I'm too nervous...

I adopted a very nervous female Dutch from PaH in July. She has since been spayed & is absolutely lovely, if still a little nervous.
I adopted a male, neutered, albino Rex last Friday with a view to hopefully bond them.
Here's how it's gone;

Fri: He settles in like he's always been here. Lovely, friendly, curious lad.

Sat: They spend all day either side of a mesh fence. Sniffing each other through the mesh. Her running up and down, him basically ignoring her.

Sun: Brought them both into the kitchen. Growling, fur flying (she being the instigator). No blood. Returned to separate sections of the same run. He lying down next to her, she's nipping him through the bars.

Mon: Brought them in again. This time, he skipped around the kitchen. She lunged twice, but only made contact once. Back into separated run.

Today: Lying next to each other in the separated run. Eating together (face to face through the wire). Bunny flopped next to each other in the sunshine (albeit with a fence in between). Brought them in. Mostly ignored each other, but sniffed noses, and she only went to nip him half-heartedly once. They are currently snuggled up either side of the run fence again.

Every night I've been swapping blankets and bedding hay in each of their hutch bed compartments.

When do I bite the bullet and allow them supervised contact in the run...??

I think it's much too soon for that as your female will probably become territorial. You are doing quite well as you are so I would stick with this routine until they seem to be getting on better. Where will they be living once bonded? You will have to try to avoid anything she is familiar with for some time, as the territorial nature will take control.

Thank you Tonibun! When (if!) they bond, they will be outside in a hutch with 24/7 access to a walk in chicken run.

Update: 8.00am

He managed to chew through the cable ties holding the separating fence together, got into her side of the split run & hutch and she absolutely battered him!!

He has a tiny cut on his back paw, but it was a 50/50 scrap with fur flying.

They're currently in separate "floors" of a double hutch.

Is it too late to go back to scratch? Completely separate living quarters and a timeshare on the run? The trouble with a double hutch, I suppose, is that they can't see each other at night... I have a spare single hutch....Should I pop her in the spare one facing the double one with him in, with the run inbetween the two?

(sorry if that makes no sense...I'm new to rabbit owning as an adult...and I'm flapping...just want to get it right. Love them both to bits).

To be honest I find the most effective method of bonding is not the 'dating' as you have been doing, but to put them together in a clean, small, neutralised space and monitor. Then don't seperate them at all, every time they are seperated it puts the bonding back a few steps.

I've done the above 4 times now, and it's always worked nicely. Yes there is some chasing/fur pulling/ mounting at the start and sometimes I have had to intervene with some gardening gloves for protection, but that's the motions they have to go through in order to establish a hierachy.

This is just my personal take on it, but if you have a territorial female, I'm not sure whether putting the males bedding in with her will just make her more wound up and then when she smells a familiar smell (eg when the male is put near her), it's going to make her more territorial??

Thank you for the advice Catherine.
I think my female is a funny onion... She appears to have bonded...to me! When I had them both in my kitchen she barely left my side.

See, I don't know how "bad" the scraps are between my two. We tried putting them in a smaller run, on some nice, distracting grass, and it was like something out of Gladiator! The fights have manifested as biting, fur being pulled out, growling, latching onto each other with teeth & kicking. No mounting. He never starts the fights....