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The first Blue eyed white rabbit that
we saw just took our breath away by its beauty and unreal fairytale look. The Blue eyed white rabbit also known as a
BEW & is the project rabbit we have decided to work on for our rabbitry and 4-h because of
their rareness and beauty. We have choosen blue eyed white holland lops and blue eyed white lionheads to work with the past 3
years and this year will be adding blue eyed white Netherland dwarfs to our herd in April 2010. Our Bew~ Blue eyed
white Bunny project is on going...The quality of the Bew's need's work to get them
to being able to compete with the quality colored rabbits on the show tables~ so that is our goal. So far
we have been very successful with several of our bews winnin g legs. We plan on using a very strong line breeding program
through our Bew bunnies to better their quality. We also raise Bew Lionheads and in April 2010 we will be adding Netherland
dwarfs with blue eyes! We will be breeding some of our best quality colored rabbits into our Bew program to help our Bews
quality out. Babies from such a breeding should and will only be used in a Bew program or for pets and never
be breed into our straight colored lines which we hope others will understand or Serious Color problems would result.
From Breeding a colored rabbit to a Bew you get what some people call Sports or Vienna Marked rabbits these bunnies usually
have the markings of a dutch bunny and some have blue eyes. Wrens Freedom( Holland lop Vm buck) is an example of
a Vienna Marked bunny So is Wrens Dakota Lionhead Vm buck. Now you can also get what is called a Vienna Carrier bunny from
such a breeding and what that means is that the bunny is a colored rabbit and may show no signs of the Bew gene( many are
showable) ~ These (the Vc's Vienna carriers) are the bunnies that should deffinetly never be breed into your colored
rabbits or it could cause serious color problems down the line. Vienna carriers have no sighns of the blue eyed white
genes no white markings no blue eyes and are showable unlike the vienna marked aka~(Vms) Please read the article
on BEWs below taken from The dwarf rabbit magazine by Amber Ross of Lonestar Rabbitry~
(used with permission by Amber Ross).Thanks Amber! ***Please visit our Blue eyed white holland lop litters and blue eyed white lionhead litters to see blue eyed white
bunnies for sale & available, thanks, Love, The wren Family
Pictured to left top Wrens Freedom Orange
Vm~aka~ Vienna marked holland lop buck Pictured top right is Wrens Ashton he is a VC he has no white markings or blue
eyes but his mom was a bew and his dad is our amazing herd Buck TFs Augustus who is a colored bunny Tortoise black. Both bucks
Freedom & Ashton can only be used in a bew breeding program and when bred to a bew or another VC or Vm will produce
Bews... Picture below left is a cute litter of our Vienna marked baby lionheads..
Please Note: The Vienna
gene is completely different from all other color genes in the rabbit world. It should never be bred to another variety( Unless
with care and caution) as it will cause serious havoc by putting white marks or hairs, and mis-colored eyes where they
are not supposed to be. It can haunt a Colored herd for many generations if you mix a Vc/ Vm with your color lines. The exception
to this is if BEW type needs improvement as is usually the case. That's often a needful thing because the gene pool
for BEW in a barn or region can be very small. Genetic weakness in BEWs is also something that may need to be addressed So
thats when Out-crossing to a strong variety such as Tortoise that have been worked with alot can help better
the bews quality. Out-crossing produces unshowable Vienna-Marked (VM) and/or showable Vienna-Carrier (VC). VM is also called
Sport, Parti-colored, Mismarked, or Dutch-marked. The white markings often resemble Dutch rabbits, but the markings vary widely.
There may just be a blaze or snip on face, splashes on shoulders or toes, heavy scattered white hairs. The eyes are sometimes
partially or totally blue. VC's may be a perfectly showable variety, but the breeder needs to be aware of
the presence of the Vienna gene. These outcrossed offspring should only be
used in a BEW program!
BEW x BEW = All BEW. BEW x VM/VC = BEW and VM. VM/VC x VM/VC can produce BEW but the odds
are smaller. BEW x any other variety = all VM/VC.
The shaded or Choc gene should be avoided in out-crosses to bews.
These varieties have a ruby glow in the eye that can translate in BEW as violet. The Standard states the eye is to be brilliant
blue. REW should be avoided as well. It can mask the Vienna gene, and even trump it by producing more REWs than BEWs. "BEW"
REWs, while showable, are mostly useless, except in a BEW program, with the possible exception of a pure REW program. Broken
should be avoided to prevent confusion in the markings, and mis-colored eyes on Broken.
Picture to the
left is one of our litters of 2 does from an outcrossing 1 doe ia a Vm with the white dot on her nose & the other doe
is a Vc with no evidence of the bew gene and she is a showable bunny.
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