Ozarkansas
Well-known member
So I recently came up with the idea of trying to work with the genetics and create a new color within a breed. I realized that because French, English, and Mini Lops all share a color guide and are shown in Solid Pattern and Broken Pattern there are some colors that you don't see or even don't exist but are not getting dropped by ARBA because of the way they are set up. That got me thinking about trying a color project, because when the project resembles the breed well enough to hit the show tabled there is not complicated COD process involved. I thought a bit about the Silver / Silver Fox colors in lops, but that seems a little complicated for my very first project. BEW English Lops however doesn't sound that hard. The hardest thing would be ear length. I currently raise White Beverens (BEW) and they have a very similer body type to the E Lop and they are the same size. So my thoughts were to get 2 pairs of very nice English Lops, any color but Shaded or Chocolate with very long ears and very good type (especially width because that's where my Beverens are lacking). Breed the does to Beveren bucks, and the bucks to Beveren Does. All kits should be VM or VC. Then breed the VM kits with the longest ears and most correct type and their kits should be BEW. That's the color in 2 generations. Then I would breed mostly for ear length for a few more generations, possibly out crossing back to a colored English Lop again if nessary. By 4-5 generations I think they will look pretty good and the pedigree will be all English Lop. And the color should be super easy to keep because white is just a cover. What do y'all think?
