In this article we will discover the association between the Grey and the Grey-Green, which is probably the most prolific winning colour in recent times.

In addition, the colour expectation of these varieties will be discussed in such a way as to make them easily understood by all.

Greys

We should first start, perhaps, by explaining that there are two types of Grey – the Australian Grey and the English Grey.

The basic difference between the two, is that the Australian is dominant whilst the English is recessive.

However, in practice the English version can be ignored as they are virtually extinct – unless you know differently and in which case we would be pleased to hear from you.

For the remainder of this article we will refer to the variety as Grey with the understanding that we are referring to the dominant version.

Measuring Quality

Greys can be bred in three shades, light, medium and dark.

They can also be carrying the colour in a single or a double factor state.

When two double factor greys are paired together, this is known as “true breeding” – as only Greys will be produced.

Furthermore, no budgerigar can be split for Grey, they are either a Grey (more properly called Grey-blue) or a Grey-green or another colour all together.

Breeding Expectations

Breeding expectations from Greys are as follows (DF = Double Factor, SF = Single Factor):

• DF Grey x DF Grey = 100% DF Grey
• DF Grey x SF Grey = 50% DF Grey, 50% SF Grey
• DF Grey x Non-grey = 100% SF Grey
• SF Grey x SF Grey = 25% DF Grey, 50% SF Grey, 25% Non-grey
• SF Grey x Non-grey = 50% SF Grey, 50% Non-grey

This is all very fine, but it is much easier to understand if we consider what happens with some real pairings.

However, before doing this, a useful tip is to consider the Greys to be Blues so that Light Grey equates to Sky Blue, Medium Grey to Cobalt etc.

Now let us work out the expectations from these birds and then add in the Grey factor.

This now gives us:

• SF Light Grey x Light Green = 50% SF Light Grey-Green/blue, 50% Light Green/blue
• Light Green x DF Light Grey = 100% SF Grey Green/blue
• SF Light Grey x SF Light Grey-Green/blue = 12.5% Light Green/blue, 37.5% Grey-green/blue, 12.5% Sky Blue, 37.5% Grey

We can conclude, that if non-greys are bred from 100% Grey pairings, both parent birds are Single Factor Greys.

Double or Single Factor

The only way to tell if a Grey is a single or double factor is by test pairings.

These would be:

• Grey x Sky Blue
  • If the young produced are both Skies and Greys then the Grey parent, either cock or hen, is a single factor
• Grey x Light Green
  • If the young produced over several nests are Grey or Grey Greens only, then it is safe to assume that the Grey is a double factor

Double Factor Pairings

If we now look at the effects of the dark factor we discover that the expectations are as follows:

• SF Light Grey x Cobalt = 25% SF Light Grey, 25% SF Med. Grey, 25% Sky Blue, 25% Cobalt

• Cobalt x DF Dark Grey = 50% SF Dark Grey, 50% SF Med. Grey

The three shades of Grey may not be easy to distinguish for the beginner, but with careful study and examination of pairings and breeding results, conclusions on the shades may be drawn.

Grey & Green Pairings

Finally, we should consider the Greys in relation to Greens in pairings.

• SF Grey Green/blue x SF Grey Green/blues = Grey Green, Grey Green/blue, Grey, Green and Blue

Some of the Greys will be single factor and others double factor.

Better Breeding due to Pedigree Knowledge

There is a certain thrill about finding the unexpected in the nest box, but it is far more preferable to be able to predict one’s breeding results – because then one is in control of the pedigree.

The more that you know about the background of your breeding stock, then the more chance you will have in breeding an eventual winner.

Photographs

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

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The Australian grey is dominant
- the English is recessive

Greys can be DF's or SF's

Grey Greens have the power and size

"Buffalo" Grey Greens do win shows
- Breeder L Martin (UK)

I think we all have personal preferences, even when we protest that all we want is a good budgie – preferably one that will win the Club Show.

But despite our wildest pipe dreams, we don’t usually get that far. So I would suggest that it would be a good idea for most fanciers to focus on one or two particular colours or varieties, where, with care and persistence, a degree of success can be achieved.

I have made the mistake of liking Greywings.

The original source of this preference was that my first pair, purchased in 1951, was a Greywing Skyblue cock and a Yellow hen.

I bought them from a local fancier, Wilf Hacker, whose family fruit farm, and veritable menagerie of birds and small animals, was situated next to the Cambridge Crematorium. This was an easy, and in those days safe, two mile bike ride from my home. These days no-one in their right senses would attempt to ride a push bike on that stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon!

They were put into a breeding cage in June and, by the time of my return to school, in September there were five chicks in the nest.

None, to my intense disappointment, was a Greywing, nor was there one in the next round. All were either Yellows or Albinos.

What is more, the four Albinos were all hens and only one of the five Yellows a cock bird. This was a minor disaster for a young lad hoping to be able to supply the Christmas market for pets and recoup a bit of seed money.

Introduction to the Complexities

I tried pairing the Yellow cock bird with a Skyblue, with the resultant expected mix of Skyblues and Albinos, but not another Greywing in sight.

The experience was, however, a good introduction to the complexities of breeding recessive and sex-linked colour varieties, and I enthusiastically studied basic Mendelian genetics, buying a copy of the then current edition of “Budgerigar Matings and Colour Expectations”.

However, I never did breed a Greywing in my first period as a fancier up to 1960.

Then in 2007, having restarted in budgies in 2001, without even trying, I bred three from two separate and seemingly unrelated pairs. Since then I have been trying once more to breed them, with almost no success to date.

