Congratulations everyone who entered the Virtual Stock Shown 2021 and here is the judges feedback on each entry with the results for each Class.
Here is the judges feedback and results for the Pets Virtual Show. 1st J Ford, smoke. Best in pet and spinning class. Nice head, colour, body and wool. 2nd, J Ford, Lilac. Another nice exhibit. Good head and body. Nice colour. 3rd C Hamilton. White. Also a nice rabbit with short body and nice wool. Many thanks to Chris for asking me to judge. I really enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone for entries and congratulations to the winners.
Congratulations to everyone who entered, and the overall winner was Sally May with the most votes for her felted Angora bunny. However, as we had so many fabulous entries we decided to make a few other awards.
Wow, what an amazing array of Angora wool products, thank you ever so much for everyone who entered it is fantastic to see such excellent craftsmanship and skill as well from our members. With 39 entries it is incredible to see such talent all together, so congratulations to you all. It is brilliant to see so many ways in which Angora wool can be used from shawls to hats, slippers, toys, baby boottees, gloves, tops and in an array of colours and patterns too. Angora wool is such a versatile natural product and has endless opportunities for you to make so many items in so many ways from hand knitting, felting, needle felting, crochet and anything you can use your imagination to create.
Here are the entries and don’t forget to vote via the National Angora Club Facebook page for your favourites by 6pm on Monday 31st May 2021. You can vote for as many as you like.
Jo Ford is one of our NAC members who has in more recent years got the English Angora rabbit bug as well. She has started up a small stud and enjoys keeping Angora rabbits currently mainly in a pet capacity and is keen to start making wool products in the future.
This information came from a Facebook live demonstration by Richard Grindey on 13th April 2021 for the Carlisle and District Rabbit Club on English Angora rabbits providing showing and grooming advice as well as welfare and breeding information. Richard throughout the video was also responding to live chat messages and has one of his White English Angora rabbits called John for demonstration purposes. This was really informative with lots of useful information on handling, grooming and showing English Angora rabbits.
Richard has had rabbits for the past 20 or more years and the Angora rabbit is the one breed for him that has stayed the distance throughout the whole time of him keeping rabbits. He says that there is something about the breed that has captivated him and that he enjoys keeping and showing them. He has the showing bug with them and continued that with a lot of success and many award winning English Angora rabbits.
Here are a few images of a litter from a Sable Angora rabbit doe and in the litter there are 2 siamese sables (medium shade) and 1 marten sable medium and 1 white in the litter all born on Good Friday 2nd April in 2021. It is common to throw whites as we used whites to outcross as very few sables are available to breed from.
Every Angora rabbit is an individual, so it stands to reason that not all Angoras show the same traits. One trait I have observed in some of my Angora rabbits is to stand on their hind legs to get a better look around. Some do this free standing whilst others may use a wire frame or something to stand up against. I have noticed that also if the mother Angora stands her babies also have this trait. It is not limited to the colour of the English Angora either as it has been observed in a wide range of colours but potentially down to their genetics and learnt characteristics. Many of our club members also have Angora rabbits who do this as well as shown in the gallery of images at the bottom.
Angora rabbit babies are very quick to learn if brought up by their Angora rabbit mother and this is evident in the self grooming behaviours you can observe when watching them. Keep an eye out for excessive grooming by a baby rabbit or by one of its siblings though of one another particularly if you intend to show them going forward as this can affect the quality of the coat and furnishings if they have been chewed off with excessive self grooming.
If you are new to breeding Angora rabbits then this hopefully will help provide a few answers and provide details on what to expect. If you are breeding from an experienced older doe then the process should be more straight forward, although this is not always the case.