From: Bill Gillen, Australia

Hi Gerald,

Page 78 of your book “Best In Show” lists purified yeast powder.

I’ve asked all over Australia about it – but to no avail.

A company in Luton (UK) advertise it – 1kg for 398.80 UK pounds – is this the yeast you speak about in your book, or, is there another type of yeast powder (that is not so expensive)?

I have had the worst 2 years breeding ever and I now wish to try cold liver oil and yeast as recommended by you.

Gerald responds:

Dear Mr Gillen,

You are safe to obtain Brewers Yeast from any source.

You may find that health shops are the places to visit – you will get small quantities from there, or an enquiry at your pharmacy may bear fruit.

However, do remember that “Best in Show” was written by myself in 1974 and I would strongly advise you obtain “The Challenge” from me first so that all that you read is fully up to date.

That is not a sales pitch – just a sensible recommendation.

I still give cod liver oil, but not yeast these days!

Gerald S Binks

As most established readers will be aware, I have been in this hobby for 65 years from the age of 12.

In my own area of operations I doubt if there are many who have devoted themselves so much to trying to bring the hobby into the 21st Century, as much as myself. The great difficulty was surmounting the politics of less than 10 others (in my case) who chose to undermine anyone who dared to try. They possessed an ostrich like mentality that wanted to adopt the policy of “We have always done it this way”.

But of course they got the results they have always had and the hobby is where it is today – shrinking! They refused to accept change where change was and still is screaming at the hobby to be effected. Where is the marketing of the hobby? It is totally useless preaching how good the hobby is to ourselves when the public at large know nothing of our existance.

Let me give you an up to date example which I have written about before in other publications.

Take the Budgerigar Society World Championship, for example. Outside the Dome (in Doncaster) is a massive branch of ASDA. There is not even a tiny notice saying this great show is taking place, yet there are hundreds of cars with families inside the zone passing that point. So they don’t even know they could take their families inside a big show and perhaps lead their children into a hobby that could keep them off the streets and enjoy something of what essentially would become their own personal interest.

Inside the hall, I would delegate experienced fanciers to be introduced to them to explain what the hobby is all about and what a challenge it is. It would also be promoted around the local papers – all of them! It would be promoted on local radio and even TV – but where is the attack on this area? Basically nowhere.

This is not an attack at all on the Budgerigar Society. Today all nice guys, but all looking inward instead of outward. At my age it doesn’t matter to me personally, but I sometimes cringe at what might have been today if I had been fully backed in the mid 1980s. I have mentioned this item for several years now to the Budgerigar Society – but still nothing is done. It is the first thing I do when I drive in to the Dome area – look for the show promotion.

The same applies to all shows. In the south, I see exactly the same. Nobody is delegated to take a grip and given a free range to take action. It really is a great shame after so much effort goes into the show build up by the hard working officials, whom I always greatly appreciate having run the massive Budgerigar World shows on a personal basis.

To Budgerigars

To quote my great Scottish friend Jim Moffat who sadly is no longer with us, “I am still as keen as ever on quality budgerigars”.

In recent years since stepping aside as the Budgerigar World editor and writing “The Challenge”, I have attacked the birds like crazy and have been prepared to travel anywhere, even long distances of 6000 miles, to get what I want in terms of outcrosses.

Some folk have said I am expensive but in what I term the REAL purchasing outcross world, I am not in the same class. lf you have not travelled around much you would not realise what is being charged for what essentially are visually beginner / novice type birds.

You have to use your head, go alone or at most with one friend ideally, and never in a coach! In a large group you are helpless and you can get carried away trying to buy from someone with a famous ring number or whatever after travelling a long way. So be advised. Within numbers you cannot negotiate. Remember that.

At Tanglewood

As everyone knows you cannot stand still in the hobby. From recent visits to two top shows in the south this year it is abundantly clear that apart from perhaps six birds at most, quality has plummeted on the bench and that is out of 500-700 benched.

There are a few breeders who have woken up that they have to attack quality now or give up. That is why I have attacked that myself and built up a great depth of quality so that breeders know they have a good chance of getting something to improve what they have at home. There are few aviaries around with the quality depth – perhaps only 10 in total in the UK.

Where the Moffat birds were concerned when I was gifted 50% of the stud by Jim and his family, there were some super cocks among them. They formed the basis of my red ring line today which has been taken to greater heights after working in new outcrosses. The hens at that earlier time were not quite as strong but still ideal to breed with. Jim was always looking for hens whenever we went anywhere. I wish he could see his line today. I wrote as much to his wife a short while ago saying as much – but it cannot be.

