in the top! She’d even used wood clay to sculpt ears and snouts on some of the smaller ones to make mice and bears.  She had used leather dyes to color them, glued on dyed gourd seeds in pictures (there was a chicken made of seeds on one gourd!), wood burning, beads, you name it and she had it!

My favorite vendor by far though was Ken Herman of Moonlight Glass.  He’s out of Grantsburg, IL 62943 (phone # 618-658-2761).  He does ‘Unique Handblown Glass Art’ – and can I just say Squuueeeeee! We stopped because we saw a skeleton hand… made out of glass! A clear glass skeleton hand was serving as his business card holder – it was like $125 and so totally worth it! If I wasn’t broker than dirt I’d have had me a glass skeleton hand (and yes the country is coming out in this post apparently).  The sculpture next it was of a pretty flower… eating a guy! It was hilarius! And reasonably priced around $150. Now he did have regular things as well – for those of you who don’t share my sense of humor but the time and effort he put in to these things was awe inspiring – and none of it boring – even the normal stuff didn’t look like your typical mall kiosk offerings. There was a beautiful sculpture of a group of flowers pulled together by a spider web with a garden spider in the middle – absolutely beautiful. If you don’t know what to get someone quirky for the holidays – call this guy.

Then there was Debbie Schmidt of Dream Catcher Artworks – she does Portraits (human & animal) & Landscapes. She’s at 539 Lower Alsup Rd, TN Ridge, TN 37178 (phone # 931-721-3649). She also does lessons.  The art was beautiful – I’m thinking of have a portrait done of 3 of dearly departed fur-babies.

Wildlife Creations by Tony Campbell made me think of my hubby – they do, of course, wonderful wildlife paintings (think ducks and deer!). They are at Box 582 Clarkton, MO 63837 (Phone # 573-448-5590). www.tonycampbellwildlifecreations.com

Blue Malibu Jewelry had Cindy M drooling – they had a gorgeous wirewrapped sapphire bracelet that she was eyeing.  They do hancrafted jewelry made with sterling silver and gold-filled wire. Jill Gentry is the artist from Glasgow, KY (phone # 270-678-7192).

And finally there was B & L Baking Sheets.  They state that theirs is “The last baking sheet you will ever need to buy!” The crafters were David & Lynn Mayes (phone # 931-552-6134) and they can be emailed at lifetimebaking@charter.net . They make cookie/baking sheets with a lifetime guarantee – and let me tell you, they were Very nice. 

Cindy M and I didn’t buy a whole lot (she got the gourd and I bought a hankie bunny) – but it was totally due to finances and nothing to do with the selection.  I haven’t seen a selection this good at any of the other events I’ve been to (and I do mean ANY). It’s worth a look, although I’m sure the crafters would appreciate a bit more than that – I can guarantee you’ll find something you want there and the prices were very reasonable as well. There was something for everyone – from affordable to ‘ouch’, but even the ‘ouches’ were worth it.  I didn’t see a single one of those unfortunate vendors who thought their stuff was worth more than gold (you know ‘em – you’ve seen ‘em – you run from them quickly!).

So take the kids (there’s a park amidst it all) – they’ll find teepee’s and wood swords, take hubby – he’ll find ducks, deer, and outdoor furniture; and there’s stuff for you too.

They have a food court in the middle – with folks grilling and frying away. The only thing missing was a live band. I give the Grand Rivers Craft Fair five stars!

For fellow crafters who would like to set up a booth there next time – call 270-928-4411.

This is the cross stitch pattern I came up with for one of my 37 Projects Entries. I love it! The music from the game has been playing in my head since I got this idea.

This was done totally on Excel – if anyone is interested I may post the ‘how’ – just let me know.  If anyone wants a copy of the file so you can stitch your own tribute the best game ever I’ll be happy to send it to you.

There was some question as to whether or not it would be allowed by the Fair judges since the imagery is copywritten… but images in cross stitch kits are copywritten also so I’m thinking the rules would be the same and it would be admissable. 

I’ll probably check with them before I start – ’cause this thing is huge! It’s graphed for 14 Aida cloth (14 squares per inch) so that comes to… 16″ wide x 24″ tall… ouch! It may take me all year just to do this one project!

But it is supercool…