Why should it be so difficult?

Years ago Greywings were relatively commonplace. You have only to look at the prominence they are given in the pairings in “Budgerigar Matings and Colour Expectations” and in “Genetics for Budgerigar Breeders” – two Budgerigar Society publications.

Firstly, there are very few birds available and when breeders produce them, usually by chance but from good stock, they seem very loath to part with them, but retain them for showing but not breeding.

Their rarity is, I believe, also a result of them being superseded by the Clearwings, which have a more intense body colour, but which, in the European version, have wing markings which are not dissimilar to the Greywing.

In my view, the Greywing is an honest colour and has the colour of markings which its name implies.

I understand that they are also used by Clearwing breeders, resulting in birds called full bodied Greywings. These are too intense in the body colour for the BS standard for Greywings and too grey in the wing markings to be good Clearwings, with ensuing confusion in both Clearwing and AOC classes, sometimes giving rise to their being wrong classed in either category.

Shown in the Same Class

Secondly, there is the complication of the Cinnamon factor.

In an article prepared by Steve Amos some twenty years ago, he mentions that in the past the two colours were often shown in the same class. Indeed, it was not until 1958 that a separate class for Greywings was introduced at the Club Show.

Despite the common appeal of the muted subtlety of the body colour of the two varieties, the cinnamon, having a sex linked dominance and also seeming to impart a desirable quality of feather, seems to have squeezed out the Greywing.

A two pronged attack on the position of the Greywing.

A breeder of Greywings has also to contend with another hidden genetic gremlin, the dilute factor.

Greywing being dominant to Dilutes, Dilutes can be and are used to produce Greywings.

Recounting my personal experience since 2007 may help to illustrate the problem.

In one nest I bred a visual Greywing Skyblue cock from a Dark Green / Blue / Opaline type 2 cock and a Cinnamon Skyblue hen.

The chances of doing this were remote.

To start with a Skyblue would be one of the exceptions from a type 2 Dark Green / Blue whose sire was a Light Green and mother an Opaline Cobalt. From where did the Greywing come in as there was no evidence of Greywings in the studs where I had purchased my initial birds?

In the other nest I bred two Greywing Grey cocks.

The sire was a Cinnamon Grey Green / Opaline and the dam a normal Skyblue.

When the chicks started to feather up I assumed that they were Cinnamon hens and was more than a little pleased to have bred two hens with what seemed to me very promising head qualities.

They turned out to be cocks.

In this case the stud where I had bought the sire said that occasionally they had bred Greywings in the past. All three birds were split Cinnamon and proved also to be split Opaline.

I started the season late next year having shown the better Grey at the Club Show coming second in the Any Age AOC line-up. I gave the other Grey to Steve Amos.

Neither of the birds did much for me in the breeding shed other than producing a small number of Opaline Cinnamon hens and poor ones at that.

The Cinnamon Factor Interfered

The Skyblue was placed fifth in the Novice Any Age line-up at the Club Show the following year, beating the Grey which has subsequently won a couple of CCs.

I had hoped to at least breed from each Greywing some normal split Greywing hens that I could pair back to the other Greywing, but the Cinnamon factor interfered.

Steve Amos was not able to help as the bird I had given him had either passed on or been passed on.

I did eventually breed a Light Green hen, a “WYSIWYG”^*, free of Opaline or Cinnamon factors from the Skyblue at the end of 2010.

Full of hope, I paired her up to the Grey only to find that they were to put it mildly “not compatible”.

In the meantime, I had done some research on the background of my birds and came to a common factor on the dam’s side of each of them.

They came from a common line which has since then once more produced in the original stud a Greywing.

Accordingly I let Ghalib Al-Nasser have a cousin of the Skyblue in the hope that it might be split Greywing.

Ghalib paired this to a Greywing Light Green. They produced two Light Green cocks and the perhaps inevitable Cinnamon hen. Ghalib let me have a Light Green cock back which, once again full of hope, I paired to the Light Green hen in the expectation that two normals with a Greywing parent each would be split Greywing and produce at least some Greywing chicks.

They produced six chicks, none a Greywing but one was a Grey Yellow.

Time for more research. I started looking into the dilute background, the genetic gremlin.

The problem lies in the fact that a normal coloured bird cannot be split for both Greywing and Dilute.

I came to the conclusion that both my Greywing Skyblue and Ghalib’s Greywing Light Green were split for dilute. My bird’s dilute factor would have originated on the side of his sire, part of which came from the stud of Alec and David Woan who have produced some good dilutes in the past.

The Added Twist

For the genetic colour background of my bird there is a 6.25% chance of a cock bird, which is reduced massively with the added twist that the bird should have been a Cobalt – the normal colour that I had set out to breed with that particular pairing.

When my Skyblue Greywing was paired with a Light Green, half of the visuals would be split Dilute and half split Greywing – and the one that I had bred was split dilute.

Ghalib’s bird with the parents’ colours reversed must be the same. That is a visual Light Green masking a dilute factor and not the Greywing factor.

Whether this is a correct analysis may be shown in the Skyblue’s current pairing, to his daughter the Light Green hen referred to above. This assumes that he breeds successfully and that the picture will not be overwhelmed by the Opaline and Cinnamon factors lurking in his background.

The Light Green cock is now paired to a Grey Yellow dilute.

The picture as regards the Grey is still obscure because of his reluctance to breed, but I have a number of birds related to his dam which may mean that the Greywing factor carries on in its subterranean manner and pops out in the future.

