For example, I had no idea that among the now 140+ countries that access this site (for news and information on exhibition budgerigars) is Russia!

Imagine my surprise then, when I as contacted by Tania from Russia (she declines to reveal her surname being a relative novice by comparison to the fancier she wishes me to feature). Tania has asked me to feature her fellow Russian breeder, Svetlana Folomeeva.

Svetlana Folomeeva

Like myself, Svetlana Folomeeva became interested in our international hobby at the age of 12.

Visiting an exhibition at Karlsruhe in Germany, she witnessed super birds for the first time and became totally bitten by the challenge to breed quality budgerigars.

Her first buying venture was to buy birds in the Czech Republic (Czechia). These were modest birds so she branched out and has now visited many of the top European fanciers, among them Jo Mannes, Daniel Lütolf, Rein Dul, Florian Bock, Gyerkon Tibor and Willi Dokter. She now possesses a stud of some 150 birds!

I asked Svetlana to tell me where her main interests lay – where colour is concerned – and it proved to be broad ranging. Normals, Spangles, Yellow-faces and Red Eyes were the main favourites, but Opalines, Texas Clearbodies and Lacewings were present as well.

Breeding in Russia

I then asked how Russian breeders gained experience initially. It appears the Internet is a massive help and no doubt the Google Translation Service on this website proves of considerable assistance.

Next was the matter of foods that are available and the essential vitamins and minerals. What was the quality and availability? Again, I was surprised as there are good seed brands around, one of the best being sold under the name of “Rio”. That said, vitamins etc. are difficult to obtain as well as relevant disinfectants, both being in short supply. So these are obtained from within the EU and imported by individuals for themselves and their fellow fanciers.

Lastly the notorious Russian winters. How do they cope in such low temperatures? Yet again, no problems. All aviaries are fully equipped with heating to sustain breeding and general comfort.

A Seminar

The Moscow Budgerigar Society is called the “Apogee”.

There are currently just 14 breeders who have registered so far since 2011, so it is a young society which will undoubtedly grow.

Perhaps they will carry out some marketing to the public at large? Certainly they are spreading the word that they exist and that the challenging hobby of breeding exhibition budgerigars is now in existence in their vast country.

Three years ago, this go-ahead group, including Svetlana, organised their first seminar and invited Gyerkon Tibor to attend. Svetlana herself reciprocated by representing the Russian breeders at the Budapest Convention Meeting, where she met many well known international breeders and judges, including Ghalib Al-Nasser, the WBO Secretary.

Feeding Techniques

Because of the newness of the hobby in Russia, all outcrosses are bought in Europe – without exception.

When it comes to the seed and vitamin suppliers referred to, “Versele-Laga” features strongly as a favourite source (from a branch in Germany).

In addition to the basics, the Russian birds are fed with sprouted seeds, wheat, oats, barley, clover, lucerne, sunflower, corn, buckwheat, thistle, flax and safflower. A very broad range to say the least, but they cover collectively most of the vitamins etc. that the birds need to sustain the size and fecundity.

Welcome & Thank You

May I, on behalf of all fanciers worldwide, publicly welcome The Apogee Russian Budgerigar Society to the international fold.

Added to that is our appreciation to Tania for approaching Svetlana Folomeeva for an interview for this website.

It is a great opening for breeders outside Russia to learn of the existence of this society and may it go from strength to strength in the coming years.

Appeal

Is the breeding of exhibition budgerigars a newly growing interest in your country? If the answer is yes, then please contact us at Budgerigar.co.uk and let fanciers worldwide know of your existence.

Photographs

All photographs below of Svetlana’s aviary and birds were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Tania.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The aviary

The aviary

Young bird

Young bird

Young bird

 

 

 

 

 

 

The show was organised by ZOOCVIT and took place at the House of Nature in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine (Kiev is situated in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River).

