Molting is not just for chickens!

Some of our baby angora rabbits have gone to great homes and for now we are keeping "Chester", the chestnut agouti buck, who is in the picture above His personality is just like his fathers, laid back and sweet.

At 16 weeks today, they are molting their coats. The wool is so soft, fine and beautiful!

...and then we have the diva, little "Miss Peaches" the fawn doe. Fresh, full of attitude and a challenge at every turn. Her beautiful fawn wool is gorgeous though.

I plucked her and got some beautiful wool.

Just look at that face, beautiful but a doe with attitude!

All it took was...

We have had the angora goats for 6 months now. They were housed with the Alpacas until we sold our sheep and then we moved them down. During this time, we have had a hard time earning their trust. We tried treats here and there but nothing until I was giving the alpacas some banana chips one day and that was our big break through!

They go simply nuts for banana chips. They have become social and trusting, who knew with just some simple dried banana chips!

Maddie goes simply gaga over them!

With Maddie on the left, and Pru on the right it's all I can do to get them in them fast enough! I just love these girls, they have become trusting, loving and follow me around now. Pru is taking a little longer but it's okay. I am afraid we are going to ruin it all, they need worming and with all the trust we have developed, maybe I will put the wormer in a banana chip!!!

...and so it begins, the honey harvest...

The bees have done very well this year. We had a great summer, not too much rain, not too too hot, kind of just right. Not being a big fan of summer I can't complain too much. So now it begins, the decapping, the straining, the bottling and the labeling and the worse part, a sticky kitchen!

But in the end it is so worth it, the dark golden honey of this year is amazing! It is rich and flavorful. Thanks to these amazing insects who are the only ones that provide us with such a rich resource.

The Rainbow of the Angora

Oh the amazing colors of the angora rabbit! The variations in the color as you part the wool is amazing. This is the little runt, who has turned out to be a small buck and a sweetheart like his dad.

The fawn doe, all I can say is OMG! The camera picked up a lot of the vibrant color she has. So many shades of gorgeous wool.

The chestnut agouti buck is equally gorgeous but the camera was not as willing to pick up the colors.

and then the chocolate doe, nice variations of shade and color. All the babies are off to their first show this weekend to see how they do. I am looking forward to meeting with the judges and learning all about this breed!

No Dearth here!

Just look at these girls! Working and working from the moment the sun comes up to the moment the sun sets. If you look close you can see the pollen they are bringing in...

and another shot a short time later as I watched them bring in the pollen. All the hives look like this right now. Obviously the pollen dearth is not upon us yet!

I managed to harvest some frames on Sunday when it was cool in the morning. Look at the difference in the capping of these two frames.

This frame is almost saturated in honey, lazy in structure...

while this frame is more neater as if they took time to cap it nicely. Either way it's going to be a bumper year for honey. There is a lot of honey up there but not quite ready yet. We will revisit them in a couple more weeks and see if the honey is ready!

A dyeing day win!

The other day I set out to dye some angora mohair that I had. I was going for some pastels for some baby gifts I need to get started. The picture doesn't give the colors justice. It came out beautiful with lots of variations and blends. For the most part I am quite pleased but this may evolve to something else!