The effect of this dilute factor goes some way to explain my original experience in 1951, though then I was unlucky not to produce any Greywings even allowing for interference by the Albino factor.

I am now having to work with birds that are all probably split Dilute which will make the process that much slower.

We bring trouble on ourselves because of our personal preferences but at the same time indulging those preferences, is what makes our lives worthwhile.

Note: ^* WYSIWYG – “What You See Is What You Get”

The wild budgerigar is a remarkably successful species. For over five million years it has survived in the harsh, dry conditions of inland Australia. Its success can be attributed to a nomadic lifestyle and its ability to breed “on the run”.

Breeding activity is initiated in a similar fashion as for other bird species. It is dependent upon seasonal and climatic conditions but in many ways the behaviour of budgerigars is unique amongst birds. Its breeding activity is completely dominated by the availability of water and food. These are scarce resources across the vast dry regions of inland Australia.

Survival, rather than breeding, dominates the life of wild budgerigars. Seasonal rains and temperatures dictate the breeding cycle of wild birds.

Budgerigars do not breed in the heat of summer, even after summer rains, because the high temperatures rapidly kill off most desert grasses and dry up water holes. In nature, budgerigars reserve this time for the annual moult. Similarly, exhibition budgerigars should not breed, but be allowed to moult during summer.

Winter temperatures often drop below freezing in Australian deserts causing budgerigars to abandon their nests. Exhibition budgerigars should also not be allowed to breed when it is too cold.

Budgerigars in nature breed prolifically during favorable seasonal conditions and their cousins, exhibition budgerigars, have certainly retained this ancient and strong characteristic. Sadly, many champion exhibition budgerigars have lost this fundamental trait through poor selection. The consensus of opinion is that the breeding requirements of the modern day exhibition budgerigar are more demanding than those of wild budgerigars because of the increased size of their young.

In many Australian studs poor fertility has been reversed by those holding defiantly to the wise breeding principle of “selection of the fittest”. It is agreed that modern day exhibition budgerigars are more difficult to breed and need special attention. The fancier should see improvements in breeding results when the principles of the breeding habits of wild budgerigars are applied to the somewhat difficult exhibition budgerigar.

The following facts should increase the chance of breeding success and reduce the likelihood of breeding failure.

“General Timing” Guidelines

Fertility problems (albeit not in every breeding pair) must be expected when budgerigars are paired at the wrong biological time of the year, irrespective of the presence of artificial lighting or temperature control must be given to the notion of breeding condition, good health and the natural breeding cycle of the wild budgerigar. Many breeding problems are often remedied simply by breeding at the right time of the year.

My advice is to breed at the right time of year (see chart below) and then to reassess your breeding results. If infertility persists, “cleanse” the stud with a prescribed disease treatment programme. If fertility is good and the babies develop poorly, look more closely at the feeding system being used.

By following these simple rules, breeding success is guaranteed in all pairs except those with a genetic weakness.

Moult Guideline

Understand the relationship between the moult and the breeding season. The wild budgerigar can breed at any time of the year but generally does not breed in the heat of summer, prior to the monsoon rains. It is during these hot months of December, January and February that it replaces its feathers in what is referred to as the annual moult.

It is the completion of the moult and the beginning of the autumn rains that prime the wild budgerigar into breeding condition.

The fancier must also follow this same natural process with the aviary budgerigar and wait for the completion or termination of the annual moult before starting to breed. This applies to both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and is outlined in the chart below.

The amount of care and affection that they devote to their birds is immense and their dedication to the hobby is the same.

Their stud is located in a beautiful rural location near the town of Ballybay in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.

They are always happy to share their knowledge of the exhibition budgerigar with visitors, many of whom regularly travel from as far away as the U.S.A., Europe and the U.K. to purchase birds from this high quality stud.

The Birdroom

The Emerald birdroom is a superb building measuring 70′ x 25′ (21 m x 8 m) and is described by many visitors as 5 star budgerigar accommodation.

The birdroom, among many other things, contains:

• 4 full height flight rooms each being 10′ x 8′ (3 m x 2.5 m)
• 2 nursery flights each being 10′ (3 m) long
• 2 breeding rooms which contain 50 breeding cages

All wire breeding cages are preferred, not just for their cleanliness, but so that all birds can enjoy a colony atmosphere.

Wooden, outside fitting nest boxes are used, sprayed inside and out with disinfectant and an anti-mite solution, before copper coins are put under concaves for their anti-fungal properties, with a handful of fine wood chippings added.

Stock

Emerald Budgerigars line breed and keep all the mainstream colours, specialising in Lutinos and Albinos.

Fine examples can be found in all colours.

The stud’s original mainstream colour stock came from Eric Lane and Ormerod & Sadler bloodlines.

The “ino” original stock came from Margery Kirkby Mason, Reg Watts and Rick Watts …. that was about 40 years ago!

In more recent years, very strong blood lines have been built, based on Daniel Lütolf, Reinhard Molkentin, Jo Mannes, Huxley & Marchant and Willi Dokter.

Eileen and John’s birds are well known for their overall quality and especially for their strength in width of head, length of feather and directional feather, which they have also managed to put into their “ino’s”.

Management

Daily management for Eileen and John includes changing the birds’ water and cleaning the utensils. Bottled water is used – not tap water – due to the chlorine content.