Approximately 80 birds were benched from 5 regions in Ukraine.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best Any Age & Best in Show – Sergiy Ustenko
• Best Young Bird in Show – Vladimir Karpenko
• Best Opposite Sex Young Bird – Aleksandr Danyliuk
• Best Opposite Sex Any Age – Sergiy Ustenko

Judges

The judge was:

• Gerd Bleicher (Germany)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Terry Tuxford.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show & Best Any Age
S Ustenko

Best Young Bird
V Karpenko

Best Any Age Opposite Sex
A Danyliuk

Best Young Bird Opposite Sex
S Ustenko

He shows in partnership with Les Chadwick, another long term fancier.

They both live in the North East of England.

An interview by Barrie Shutt

BS – When did you start up in the hobby Bruce?

Bruce Ross:

It seems a long time ago when I used to take my children to the local park in Redcar in the early 1970′s to see the birds in the aviary.

I was very taken by the budgies flying about chattering and I was bitten by the budgie bug.

Since then, although I took time out for a couple of years in the 1990′s, I have always been involved at some level.

BS – Tell us how you became a committee man

Bruce Ross:

It was shortly after I purchased the Cage Birds magazine and found out that there was a society in Redcar.

It was 1974 and the secretary at that time was Dave Kempen who I had been in the same class with at the local primary school.

Less than a year later, Dave went to work abroad. The secretary’s role needed to be filled and my background in administration prepared me in some measure to take over.

It was a case of jumping in at the deep end, but I enjoyed it – we even ran our first open show.

At the same time, I also joined the Budgerigar Society (BS), Yorkshire Budgerigar Society (YBS) and the Northern Budgerigar Society (NBS) and I am still a member.

To this day I am Assistant Secretary, Publicity officer and Web Master of the Northern Budgerigar Area Society.

BS – Sadly Redcar eventually disbanded, which surprised me as the North East had such a large influx of breeders in those days, did it not Bruce?

Bruce Ross:

It is always sad to see the small societies close, but with some of the other members from Redcar I joined up with the Teesside BS, which was located close by, in Middlesbrough.

They welcomed my skills and experience on the committee.

Since then I have held, I think, every committee position. Just recently, I stood down as secretary but this year I hold the office of president.

BS – It is clear that you are very proud of that, Bruce

Bruce Ross:

It was a very great honour.

I was doubly honoured, because as well as being president at Teesside, I was also presented the Golden Bird Award for work with the NBS.

I am proud to be associated with a group of such a hard working group members who go the extra mile to keep the hobby alive and the region strong.

BS – I could not help but notice that you’ve moved on from your old brownie camera

Bruce Ross:

Progress!

A few years ago I bought a camcorder with which I took footage of the local shows and members’ bird rooms.

With the permission and backing of the members, I then make presentations to local societies and act as a panel member with colleagues from NBS when needed.

I enjoy this part of the hobby.

It is a great way to show off the calibre of our members’ birds, and also to get to know the members better.

BS – A few words to sum up then, Bruce

Bruce Ross:

Since starting in the early 1970′s I have made some lifelong friends and it is great to be able to meet up with them at the club show and the local shows.

Behind any contented budgie man there must be a good woman and my wife has always been there for me to suffer my ups and downs. I am so grateful to her – she even puts up with me treading seed into the house!

A Note from GSB

The show took place in the market town of St. Georgen am Ybbsfelde in Amstetten (a district in north east Austria).

Approximately 280 birds were benched.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show – Ladislav Groda
• Best Young Bird in Show – Karl Eben
• Best Opposite Sex Young Bird – Mario Bizour
• Best Opposite Sex Any Age – Jiri Rejha

Judges

The judge was:

• Tibor Gyerkó (Hungary)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Terry Tuxford.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show
Ladislav Groda

Best Young Bird in Show
Karl Eben

Best Any Age Opposite Sex
Jiri Rejha

Best Young Bird Opposite Sex
Mario Bizour

So I was not in the least bit surprised when I recently had a discussion with a very nice lady, Mrs Nicole Mitchell, at a show in the South East of the UK.

Nicole justifiably expressed her irritation, as a raw beginner, to what she saw as gaping holes in the structure and attitude of the show participants when she had attended our top shows in the UK.

