Both Jack and Rucy were aggressive when I adopted them and each for two different reasons.   Jack was fearful aggressive , and Rucy was bossy aggressive.  It may have originated from fear, but then it became more of a habit.

From what I have read, Hailey and Bailey have had a terrible past and are lucky to have you.  You have only had them for a rather short time, yes?  if so, it is not a suprise that you may have to work with some challenging behaviors but the key will be to figure out what sets her off.  To find out if is fear based,  dominance based, pure aggression, or for attention, etc etc. 

How often does she do this so far?  And the other times she did this, what happened exactly?

It sounds to me that she seems to be a bit of a fear biter – my guess would be that as she is able to gain more and more trust with you that those behaviors will start to become more mild. Probably when you picked her up she wasn’t feeling very secure and just go frightened and resorted to biting. Or maybe she was asleep when you started to pick her up and she didn’t know what was going on. Maybe you can give her some kind of notice that she is going to be picked up before actually doing, for example, kind of “semi” pick her up so she can become aware of the situation before she is up in the air

So has this been happening more since you started giving drops?

I agree – it sounds more fear based. I have to give meds to Rucy all the time, and to prevent her from becoming fearful of me or my hands, I wanted her to know exactly when she would be getting the meds. So I would let her smell the medicine first. Of course, she would then try to run or get aggressive, but it was only during those times. This way she could have a warning and didn’t have to fear my hand everytime. So if you think the ear drops might be making her feel insecure about what your intent is, therefore she may become more fearful/aggressive at other times, you could give her a warning with a sniff of the ear drop bottle first.

Also, to prevent yourself from getting fearful, keep a pair of gloves around, and anytime you think she might bite, put them on and handle her this way. You don’t want her to know you are afraid as your own reactions of being tense and/or being jumpy or pulling away too quickly may incite the very behavior you don’t want. (you may not do this, but it is normal for us to get jumpy after experience a rabbit bite – even a nip can hurt!!).

Gloves are a great idea! Agreed sounds like fearful aggressive I think that’s easier to work with.