Reverse Psychology

After spending 2 years getting to know the Holland Lop Breed I have become comfortable with the knowledge of a few things.  I can pick out traits I like and don't like rather quickly.  I have a better direction than when we started.  I can officially "Feel" or "Get My Hands On" a rabbit and actually know what that means.  But one thing I have come to rely on in the world of Holland Lops, is that Mother Nature plays in opposites.  If we are hoping for bucks, we for sure will get does and if we want does, we for sure get bucks.  For spring we bred specifically for brokens.  We got one.  Out of many litters we got one.  And it's looking like she isn't even the best of the group.  We didn't want dilute and aren't as fond of the overly trendy sable, but guess what we now have a ALOT of?  We waited and were so excited for a litter out of Belle, or biggest widest doe... and we were pleased with her amazing litter!  Some of the best stock we had seen in our barn... until it turned out to be fuzzy!  I am going to work really hard to use reverse psychology on Mother Nature.  Perhaps if I think hard of what I don't want... I will instead end up with litters full of what I do want!  Wouldn't that just be great if we could really play that card on Mother Nature.  Ha.  On the bright side, our dilutes and sables are looking INCREDIBLE so I won't complain.  Our line breeding has been time consuming and frustrating, but at the same time very rewarding.  We have learned so much on recessive genes and have worked really hard to lock in some nice traits which will hopefully show next time we get them on the tables.  
We'll end this blog with our best example of our curse of opposites.  So we are most critical of our bucks.  To date... we have only kept one... and haven't used him.. just love him.  So we finally kept one buck that we were really excited about.  Kait kept the name Finn for someone special she could love. Well, before any shows could happen his sibling chewed off all his fur in a day.  One day to destroy his coat and months to get it back.  Months of missed shows.  So as if that wasn't awful enough, he somehow managed to cut his nose.  We have looked all through the cage for any sort of sharp edge and I can find nothing.  So despite the fact he won't be at any shows, we do feel he has the makings of a herd buck.