Another daily job is to make and provide every bird with fresh soft-food. This is made from boiled eggs, soaked oats, Orlux moist eggfood, vegetables, honey, garlic oil, ‘Panta-20′ (supplement), a small amount of salt, cod liver oil, wheat germ oil, ‘Frucht-mash’ (supplement), calcium / D3 powder, love bird seed mixture, and the most important ingredient ….. “EB.1 complete” – a magical mix that is used by many of Europe’s top breeders.

Eileen and John will provide more details and quantity information to any breeder requiring the same (see website link at the end of this article).

All birds, at all times, have access to 4 different seed mixtures:

• An “A.1.E.” mixture that contains 60% canary and 40% mixed millets
• An “E.B.” feather growth promoting seed mixture
• An “E.B.” conditioning and herb seed mixture
• An “E.B.” Japanese millet and fruit pellet mixture

Again, Eileen and John will provide more detail to any breeder requiring the same (see website link at the end of this article).

Grit and mineral utensils are changed weekly and all flights and cages are cleaned and disinfected weekly.

Cuttlefish and iodine blocks are provided to all birds and the bird room is cleaned with a vacuum cleaner twice per day.

Once a year, all birds in the Emerald Budgerigars birdroom are treated with “Tricho Plus” as a preventative against Trichomonas.

Also once a year, all birds are treated with “Doxycycline”, before pairing-up, to ensure the birds optimum performance.

Breeding

All birds are kept in the stock flights unless breeding.

Cocks and hens are kept together to encourage exercise and eucalyptus branches, ladders, tumblers, balls and various other play things are provided to stop the birds becoming bored and to encourage additional exercise.

Ring issue dates are ignored, as pairing commences every year in September. Eileen and John say that September is the best time to pair up exhibition budgerigars. If the birds are in condition, 50 pairs are put up in this month.

Both cocks and hens have their vents plucked and both birds are put into the breeding cage at the same time with the nest box already attached. Nest boxes are inspected daily, but only once.

When pairing birds, Eileen and John attach much importance to pedigree, and try to pair the best visual cocks to a lesser visual sister of their best hens, so long as the pair complement each other visually – i.e. if one of the pair lacks in a particular feature, the other in the pair must excel in this feature, and so on.

Showing

Eileen and John have won many “Best in Show” awards, “Major Specials” and “C.C.’s” at Championship, National and World Championship level.

However, in recent years, they much prefer breeding budgerigars than showing them and now, regrettably, show very little and do not show at all in Ireland.

However, they say that they will always support the B.S. World Championship Show whenever possible.

Tips for Beginners

Here are some of Eileen and John’s top tips for beginners:

• Budgerigars do not always breed when paired up for the first time. Some birds can go 2 or 3 years before they breed for the first time, so it’s worth persevering with a quality bird.
• Try to buy one outcross, or two, every year to add quality fresh blood and always buy the best that you can afford with the desired feature(s) that your own birds require for improvement. Do NOT be tempted to split the money you have available over say 3, 4 or 5 birds – spend all the money that you have available on just one or two birds and buy the best that you can obtain. Quality is more important than quantity.
• Some budgerigar hens will not use a nest box if the entry hole is facing direct sunlight, as it will not be dark enough for her inside.
• Every evening before the main lighting changes to night lighting, fine spray the bird room (NOT the birds), with an F.10, Virkon-S, or similar solution, to kill possible airborne germs.
• When preparing your birds for a show, spread the de-spotting process over many days. Do NOT de-spot a bird completely in one attempt, as you run the risk of a good spot falling out later due to bruising around the area.
• It is good practice to spray the inside of a nest box that has chicks, in the same way using an F.10 or Virkon-S solution. Simply cover the chicks with your hand when spraying to protect the chicks from the spray.
• Have patience! If your birds are not performing as well as they could, seek assistance from an experienced breeder. If things are going wrong in your birdroom, it is probably not the fault of the birds, but your fault!

Further Information

For further details about the Emerald Budgerigar Stud, please visit Eileen and John’s website:

• www.emeraldbudgerigars.4t.com

Photographs

All photographs below of Eileen & John’s birdroom and birds were taken and kindly supplied to us by Eillen & John Hall.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Emerald Budgerigar birdroom
- external view

Emerald Budgerigar birdroom
- internal view

Breeding cages are on the all wire system

The Hall nest box design

 

 

 

 

Hi,

I am a member of BAA and ABS here in the USA.

I live in Georgia.

I have an unusual marked bird that has been labelled frosted pied. I am a novice and turning intermediate next year – due in no small part to this bird whom I have named “Jack Frost”.

I can find no clear statement as to what a Frosted Pied is supposed to look like. Jack’s crown is white and his mask has violet patches, with large round black spots. His body color is a soft blue somewhere between sky and cobalt & brighter sky color on back between wings.

There is some mottling of white through blue on chest. He has a spot on the back of head like other pieds.

His feet are mottled blue/pink.

His wing flights are mostly white with a couple of dark/black feathers. The tail has 4 central long feathers. Two underneath are about 3/4 length and white, while the top 2 are full length and dark blue.

He is unusually large for a baby 8+ months old. The black/white wing markings are somewhat blurred like snow on them – there is no blue wash into the wing color.

His cere seems to be developing into a normal blue.

Two world budgerigar judges, David Collier, formerly from UK now residing in US, and Mr Al-Nasser of the UK seem to think he is a Frosted Pied – as well as other US judges – but I can not find a clear standard of what a frosted pied should be.

