Lots of updates

Well, I haven't kept up as well as I would have liked. It has been eight months since I last updated the blog. A lot has happened around the farm in that time.

First the rabbits. 
 We added two Jersey Wooly bucks to the herd at the end of August. Geise's Rocky Road, a broken chocolate otter, and Geise's Snuggles, a Siamese Sable. Rocky Road was to be a pet for me, but has become one of our herd bucks. He was bred to our black self chin doe, AngoraMoon's Ebony. Who had 5 wonderful babies, 1 buck and 4 does. The buck is a black otter (AngoraMoon's Midnight Clear) and the does are a a blue silver marten (AngoraMoon's Silver Bell), a broken blue otter (AngoraMoon's Sleigh Bell), two broken black otters (AngoraMoon's Chinook and AngoraMoon's Black Ice). Snuggles has become a pet due to being to small to breed to our does.

We added a black chinchilla German/French/Satin/Giant Hybrid angora buck, Cloud, to the herd. He came from a breeder in Colorado and has settled in very well. He brings the agouti gene to the hybrid line and also produces wonderful fiber for us. He was bred to our chocolate English Angora doe, Candy. She had 6 babies, 4 does and 2 bucks. The bucks are a chocolate agouti (AngoraMoon's Jasper, who died at 4 weeks) and a red-eyed white (AngoraMoon's Ammonite). The does are a lilac (AngoraMoon's Amethyst), a red-eyed white (AngoraMoon's Beryl), a blue (AngoraMoon's Quantum) and a black (AngoraMoon's Jellybean). We have sold all of the ones that were for sale, except Beryl and are keeping Amethyst for our own use.

Now for the goats.
We had 4 kids born this spring, 3 does and 1 buck. First was AngoraMoon's Liberty Penny out of AngoraMoon's Lucky Penny x AngoraMoon's Valentino, a chamoisee F2 Nigora doe. Second was AngoraMoon's Gale Force Winds out of AngoraMoon's Mariah x AngoraMoon's Valentino, a light buckskin F2 Nigora doe.  Third was AngoraMoon's Hidden Treasure out of Flat Rock's Sapphire x AngoraMoon's Valentino, a tri-color (buckskin and white) F1 Nigora doe. Fourth was AngoraMoon's Merlin out of CF Ravenwing x AngoraMoon's Valentino, a partially belted black F1 Nigora buck. All but Gale are natural polled and all will be retained to help rebuild the herd.

We bought a F1 Nigora doe, Susan, and a F1 Nigora buck, Ricochet, from a breeder in the Albuquerque area. The doe is a dark buckskin with a white face and the buck is a light buckskin with white. They are both out of good milking Nigerian does and a NAG buck. We are hoping that they will help to improve the dairy traits in the herd.

I also have a gold and white Nigerian doe on hold with CBF Nigerians in Bosque Farms, NM, while I pay for her. She is out of good bloodlines and should help increase the milk production of the herd.

I am now milking the three senior does (Sapphire, Lucky and Mariah) twice a day and getting about 3/4 gallon a day from them. To see how I'm using the milk, check out Mysticklobo's Workshop, where I'll tell about my adventures in learning to make cheese and maybe even soap with the milk.

Now on to other news.
We got a new puppy for the farm, a male tri-color Australian Shepherd. We named him Duncan and he is being raised to live with the rabbits and poultry in the backyard. He will be a guard/herding dog for us.

We have also added 5 ducks and 16 more chickens to the farm. The ducks were a birthday present to my son from us. The chickens are so that we can have more fresh eggs. :)

New name and site

With all the losses this year and changing our focus more to the rabbits from the goats, we decided to change the name of the rabbitry and farm and get a new website for it.

The new name is AngoraMoon and the website is http://www.angoramoon.com We will be focusing on Jersey Woolies in the tan pattern colors, German Hybrid Angoras in all colors of agoutis and hopefully English Angoras.

The blog will hopefully be kept up to date better with what is happening here.

