Bonding with a super territorial rabbit!

I'm hoping some of you who are more experienced with bonding can help my husband and I with advice!

We have been trying to bond our 2 year old Netherland Dwarf (Bunicio, 3 lb male) with an 8 month old mini-rex (Hops, 2.5 lb male). We've had Bunicio for about a year now and before the bonding process he had free reign of the house. This is causing issues with bonding because we really don't have "neutral" territory in our 900 sq ft apartment.

The wonderful rabbit rescue we have in our area helped us with the match and they kept the two in neutral territory at their house for a week. They reported some slight chasing but that overall the two were behaving peacefully with each other.

After that first week we brought them back to our house. Currently they are living in a kiddie pool about 5 feet in diameter with an ex-pen around the edges to keep them in. It's the same pool as where they were kept at the neutral house, and the rabbit rescue recommended it to help with creating neutral space. They have two litter boxes, two hay bowls and some small chew toys as well as water/food dishes.

We have found that Bunicio, who is definitely the more dominant one, is still being territorial. He will lunge and nip at Hops and at least 3-4 times a day Bunicio will chase Hops around. When they chase, their tails are down. Poor Hops seems to now be scared to let Bunicio near him and even if Bunicio approaches him slowly with no apparent aggression Hops will often run. Bunicio will also groom Hops quite a bit, though Hops does not reciprocate. Bunicio will sometimes nip Hops when he doesn't receive grooms back. We have also caught them occasionally sitting together in the litter boxes and they frequently flop out relaxed on opposite ends of the pool.

Yesterday we tried stress bonding with a car ride, then placed them in a very tiny space with a litter box in our kitchen (probably the closest thing we have to neutral space in our house). Bunicio groomed and they both snuggled, and we seemed to have major improvement, even after expanding the ex pen to include space for them to move around outside of the litter box. We tried putting them back in the kiddie pool last night and ended up separating them as they were chasing up a storm and preventing us from sleeping!

At this point, our big questions/concerns are as follows:

1. How much chasing should we allow? How much do they just need to sort things out on their own? They don't appear to be hurting each other, and even when Bunicio nips it seems to be more of a "hey pay attention!" nip and not a "i hate you, die!" nip. We haven't seen any blood or wounds.
   
2. Should we be keeping them together 24/7 or should they be separated at times? After separating them last night for our sleep needs, they were rocky coming back together in the same kitchen space we'd used yesterday that had gone so well.
   
3. Bunicio is clearly frustrated that Hops is not grooming back, so how can we help that to happen? We tried the banana-on-the-head thing and it worked, but as soon as the banana was gone Hops was done as well. I didn't want to overfeed him banana and make him sick!
   
4. We're worried that Bunicio is getting depressed/frustrated because he misses his house and all the space he used to have. Should we give him some time in the day to run around, or will that make things worse?

Thank you thank you thank you for any and all advice and tips!
And Happy New Year!

With bonding, sometimes it comes down to trusting your own gut instincts. There is no magic formula and bondings are unique as the rabbits themselves.

That said, there is a camp that advocates shorter bonding sessions in which the rabbits are brought together for brief periods of time and those times are eventually lengthened. There is another method in which the rabbits are put together in a space and kept together 24/7 until they are bonded (or it is determined that they won't bond). I would suggest choosing one method or the other, but not trying to do a mix of the two. They are both described in more detail here:
http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/matchups.asp

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

My own opinion would be to not allow Bunico run time in his usual area. This would only reinforce that area as *his* territory. You want him to see Hops as his new life and not remind him of 'the way things were.'

I used the 24/7 method with my most recent bonding. I had a very territorial female. She was also used to the run of the downstairs, but I kept her away during the entirety of the bonding.

We kept them in that neutral area (upstairs) for over 4 weeks. It was recommended to me to be sure they are very well bonded before even considering bringing them to the main area. When we did bring them to the main area, we kept them in a confined area within that space initially. (Too much space too soon can cause more issues.)

One can only hope that Hops decides to return the grooming. Other than the occasional banana trick, it's up to him. Sometimes you may be able to appease Bunico by petting him when he is near Hops. He may 'think' that he is actually getting the attention from Hops. That may calm him enough to give Hops the opportunity to not feel tense around Bunico.