The mother/hen is a white DEC from Gorden Davis’ aviary in Florida. The cock is a dark green recessive pied split from Maureen Broderick here in Georgia.

His line also traces back to Gordon Davis.

The clutch produced a white DEC hen, a recessive pied, 2 green clear flights that died as babies of unknown cause, and Jack – the largest and first to hatch. Will repair them this breeding season.

As a novice I need a real clear statement of standard for a dominant/Australian pied, a Dutch/clear flight pied, and a frosted pied as well as how to tell the difference between them.

There is currently a pied here in the USA that is in question – Dom Pied or Clear flight.

We are due to go to a show in December in New Orleans. Hopefully Dr Travenechek (sp?) will be able to look at him then.

Still somewhere there must be a standard to follow?

Many Thanks,
Jo Ann Boyle
Georgia, USA

Photographs

Jo Ann has now kindly taken and sent us photographs of “Jack Frost”.

If you can help Jo Ann, please add your comments to this post.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

jack-frost-1

jack-frost-2

jack-frost-3

jack-frost-4

jack-frost-5

jack-frost-6

jack-frost-7

Q1: What is the secret to maintaining a quality stud of budgerigars year after year?

GSB:

Unstinting good management and buying in outcrosses frequently, otherwise you produce small birds if a stud becomes too closely related.

Sell 10 birds and buy one.

Don’t put the sale money in your pocket or else the new buy becomes expensive instead of a swapping process.

Q2: What is your opinion on the modern budgerigar compared to all the different types you have seen throughout your career? Please refer to both the aesthetic part and the physiological part (size, breeding difficulties, vitality, and fertility).

GSB:

Good question!

Fanciers are apt to say:

The birds of yesterday were better than the birds we have today.

Not true at all. I have seen all the changes in progress in my 66 years at this hobby and the beauty of the top birds we have today far exceeds all predecessors.

The size of birds now is fantastic (look at the Best in Show Grey green of Les Martin’s at the 2010 Budgerigar Society Show, as well as his skyblue).

New standards are being set all the time – and now in the chase for width of face, we have what I termed “the Buffalo effect”, which has gone worldwide.

This faces us with an even greater challenge. Vitality and fertility, contrary to what many breeders think, with such big birds being infertile or difficult, is broadly incorrect.

It is a poor diet that causes such results and basically bad husbandry.

Yes, there are exceptions of course with individuals, but overall what I have said is correct.

Q3: Can you predict where the modern budgerigar will be in five years time? Have you looked beyond the “Buffalo” effect?

GSB:

Another good current question.

I am worried about the fact that I have seen birds that are already ugly with super heads, but dreadful carriage both of which are related to producing length of feather.

The word “Type” seems rarely to be heard, or even practised.

It is no use having “Buffalos” that exhibit drooping flights hanging below the body midline which exhibit narrow primaries and in some cases cannot fly.

I have seen it in several aviaries in the past few years, in the hunt breeders have for super head quality.

Without naming anyone, I know now where the long-flighted and long tails have come from – and it is not from the UK but outside the UK.

As Jo Mannes says, a budgerigar has to be a “charming budgerigar” – not a bag of long feathers and ugly faces.

Breeders beware!

Q4: September and March are the times when budgies are said to be in the peak of their breeding cycle. How do you build your birds up to get the best out of them?

GSB:

I do not, as such, as my feeding technique results, after my early mistakes and inexperience, are now near perfect.

Thus the birds come into condition naturally in September and March as the question states.

Why is this you ask? The reason is that there is still good natural light and this determines the condition factor. Artificial light is only on part of the day, so natural light is a massive factor.

This is born out by the chart in Dr Robert Marshall’s book “The Budgerigar” (it took 12 years to write) where he compares the northern and southern hemispheres as regards which are the perfect times to start breeding.

In both cases, he is dead right.

In the UK we drag our heels with decisions made by well meaning fanciers who stick to a ring date without thinking deeply. A 1st January ring issue date is fatal, as breeders work to that date and pair up for the rings for the early chicks.

Europe is far more advanced with a 1st November issue date so that pairing can be in September or early October – when there is still good light about!.

The great difficulty in budgerigar breeding is starting them.

Think about March as a month. For all my years, breeders have said it is better to start in March. It is of course the increase in light that makes it easier.

In my opinion the ring issue date and BS Show date, now being forecast to change back to November, should be re-visited fast, but then our BS gets itself strangled by the fact that rules can only be changed every three years!

Why do essential changes (that in business would be done immediately) take so long? Bizarre.

I am being constructive based on facts – nothing more – and if change is effected more rings will be sold as a result of more birds requiring rings!

Q5: What are your views on using birds with feather defects – in particular “tail less wonders” – or birds that do not keep a full complement of flight feathers? Do you feel this problem is genetic and by using birds like this could cause the problem to come out in larger numbers further down the line?

GSB:

“Tail less wonders” we obviously do not like – as it is associated with long feathers and the longest feather is the one feather that requires perfect nutrition in the aviary to grow to its full length.

Otherwise the tails succumb to borderline FM – which is what it is!

Such a bird will breed well and it will have no bearing on the chicks it produces – unless of course you haven’t paid attention to improving the diet and your husbandry.

It’s not genetic! It’s your fault!

Q6: Can you tell us a little of your selection process when looking for birds to retain for the following breeding season?

GSB:

I have a problem here.

I should have three flights and I only have two. You need three for sorting.

One for the adult keeps, one for young keeps and one for sales.

It is a big handicap here at “Tanglewood”, but I am too advanced in years to build another extension.