Farm updates

It has been a long hard year. A lot of animals have been lost this year, to many to count. :( Some of the goats lost will be sorely missed in the breeding program. I'm down to one Shetland Sheep, Thistle the wether. The other two were some of the stock I lost to a sudden, silent form of pneumonia, that has NO symptoms until the animal dies. It was the same thing that took out the goats as well.

The breeding herd for the goats is down to Valentino (Nigora buck), Robin (F1 Nigora buck, Sapphire x Valentino), Lucky Penny (F1 Nigora doe), Mariah (F1 Nigora doe), Sapphire (Nigerian doe) and Ravenwing (angora doe). I have two wethers left, Yazzie (NAG) and Levi (Nigerian).

We have added some breeds to the rabbit herd. We now have Jersey Woolies (mini-angoras), German Angora and German Hybrid Angoras, as well as the English Angoras we first started with. We will be adding a French Angora buck and hopefully a Satin Angora doe this year, as well as more Jersey Woolies.

The new stock is here!!!

They actually came on August 11th, but this is the first time I've had time to get pics and blog about them. :) I got three Shetland sheep, two ewes and a wether, two angora does and a mini-nubian doe.

Here are the Shetland sheep.First is Pinata, a single coated pinto ewe.








Then Flicka, a double coated ewe.









Then comes her wethered son, Thistle.









Then there are the two angora does. Faith an "angel" patterned doe.









Ravenwing, a black doe.









The mini-nubian dairy doe.

Shearing

I finally got started on shearing! I know it is LATE in the year to just start shearing, but between weather, injuries and fencing I didn't have the time earlier.

I started on Valentino, my heavy Nigora buck, yesterday and got most of one side and half the other done, but my elbow went out, so had to quit for the day. Got out there this morning and got him finished. He is small enough that when I got to the point I needed him on his side for his belly, I just picked him up and laid him down on it. He just laid there and let me finish him up and then walked back to his pen on lead.

Tomorrow I'll try and get a start on Sabino, the easier of the twins to work with. He will stand there and let me shear him without a fight. While Frio, his twin brother will fight the whole time I'm working on him, so he will have to wait until I have some help.

Goals for the farm

I've been thinking lately about my goals here at the farm. I was wanting to work with the Navajo Angora Goats, but also like the Nigora Goat. So, have been really looking at the two breeds and what I want out of my goats. I don't really need a goat that can produce 5 pounds of fiber twice a year, since it is mainly for my own use. So, really beginning to think that the Nigoras might be better, in that they will still give me fiber, but are also dairy goats. So, have decided to concentrate on the Nigoras. I would have a small goat to work with rather than a large goat.

I love the Navajo Angora Goats, but with rarity, it makes it hard to find good stock, that isn't closely related, to what I already have. They are also a nice size goat, most weigh about 150 pounds and are about 36" at the shoulder. That makes it hard for me to handle them for shearing, trimming hooves and other care.

With this decision, I have to decide which of my angoras that I'm going to keep and which are going to go. I know that Hawkeye, my herd buck, Yazzie, a NAG wether with a fantastic fleece and Strawberry will all stay. That leaves Crescent, son of Hawkeye and Strawberry, who isn't needed for my breeding herd and Strawberry twin sons, Sabino and Frio. The twins produce wonderful white fleece, but it does take a bit of work to get clean, as it is greasy and in ringlets. Crescent will be the same color as his father, when he is full grown, so his fleece color I already have. So, I think those three will go up for sale. Crescent is a full buck, but could be wethered, while the twins are wethers.

Looking at the babies born this year, I'm thinking about selling all but Sandstorm and St. Helen. Sandstorm is out of Valentino x Sapphire and is a beautiful blue-eyed, gold and white natural poll buck. St. Helen is out of ? x Diva and is a beautiful blue-eyed, white with black markings doe. I think that they will both be good for my Nigora breeding program.

I am going to add a small handspinner's flock of sheep to the farm. I have two Shetland and one Jacob ewe on reserve with a friend. She also has two angora does, a angora wether (slate gray) and a mininubian doe for me. I'll breed the mininubian doe to my Nigerian buck for more mini's.

PVC Swift Instructions

I have been asked to post the instructions for my pvc swift where people can find it. They are a pdf file, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read it, you can get that here.