Moffat line aside, I was, and still am a grey green fanatic. The grey greens carry the size and quality so well that if you can win a big grey green class in the champion section, or intermediate section, you can go on to be a serious contender for Best in Show. So I bought in grey greens initially from Daniel Lütolf in Switzerland. I lost some which was a blow but pressed on until in 2005 I bought three young cocks which all did brilliantly and set the pattern for what I have today. They are all massive birds, great depth of mask and big spotted with 80% with round spots. Width across the cere level is excellent now and in my terminology “the buffao effect” is present in good numbers and increasing fast numerically.

Modestly he says “I am now in the position that I am uncertain where to go to bring in essential birds to prevent losing size and punch that is now fixed to avoid losing size, as happens, if you don’t outcross.”

Lütolf is a breeder who buys all over the place and produces super birds in the process and turns out massive big headed stock, which I find very interesting.

A Change of Style!

At this point the reader will begin to think “This is a different Gerald Binks to what I am used to. He’s boasting about his stud.”

I agree it is not my style at all but it arises from Robert Nawarauckas, persuading me to write about myself and my birds for the first time in my writing life.

I have never pushed or have ever been promoted in any UK magazine in this way, so allow me a bit of licence please for once in my latter years.

Two Points

Two matters to mention.

Firstly I no longer have any involvement or control over the Budgerigar World Magazine since I passed it over to Gwyn Evans at County Press in North Wales after the first 100 editions. I felt that I had to do so, both for being let down by the previous printer at a critical time, but mainly because I was feeling that I had come full circle with writing about the hobby and a fresh person should take over the editor’s role – which of course happened.

Secondly, I have not shown for many years, as is generally known. Why you ask? Well I became very disenchanted when on two occasions I was in competion at topmost national level to win Best In Show, BUT the establishment regarded me as Mr Budgerigar World and couldn’t swallow the thought of Mr Budgerigar World taking the top award and in one instance put up an awful old fashioned keyhole exhibit up instead. I couldn’t see the point after that of showing if certain folk were putting their personal vendetta politics in front of what was morally right.

Happily those few are no longer to be seen. Derrick Bowley and Mick Freeborn will verify this at any time, if asked. Both were disgusted and those involved never regained their credibility.

It is a fact that all who come here now will at some point start saying “Gerald you have to get these birds on the bench and get over the past”. So far it has not happened, but I have bought new Basil Thomas made show cages recently so I am perhaps weakening a bit. 2010 may see a difference?

The Challenge

In 2006 I was flattered to read that a signed first edition (in good condition) of “The Challenge” was advertised at £240. This was of course before the 2nd edition came out so I guess the demand value will be less for a first copy. The new edition created another 8 months work, but has already nearly sold out. I am not certain if I will produce a Third but time will tell.

There are two chapters in the book I would draw your attention to. These are the chapters on feeding. They are the most important chapters by far, as they are the clues to successful breeding. Two consecutive bad seasons and you are virtually dead in the water and may leave the hobby.

Why do I mention this? The reason is that I have continual e-mails and calls asking for help. When I ask “Have you read those chapters?” the answer is normally in the negative. Readers love to read and look at what they regard as the “juicy” bits, but don’t get down to feeding since they glance at them and feel they are a bit technical. They are not and are easy to understand in plain language. So if in trouble – get serious!

Scottish Fanciers are Travelling

These days I am pleased to say that some serious Scottish breeders have realised the quality here and are visiting annually. So far they have all been satisfied with results and recently I heard that a skyblue bred from a BA23 bird had won Best Breeder at a major show.

Reflecting on travelling a distance to buy new stock, what with fuel costs and B & B’s, I will sell, say 5-10 birds and buy one. I have done this all my birdlife having come from humble beginnings. I realised early on that it was useless buying within a distance of a 100 miles as all the stock was basically inbred as it was just circling around and it was only when I broke out of that mould that I made progress.

Today, I travel any distance to get what I want. I have just been to Germany again – a round trip of 1200 miles to obtain new birds. There are others like Roger Long, Les Martin and Brian Sweeting who do the same and it’s great fun and pleasure in seeing great birds around Europe and in my case also South Africa.

What is totally worthless is travelling in a big coach with 30 others and drawing lots as to who has the first choice on any birds available. You cannot get to personal grips with the breeder really well and it’s all a scramble. That is not the way to spend hard earned bird money. Another thing – what is the use of buying new outcrosses if your feeding system is at fault and is not reproducing numbers at home?