To answer the question is difficult for these reasons. I just have to use my eyes and decide what to keep along with plenty of quality reserves as backup.

Q7: You have been breeding exhibition Budgerigars for a very long time. If you were to start all over again, knowing what you do now, how would you go about it?

GSB:

Do nothing for a year.

In that time go round 50 aviaries in the UK and Europe and learn everything, without buying a thing.

Then analyse all your data on aviary design and quality birds and where they are and decide: What sort of budgerigar do I need to beat the rest? (That is ahead of any Ideal Budgerigar that is depicted.)

The one asset you need is DRIVE. Without it you will not get to the top.

Q8: Is there a particular fault in a bird that you just wouldn’t be prepared to work with?

GSB:

Long-flighted characteristics that can ruin a stud, which if present cannot be “worked out” by pairing to short feathered birds, back in, at a later date.

It is a terrible dominant genetic fault.

Q9: Do you have a number of different family lines? If so how many – and is there one more prolific than the others? Do you use lines as outcrosses, or do you go for outcrosses externally?

GSB:

There are three main lines here in the greens, grey greens and the blue series with, now, cinnamon being an important factor but used carefully.

My records are near perfect as anyone who has been here will tell you.

All lines are prolific with the odd exception here and there that we all get.

The longer I have been in the hobby the more I realise that quality outcrosses are a must.

The problem is where to get them and it is only the bigger breeders that have the numbers from which to be able to let you have what you want.

Existing lines are not used as outcrosses.

I also know that some breeders just do not think it possible to do this easily with the larger birds we have today by comparison to those bred in the past. I beg to differ, when one takes a stud of birds as a whole.

I am not talking about individual birds which just refuse to breed at any price. I am discussing the total number of birds bred on the perches at the end of a complete breeding season.

This however has to be related to the actual number of pairings that have taken place. It is not good enough to say you have bred, say, 100 chicks and divide by 10 breeding cages, to get an average figure per pair produced. To be accurate you have to divide the total chicks by the actual number of pairings that you have made. This gives you the full reality of the success or failure of a season.

Evolving a System

It is of vital importance, particularly post the Millennium, that one has to create a system of breeding big budgerigars along with all the other desirable exhibition features.

A big budgerigar will always beat a smaller one given other similar character features when judged.

The old phrase is that you are better trying to breed “rats” by comparison to “mice”.

Some fanciers will only buy the bigger-framed birds and there is a lot of merit in that, but that said the value of a bird is primarily related to the qualities of the head overall from the base of the mask upward.

It is no use having a big bird with very poor head features.

Breeders generally, in my experience, develop their own techniques and believe they have found a “secret” to do well and breed birds of quality year in, year out.

It has been known that some who have struck lucky and bred a nest from some outcrosses, that turn out to be really outstanding, describe themselves as geniuses as livestock breeders – that is until a few more seasons have past and the full realisation that they are no such thing brings them crashing down.

We are all “playing” with different systems, inbreeding, outcrossing and so on, in the hope that super winners emerge. Great when one does, but sustaining it, is, dare I say it, “The Challenge”.

Establishing a strong feeding system has to be coupled with your breeding system. this. One cannot succeed without the other.

Selective Breeding

Selective breeding has resulted in the development of the budgerigar from the 1840′s to what we see on the bench today in certain colour forms.

This is mainly in the grey, grey greens, light greens and skyblues as a generalisation.

In photographs seen on websites, as well as in books and magazines, we can see a super quality bird, but cannot assess its size overall. It may look a wonder bird but may be very much a medium sized bird.

An analogy is that you cannot gauge how big or small a person is on TV. Nobody realises, for instance, how big was Les Martin’s Best in Show at the UK Budgerigar Society – both as a breeder in 2009 and as an adult in 2010.

My own Grey Green cock BA23 43 86, which won against a field of 4500 entries was very similar in size, but not with the directional feather that has developed in the past 7-8 years. To achieve such size, or power, as I prefer to call it, one has to have a perfect feeding system that works. Without it you are sunk as you can breed that potential super bird, but if it is badly fed it simply falls back into the pack.

To Beginners & Novices

The finest advice, especially to the beginner, is to do next to nothing in the first year once you have decided that this is the hobby for you.

Why? Simply because you have not the experience to design the right aviary and buy the right stock to start with immediately.

A year can be a long time when you are keen to get going, but believe me by reading, listening to lectures, going round as many aviaries as you can and developing the “eye” for quality and the prices for quality birds, this approach will give you a head start and save you a great deal of unnecessary expense in the long term.

Learn the basics first. It is a technique that you have to learn and where assessing quality on a budgerigar is concerned, some never learn it. Many so called judges prove that from time to time.

When you have done your apprenticeship, buy big birds if you can, but be wary of buying hens that are not only big but thick around the vent area – this is usually a sign of previous attempts to breed with them. They can be trouble.

All breeders should have a pedigree system. Amazingly very few fanciers ask for a pedigree and certainly sellers don’t offer them unless asked, because they can take up a great deal of time to complete unless they have a computerised system that can faithfully be completed all the time.

Better to start a system from the beginning and insist on obtaining a pedigree, even if only two generations back. If you do not have a system you cannot know what you are doing and neither can any subsequent buyer have any confidence in purchasing stock from you.

The Feeding Book

All fanciers should have a “Feeding Book”. You have to record your feeding system down to the minutest details. If you have a poor season you can look back at how your stud was fed in the previous season and conversely if you have a super season, you again look back and stick to that technique.

