That's because of how color genes work. It's actually quite telling of her genetics.
The colors are a different gene than the pattern. So if the black gene is dominant to the white gene it means that if you have a buck with a recessive color (like white) and a doe with a dominant color (like black) you'll always get the dominant color every time. In this case, black is dominant to white because white is the absence of all pigment, and having even a little black gene in there means it always comes out black. (Laymens terms.)
But the pattern basically says "BTWs, the color gene doesn't activate in these areas" and that's totally different. So when you breed in a patterned buck, sometimes you'll get patches, and the color will be whatever the color genetics say it is. So if you mixed in a doe brown rabbit you could get a rabbit with brown patches out of a black patched buck. Or something completely different and muddled color wise in patches like a steel, brindle or castor. But regardless, whatever color the genetics say the coat would be as a solid is the same color that will show up in the patches on the coat.
It sounds to me like your doe may carry the gene for broken colors and needs another broken carrier (or in the case of you buck, a double broken carrier) to express it in the offspring because it's recessive. So if you breed a buck with double solid color genes to her (like the white rabbit) you'll always get solids. If you breed another carrier of broken to her you will get half-and-half, and if you breed a broken to her you will get MOSTLY broken, but the occasional solid rabbit.
Don't even get me started on the agouti gene...
She could make a good test doe to see what color pattern genetics your bucks carry.
(Sorry, spent two years studying coat genetics in dogs.)
Hey, Orps!
I think your doe would be considered a Vienna Carrier (VC) since, having produced BEW offspring, she must have the Vienna gene even though you can't see it expressed in her. VC's are not exactly rare, but they are pretty unusual. They do have an advantage over the VM's, in that they are showable.
Seriously, though, there really isn't a "brown-eyed gene." There's the Vienna gene (V), and the non-Vienna gene (v). As you know, a rabbit that has two copies of the Vienna gene is a white rabbit with blue eyes, and a rabbit that has two copies of the non-Vienna gene can be any other color except BEW. It's those rabbits that have one Vienna gene, and one non-Vienna gene (Vv), that get so confusing. The vast majority wind up looking something like Dutch rabbits, with white feet, a blaze on their faces, maybe even a white belt across their shoulders. Some, though, have much less white, maybe just a couple of white toes or a white snip on the nose. They may have blue eyes, brown eyes, or even one of each. And then there are the VC's, that show no signs of the Vienna gene at all, though they obviously have it. I have seen a few different explanations of how the gene can only affect some, but not all, of the rabbit's coat like it does, but that gets pretty technical. As to why one rabbit should wind up with a lot of white, and another with very little white or none at all - my best guess is that there may be modifiers that affect how the gene gets expressed, just as there are with other patterns. The modifiers may not even be genes.
I raise holland lops netherland dwarfs and lionheads!