Her gut feeling came down to:

Nobody has the foresight or common sense to deal with visitors to a show who know nothing about what we breeders actually do.

All the visitors can see are rows of birds which mean nothing to them or their families. And here we are trying to get new members for goodness sake!

I asked her to put her thoughts to me in writing and I would do my best to shock the hobby into action. Here are her observations.

From Mrs Nicole Mitchell

Dear Mr Binks,

Here are some points of the experiences of myself and my husband – as beginners in the exhibition side of budgerigars – who attend shows to become involved.

1. Assumptions are made that ALL visitors at shows are knowledgeable and well informed – this is incorrect
2. On attending several shows, we have found that there is NO information on what the “perfect” budgerigar of any given type should be like
3. What is a Lutino, Spangle, Cobalt, or Feather Duster???
4. Why aren’t there posters, drawings or models of what the judges are looking for?
5. Why is there no mentoring/education for beginners by an appointed member who can explain even the basics of quality of this or that bird and explain what the experienced breeders are trying to achieve?
6. Abbreviations are not explained
7. If you don’t go looking for shows or know they actually exist in a town or village on a given date, you cannot expect interested visitors to come through the door and even when they do (by chance ?) nobody is appointed to look them out and help them. It is obvious there is either nil (or at best very little) marketing outside the hobby
8. The UK Budgerigar Society could be more user friendly – even offering a “buddy” / mentor scheme for the inexperienced. What better way with computers to be able to ask “stupid” questions to your buddy than to e-mail him/her and ask away?
9. Experienced fanciers may have difficulty understanding what us newbies don’t know – simply because they do know! ‘The experienced’ walk in to a bird sale or show and fully understand what is happening. They understand what the abbreviations are all about; they understand what the judges are looking for. Us newbies don’t!
10. When you arrive at shows/bird sales, no-one asks if you need any help or what you are even there for. We have witnessed young families turning up at shows without being acknowledged, welcomed or indeed helped. They are left to their own devices to look around at cages of birds, not having a clue what they are looking at or for – and of course they leave within a few minutes.
11. It has been noted that experienced fanciers stick with their friends and do not make any attempt to introduce themselves to newcomers or strangers in order to offer their help. We have been at shows for several hours without so much as someone saying hello and apart from being asked for your entrance fee, no one speaks.
12. As for improving the appeal of the hobby, why isn’t there more publicity? Surely some of the high achievements made by top birds are worthy of a mention in the press or local news channel? As with anything in life, if you want quality you have to pay for it – this is news, and anything that can get parents or their young children interested has to be a good move towards increasing membership.
13. Why not supply magazines free of charge to places where there is a captive audience – doctors, dentists, coffee shops?
14. Publications, both hard copy and on the Internet write of help for beginners – but then don’t give full details. An example of this is soaking seed for it to sprout. We have seen ‘soak seed overnight’ (tried that, it just leaves damp seed); ‘Don’t leave sprouted seed in with birds for too long’ (how long is too long)? We need advising step by step, don’t assume we know anything – because we don’t.

Gerald Binks comments:

I recently wrote an article entitled “Hobby Participation: Halting The Decline?” on this site, which received the greatest number of replies to any single article.

Everyone who commented on the article fully backed all that I said, without exception, but how does one get action when so called “leaders” in the hobby worldwide simply do not promote the hobby outside of itself to the public at large.

There is a lack of drive from the top in all societies and clubs – given perhaps a few exceptions.

Mrs Mitchell makes justifiable observations. How many more like her is the hobby losing because it is failing to engage with those new to the hobby or visitors to our shows?

As a bare minimum, I suggest that every show needs:

• A small stand to be present giving advice and information to visitors
• Experienced fanciers should be appointed to take visitors around and explain “The Challenge” we all face – and the pleasure we receive from being involved in breeding and showing budgerigars.

Next time you champions are standing in the aisles at a show, turn round, and if you see folk you do not recognise, introduce yourself and ask if you can help?

You get that in a store from the most junior of staff – why not at a Budgerigar Show?