If you have a copy of “The Challenge” and you are in trouble, may I recommend the two chapters on “Feeding” to you.

At first glance they look complex, but study them in depth and you should be able to see what your diet lacks or where you have force fed too many vitamins and other faults. It’s all there if you take the time and trouble to digest the contents to achieve better and final good results.

One easily created fault is that it is so easy to forget buying this or that product that is part of your system and it is only when you look at your Feeding Record book that it reveals the mistake(s).

Lastly, record any changes that you make in the diet when you do them – not later as they get forgotten.

Feeding Technique Advice

If you are a raw beginner, you will have been around aviaries in that first year and listened to the feeding advice from very experienced breeders who have been breeding budgerigars for years.

Do not necessarily expect all of them to reveal everything they do!

Some may leave out an item which is a “key” factor in their technique. Others will be fully open.

The breeders you are looking for are those who have, say, 40 pairs of cages which are nearly full of chicks, year in year out.

Now here is the important point. Keep your eyes wide open. Look at exactly what is being fed in each cage and also what has been consumed and look for the leftovers that are still in evidence. What minerals and vitamins are going in, both in solid and solution via the drinkers? What packets are on display and what bottles are present?

The seed mixtures everyone looks at as though that is the main clue. Unfortunately it is only part of the whole input and frankly I feel that, provided you have a high percentage of canary seed, which has the highest protein content, all the other conventional seeds we use are just the fillers to the diet – but they have to be there.

Reproduction – what you put in you get out

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Are your birds looking as though they are active and keen to breed?
2. Are you hens calm and relaxed and good incubators?
3. Do some hens scream their head off when you open the boxes and scatter the eggs? If so make a note to not use them again.
4. Is feather plucking a problem indicating the hens are nervous?
5. Do the hens emerge from the boxes when slightly disturbed or not?
6. Is the fertility good or spasmodic? Are the cocks too young and lacking experience?
7. Are the hens basically all feeding well apart from the odd pair that produce scrawny retarded chicks that eventually die?

Such questions are limitless, but are all basically geared to: “what am I doing wrong?”

In 99 per cent of cases it is your husbandry and lack of attention that is at fault. You are the provider and in full charge of your livestock. If you are not prepared to put in the effort – why bother being in the hobby at all?

If things go wrong, it’s your fault, not the birds – apart from the standard irritations they dish out in this or that nest.

I have personally made many mistakes over the years and have tried to learn in the process, but when I make the same error twice, I really get angry with myself!

Check the Temperature

When your birds are breeding in the Northern hemisphere a temperature setting should be 10 degrees Centigrade (50 degrees Fahrenheit) from experience.

Lower than that and eggs get chilled very quickly when a hen is off the eggs for any reason for a period. It takes time for them to excrete, mate and fill up their crops and addled eggs can appear later on quite easily.

In warmer countries, breeding is far easier, as Reinhard Molkentin in South Africa confirms having previously experienced breeding in Germany.

Of course heating charges get worse year by year and you can run up big bills, but you have to balance your affordability against the results you are getting.

In conclusion, remember that the first round chicks are not always fed as well with the rich crop milk required – especially from young hens. Their crop milk does not flow as well until the second or subsequent rounds when the chicks are much fuller in the hand when still in the nest at four or five weeks of age.

It is these latter rounds that are frequently the rounds that produce those “Rat Sized” birds!

One of these in the hand gives great pleasure and makes the efforts and overhead expenses worthwhile.

Happy Breeding!

The classic example is easily seen by judges who do exactly that, which can cause problems especially if they are not accustomed to breeding a new advancement of this or that feature.

During the past 8 years, such a feature has become highly desirable. This is a change in the way the feathers grow from their follicles in a different direction in the head region.

It is understandably called “Directional Feathering” and is now perhaps the most wanted feature by most breeders around the world.

The high-headed narrow-faced budgerigar is a matter for the past and there is little doubt that those great breeders, who have regrettably passed on, would be amazed at the strides that have been made with feather length and direction in such a short space of time.

How to Breed with Directional Feathering

If you want to breed a stud that is prepotent (i.e. every bird possesses the genetic background to consistently breed a specific feature to whatever it is paired), then each bird you use to begin with has to exhibit that visible feature.

You may have to buy it in to start with and then work hard to spread it across the stud.

It should be emphasised that the result of directional feathering is when the bird is examined from head on. The line that is created with the feathers either side of the beak, begins low down and sweeps up and around the cere before dropping down on the opposite side.

Gerald Binks called this line “The Buffalo Effect” in 2004 when accidentally pencilling the feathering line, just described, on a photograph and it jumped out at him that the line duplicated the horns of the water buffalo.

The phrase is now part of budgerigar terminology.

It is important to remember, that to start with, it is the direction of the feathers of the pairs selected that is vital. Their length is not so vital to begin with. That will follow. Once you have the direction fixed you are on your way.

Conclusion

There are dangers to be mentioned.

In the process of developing our “buffalo faces”, we have to be aware that the body feathers are also lengthened.

These may result in a very untidy and loose feather appearance to the rest of the body and indeed the face.

So here is the next challenge! How do we achieve the quality “Buffalo Effect” at the “top end”, but at the same time retain type and stance with the feathers clear of the perch, in conjunction with the overall length of the exhibit?

It is entirely possible that the directional feathering can be overdone to the detriment of bird(s) in question, so that to be perfectly factual you end up with what can only be described as an ugly specimen and hardly worth the name of a “budgerigar”.

