Holland Lop Brood Does

Where would we be without our brood does?  Most Holland Lop breeders have several of these oversized does in their breeding herd, and oftentimes they are the best producers!

Holland Lop brood does are the rabbits that don't carry the dwarf gene - so they usually end up exceeding the 4 lb breed standard mark.

Brood does can be useful to your breeding program - especially if you keep brood does that display all the good Holland Lop features you want in your herd.  I tend to keep the brood does that have excellent overall body structure and heavy bone, along with a head, crown and ear combination that is balanced with their body.  Most of my brood does could be decent show Hollands if they were just scaled down in size! 

I do shy away from the brood does that are of the 'gangly' type - with the long thin ears, usually coupled with the longer legs and thinner bone - these just don't have the characteristics I want in my herd.

This ganglier-Holland Lop type is apparent when the animal is fairly young - the extremely long, usually thin ears, with the long face from eyes to nose give them away readily.  If you look closely you can usually tell from their bone structure that they will have finer bone, and have long, thin hind feet and longer front legs too.