The show took place in the Giesenkirchen district of Mönchengladbach (a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, half way between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border).

Over 1300 birds were benched.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Young Bird – ZG Effertz/Heylen
• Best Any Age – Frank Nietgen
• Best Opposite Sex in Show & Best Opposite Sex Young Bird – ZG Henke
• Best Opposite Sex Any Age – Rolf Schüller

Judges

The judges were:

• Cor Booster (Netherlands)
• Günter Elfer (Germany)
• Hubert Janse (Germany)
• Richard Kuhr (Germany)
• Rigobert Müller (Germany)
• Rolf Amthor (Germany)
• Thorsten Moritz (Germany)
• Wim Hattink (Netherlands)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Terry Tuxford.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show
Best Young Bird
ZG Effertz / Heylen

Best Any Age
Frank Nietgen

Best Young Bird Opposite Sex
ZG-Henke

Best Any Age Opposite Sex
Rolf Schüller

The show took place in the town of Ringkøbing on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark.

Approximately 500 birds were benched.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Any Age – Rasmussen & Kenneth Jensen
• Best Young Bird – Ole Vinding
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – Rasmussen & Kenneth Jensen
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Jesper & Per Jørgensen

Judges

The judges were:

• Detlef Hinrichs (Germany)
• Peter Heckner (Germany)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by Benny Bo Larsen & kindly supplied to us by Terry Tuxford

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show
Rasmussen & Kenneth Jensen

Best Young Bird
Ole Vinding

Best Opposite Sex
Rasmussen & Kenneth Jensen

Best Young Bird Opposite Sex
Jesper & Per Jørgensen

The ACEP-SBS is Spain’s national budgerigar society.

The show took place at the public library in Náquera, which is located 23 km north of Valencia in eastern Spain.

Approximately 130 birds were benched.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Any Age – Salvador Riambau
• Best Young Bird – Valerie Bedwell
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – Salvador Riambau
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Salvador Riambau

Judges

The judge was:

• Rinus van den Broek (Netherlands)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by (TBA) & kindly supplied to us by Terry Tuxford

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show
Salvador Riambau

Best Young Bird
Valerie Bedwell

Best Any Age Opp Sex
Salvador Riambau

Best Young Bird Opp Sex
Salvador Riambau

The show took place at the Restaurant Blümlisalp in Alterswil (just south west of Bern in western Switzerland).

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Young Bird – ZG Giger & Waser
• Best Any Age – ZG Giger & Waser
• Best Opposite Sex in Show & Best Opposite Sex Young Bird – Jasmin Habegger
• Best Opposite Sex Any Age – Guido Manco

Judges

The judges were:

• Christian Back (Germany)
• Roberto Sabatini (Italy)

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by: Marcel Bühler

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show & Best Young Bird
ZG Giger & Waser

Best Any Age
ZG Giger & Waser

Best Opposite Sex in Show
& Best Opposite Sex Young Bird
Jasmin Habegger

Best Opposite Sex Any Age
Guido Manco

The CDE is France’s society for exotic birds.

The show was organised by the Ornithological Association of the Alpes de Haute Provence (AOAHP) and took place at the Sports Centre in Sisteron (in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France).

Show awards were given for sparrows, doves, parakeets, parrots, canaries and, of course, budgerigars.

This year the championship went international – with over 400 birds presented and with judges from France, Portugal, Italy & Switzerland.

Results

The major (Budgerigar) results were as follows:

• Best Any Age – Hervé & Jocelyne Gros-Lelievre
• Best Young Bird – Pierre Archambaud
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – Roger Lautru
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Guillaume Froger

Judges

The judges were:

• Alessandro Bernabei (Italy)
• Marcel Bühler (Switzerland)
• Tony Binggeli (Switzerland)

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by: Terry Tuxford

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best Any Age
Hervé & Jocelyne Gros-Lelievre

Best Young Bird
Pierre Archambaud

Best Any Age Opposite Sex
Roger Lautru

Best Young Bird Opposite Sex
Guillaume Froger