We as fanciers have to tread a very fine line as we improve, so watch the type as you strive for width and “Buffalos”.

Success is the opposite of failure. The former can only be realised when we breed many Best in Show Winners.

Examples of Directional Feathering

To view examples, please click on the images below.

Generally these are harmful and are the result of a pair of genes which have become altered from different effects so that the genes have changed.

These could be deformities such as by overdosing from radiation, but in our cases the classic mutations concern colour changes and the Feather Dusters.

The Blackface

In the 1990′s in The Netherlands, I saw a few strange birds in the stud of a Mr Van Dijk.

They had black faces and he had named them as such.

They were very fertile and the parents were split for blackface. For beginners, split means they were carrying the blackface feature, but not visibly.

I noticed that many of these split blackfaces were recessive pieds.

Naturally, I asked if I could buy a few, but this was refused even though they were very small birds and badly confined into cages that prevented them flying properly.

On my return home, it crossed my mind what would happen if any disease were to affect these birds?

Regrettably this is what did happen and all were to die. I wrote to Mr Van Dijk, but he did not reply.

What I did know was the genetic background was recessive. He had started with two blue blackface cocks that he spotted in a market stall which he bought immediately. He paired them to two normal grey hens which resulted in chicks that were all greys and blues in appearance.

The following breeding season the next round of breeding revealed all normals again but with black faces and striped bodies.

Sadly this line was lost, never to re-appear.

Today, I wish I could have had a few with which to experiment and take further, but it was not to be.

Please click on an image to enlarge it.

 

Blackface

Blackface

 

The Misty

A few years ago fanciers began to discuss a new mutation that had appeared in one aviary. I contacted the breeder, but he was unable to give me any accurate details about these birds and their genetic background from his “records”.

However, he did give me some photographs. Looking at them, it was difficult at first to understand what we were dealing with? Was it a mutation or not?

The fancier concerned was a Mr De Geest, so I bought a few of these birds this time to test breed with them.

Basically these birds possessed a 25% colour reduction on their feathering, so they were named “Mistys” from the start. This terminology is already used in some species of parrots.

I established that the Misty mutation is what is called an “incomplete-dominant factor” and shows itself in single and double factor forms.

It is difficult to see the difference between the single factor Mistys and the normal birds, but the cheek patch of the Misty variety is far darker.

Combined with cinnamon, the legs are also darker from a normal cinnamon. In the case of the Double Factor Misty, the body colour also lightens.

In conclusion, I believe that only the Double Factor Misty would be considered for the show bench – as we do with the Anthracite Budgerigars (also a mutation).

From the wing photograph below (click to enlarge it), we can see clearly the difference between a Misty Skyblue (left) and a Normal Skyblue (right). The wing feathers are darker in the Normal variety.

In the other photographs, we can see the differences between the Normal, Single Factor and Double Factor Misty examples. Such Misty birds can be paired in all colours but it is not advised that the cinnamon factor is involved.

Blue Misty

Dominant Pied Grey Misty

A normal Blue (left) with 3 Blue Misty DF (right)

Misty Pairings

SF = Single Factor; DF = Double Factor

1. Misty SF x Normal = 50% Normal + 50% Misty
2. Misty SF x Misty SF = 25% Normal + 50% SF + 25% DF
3. Misty DF x Normal = 100% Misty SF
4. Misty DF x Misty SF = 50% Misty SF + 50% DF
5. Misty DF x Misty DF =100% Misty DF

Why is only the top end of the bird(s) displayed in budgerigar photographs?

As I was the founder and editor of Budgerigar World Magazine, I perhaps was also “guilty” of doing exactly the same as many other photographers in concentrating on the bird(s) from the perch upward, but I had my views at the time which I will come to later.

Mick Freakley. leading breeder and official Budgerigar Society photographer, kindly supplies me with a great many photographs, so I decided to request him to answer this good question on behalf of Budgerigar.co.uk .

The Freakly Point of View

Below are four pairs of images to illustrate why, in my opinion, the camera concentrates on the top end of birds for public viewing.

Four are full length and four are cropped for comparison purposes.

As far as I am concerned, any full length image lacks impact.

The Grey Green cock featured here is the Best in Show bird from the 2010 Budgerigar Society Club Show – shown by Les Martin of Studham in Bedfordshire. A bird in the super class.

In the full length view you can clearly see the two tails are present. If it did not have these in the first place you would not be looking at the major part of the bird.

My personal choice is to see all birds from the perch upward in a photograph.

I did a series of full length photographs at the request of the UK Budgerigar Society for them to consider their possible use in their magazine. This followed a complaint that only “cropped ” images were being used all the time.

Obviously all judges will have penalised any suggestion of a dipped tail or a badly hinged tail while judging, so as winners are always the subject of published photographs, it can be accepted that the tail is / was right and in line with the body axis at the time.

The other three birds featured in this article clearly illustrate my point.

Please click on an image to enlarge it.

Summary by Gerald Binks

I have to say I am in full agreement with Mick.

Anyone can breed a body, whether big or small, but it is the detail in the head and top end that is essential to be pictured in all photographs.

That said, when I was the editor and photographer of Budgerigar World magazine, I began the series of featuring, say, four birds to a page and either judging them myself or inviting other judges to do the same: pointing out the good points and bad points on each bird – and, on occasion, complete with tails!

This feature was very popular with beginners and novices, so I propose to introduce it on this website at a later date.