The angora wool has a certain value, but it is only about $5-6 per ounce which is profitable, but there's a lot more money in selling yarn or finished items. Ten ounces of angora fiber is about $50. Or that same ten ounces of fiber can be made into yarn. It's usually mixed with very fine sheep's wool so it can be commercially spun, I have the mill I use mix in some silk for shine along with the Merino. It's 40% angora, 40% Merino, 20% sillk. So the ten ounces of angora fiber then becomes twenty five ounces of yarn. That sells for about $15 per ounce although there's costs involved in having it spun into yarn but it at least doubles the amount from raw fiber. To increase the profits, it can be knit, crocheted or woven into a scarf, shawl or hat. Then the same ten ounces of fiber can sell for hundreds, but more work is involved.
Angoras don't really startle that much. They have long wool that covers their eyes, at least the English angoras do. So, half the time they don't even see the dogs. They don't really get brushed, either, since brushes can't get into the coat since it's too fine and too dense. A long toothed steel comb works pretty well. As fiber animal, they get sheared down to near naked about three times a year so for a lot of the time there's not much there to groom anyway.
The females here are all in a communal space and they don't fight hardly at all. Occasionally one will be a bit of a diva, but generally she's outnumbered and then pretty soon gets along with everybunny else. Usually when changing members of a group, I'll put the whole group along with the new members into a different space so they're all in a new space. That seems to keep fights to a minimum since they're all in a new territory and have a hard time being territorial.
Bobm, how do you castrate the bucks? Isn't that a trip to the vet? They don't have descended testes until they're about four and a half to five months old if not longer and even after they descend, they're in an odd shaped sac that looks like it would need stitches to close after anything was removed? At five to six weeks old, they're just over being weaned, but perhaps it was a typo about being that young to be castrated.
The bucks usually have their own space in the buck hutch, although for some reason they seem to find some way to visit with Phineas Phogge. He's a lilac buck who generally gets other bucks visiting him occasionally, I have no idea why. They'll all be snuggled up together, happy as clams. (Are clams actually happy? I've never seen them smile) It's been several different bucks who have squirmed between the wire separation between the buck spaces to hang with Phin. He doesn't seem to mind and they all seem pretty happy together. Which I think is odd, but as long as they don't fight, they can do what they want.
