This is an article I have been meaning to write for a while! As a breeder of colored Hollands, I see all sorts of different methods people have used to achieve quality colors. So I figured I would share my own method and what has worked for me! For what it's worth, here is my advice on how to produce quality colored Hollands:
1. When you are starting out a new color project, you only need ONE colored Holland. Not 10. Not a trio. One single rabbit. If you want to go all-out and spend big bucks (ha ha) on more rabbits, then you do you, but in all honesty you can easily have as much (or more) success if you start out with one colored Holland. What I would strongly recommend is to invest in ONE buck in your desired color. This is because you can get way more litters out of a buck than a doe, and also because breeders are far more likely to let go of a nice buck than a nice doe.
2. Buy the absolute best buck you can find. This may mean you have to drop several hundred dollars, so make sure to save up. Your first colored herd buck is an investment worth making. Read the standard closely, and make notes. Don't buy anything until you a firm grasp of what a quality Holland should look like. Also, don't be blinded by color. Ask yourself if you would still like him if he were a tort. While the odds of you finding a phenomenal quality colored herd buck are infinitesimally small, you should still expect to get something with fairly good type. Invest in quality.
3. HOWEVER!!! On the flip side, just because a colored Holland is expensive doesn't mean it's good quality! I literally cannot stress this enough. Just because a rabbit is $400 doesn't mean it's not a cull. And just because the breeder has a knack for taking pretty pictures doesn't mean it wasn't cleverly posed, groomed, angled, and edited. Also, just because it has so-and-so's lines behind it doesn't mean it's worth buying. Please don't be conned into an expensive mistake. I see this happen constantly, and it's really depressing.
4. If you aren't all spent out from buying your quality colored herd buck, and are still desperate for a colored doe, buy a normal. And here's why. All the high quality true dwarf does are going to be kept by the breeder, and rightly so. This means that the remaining does that they will sell will be a combination of normals (which are only ugly because of one specific gene), and lesser quality true dwarf does (which are lesser quality because of the combination of many lesser quality genes). Although we don't know for certain what the normal doe would have looked like if she had inherited a dwarfing gene, there's a pretty substantial chance that she is genetically higher quality than a lesser quality true dwarf doe. This means you can get better babies from her than you would have gotten from the lesser quality true dwarf, and possibly even better babies than the ones out of the pretty true dwarf that the breeder kept! Plus, you get the added bonus of the larger litter sizes, and other such benefits of using normals. Normals also tend to be a lot cheaper than true dwarfs. I have used this strategy many times, and it has resulted in multiple herd bucks and various other rabbits that have had considerable success on the show tables.
5. If you do not have any already, buy a handful of REALLY good quality torts. Anywhere between 2-5 should be fine. I would mostly get does, plus one high quality complementary buck. Ideally, all of these animals should be related or from compatible lines. These are going to be the foundation of type in your herd, so make sure you invest in good ones!
6. Breed! Get as many babies as you possibly can! At this point I would use your colored buck and your tort buck with equal frequency. That way you're killing two birds with one stone: type + color. Once you get some does out of your colored buck and your tort does, breed them to your tort buck! Then just cull hard from there. It might take a year or two, but odds are you will start to see some really good results!
So there you have it! That is my advice for producing quality colors. This doesn't just go for Hollands, it can also apply to color projects in other breeds too! Hope this article was helpful. :)
1. When you are starting out a new color project, you only need ONE colored Holland. Not 10. Not a trio. One single rabbit. If you want to go all-out and spend big bucks (ha ha) on more rabbits, then you do you, but in all honesty you can easily have as much (or more) success if you start out with one colored Holland. What I would strongly recommend is to invest in ONE buck in your desired color. This is because you can get way more litters out of a buck than a doe, and also because breeders are far more likely to let go of a nice buck than a nice doe.
2. Buy the absolute best buck you can find. This may mean you have to drop several hundred dollars, so make sure to save up. Your first colored herd buck is an investment worth making. Read the standard closely, and make notes. Don't buy anything until you a firm grasp of what a quality Holland should look like. Also, don't be blinded by color. Ask yourself if you would still like him if he were a tort. While the odds of you finding a phenomenal quality colored herd buck are infinitesimally small, you should still expect to get something with fairly good type. Invest in quality.
3. HOWEVER!!! On the flip side, just because a colored Holland is expensive doesn't mean it's good quality! I literally cannot stress this enough. Just because a rabbit is $400 doesn't mean it's not a cull. And just because the breeder has a knack for taking pretty pictures doesn't mean it wasn't cleverly posed, groomed, angled, and edited. Also, just because it has so-and-so's lines behind it doesn't mean it's worth buying. Please don't be conned into an expensive mistake. I see this happen constantly, and it's really depressing.
4. If you aren't all spent out from buying your quality colored herd buck, and are still desperate for a colored doe, buy a normal. And here's why. All the high quality true dwarf does are going to be kept by the breeder, and rightly so. This means that the remaining does that they will sell will be a combination of normals (which are only ugly because of one specific gene), and lesser quality true dwarf does (which are lesser quality because of the combination of many lesser quality genes). Although we don't know for certain what the normal doe would have looked like if she had inherited a dwarfing gene, there's a pretty substantial chance that she is genetically higher quality than a lesser quality true dwarf doe. This means you can get better babies from her than you would have gotten from the lesser quality true dwarf, and possibly even better babies than the ones out of the pretty true dwarf that the breeder kept! Plus, you get the added bonus of the larger litter sizes, and other such benefits of using normals. Normals also tend to be a lot cheaper than true dwarfs. I have used this strategy many times, and it has resulted in multiple herd bucks and various other rabbits that have had considerable success on the show tables.
5. If you do not have any already, buy a handful of REALLY good quality torts. Anywhere between 2-5 should be fine. I would mostly get does, plus one high quality complementary buck. Ideally, all of these animals should be related or from compatible lines. These are going to be the foundation of type in your herd, so make sure you invest in good ones!
6. Breed! Get as many babies as you possibly can! At this point I would use your colored buck and your tort buck with equal frequency. That way you're killing two birds with one stone: type + color. Once you get some does out of your colored buck and your tort does, breed them to your tort buck! Then just cull hard from there. It might take a year or two, but odds are you will start to see some really good results!
So there you have it! That is my advice for producing quality colors. This doesn't just go for Hollands, it can also apply to color projects in other breeds too! Hope this article was helpful. :)