Tora ! Tora ! Tora !

You will all recall the film about the Pearl Harbour debacle during the second World War – “Tora ! Tora ! Tora !”. The title (effectively) meant “Attack, Attack, Attack”.

That is my attitude to this hobby and there are quite a few who do likewise – but not enough. So many just “drift” as I term it and the quality of the shows has dipped as well as numbers benched. Fanciers will only bench their best and if they feel thay have not bred the quality – the answer is obvious.

The BA23 Stud Quality

Unlike periodic fanciers who enter the hobby, have quick success and it goes to their heads, I prefer to let the birds do the talking.

This article is well illustrated. The birds can speak for themselves – you like them or you can fault them, as all birds have faults. The challenge is to reduce them to the minimum and that is the great pleasure of the hobby.

Enjoy – as they say.

Aviary Maintenance – External

Let me take this year as an example. It is November. In the last 6 weeks I have been working to get the aviary “winterised”. A very cold one by UK standards is forecast. So, having a cedarwood exterior, it needs treating every three years without fail. That has resulted in it still being as good today as it was when I purchased it in 1971. It would be massively expensive to replace as it covers 1200 square feet (110 sq metres).

The window frames need constant attention (I hate painting!) and the roof needs to be checked for leaks. Virginia Water is heavily wooded so leaves are a constant problem, hence the gutters must be checked too. Elbow grease is essential. What all this is about is not having to attend to problems that could arise in very bad weather. Dealing with a leaky roof in wet conditions is not funny and the disturbance to the breeding pairs also has to be anticipated.

Aviary Maintenance – Internal

Moving inside, I am fortunate to have bought my cage units from Reinhard Molkentin back in 1988. They are made of a composition of a plastic nature (very heavy) with a aluminium framework. They never need painting (I like that) and just need washing to bring them back to new. They are in many aviaries in Germany, Jo Mannes’s aviary being but one example. Expensive, but in long term well worth it.

All electrics are checked, especially the heating systems and thermostats. I used to have tubular heating but this was far too expensive to run and inefficient as the air was not circulated well. These days I use (Dimplex) fan heaters which work very well provided you are attentive to de-dusting them out regularly.

Nest Boxes

Coming to nest boxes, of which there are currently 56 in use (and being double boxes with one inside the other it means 112 really have to be cleaned), I use “VIRKON® S” a great deal. All are finally dipped into this solution and allowed to dry off. This appears to contribute to a maximum of 5 or 6 minor French Moult birds only, from approximately 300 bred per annum. They are affected very little and if stripped from flights and tails at 4 weeks, then recover fully.

Incubator

Some time ago, I bought an incubator. I use it to keep oversize plastic eggs warm at the same temperature as real eggs. When the first egg is laid, in goes a plastic one. Use of false eggs has the following advantages:

• They prevent those strong day old chicks being crushed before you can get to them if they have not been fed. Note: Weak chicks because of poor management techniques will not survive anyway.
• They can stop a pair smashing their own eggs – they get fed up trying to break a plastic egg.
• They retain heat while in contact with eggs that have been left for too long thus saving the developing embryos.

Increasing Fertility

I am often asked what I do to prepare for increasing the fertility in my stud. Here are several thoughts for you.

• Make sure you have a round-the-year source of vitamins A & D – in moderation. Overdo it and you will be in trouble, as both are stored in the liver and not excreted.
• I use a powder product called Hormova. It again is present in the flights and cages all the time.
• A certain “X” factor which you can buy in specialist horse tack and feeding shops – but that is up to you to think out and track down. Sorry, but we all have our little secrets!
• Never give massive doses of antibiotics across the board with the exception of treating accurately against “yellow belly” in tiny chicks before breeding and the same again when breeding stops. This practice also improves fertility in my experience. I only treat a health condition which is preventative. If you start playing around with growth promotion then you risk ruining the whole stud – and it is banned anyway and rightly so.

Seed Mixtures

I now turn to the seed mixtures which we all use. I am after every chick I can get by every means possible. Seed that may have been harvested too early (and that applies to millets sometimes), is at risk of having micro fungi attached because of the dampness. Note: You can always test a bag of seed for ripeness by making a fist and plunging it down into the bag. If you meet resistance you know it is not fully ripened. Add any mites to the fungi, especially in millet sprays, and you have a recipe for loss of chicks. To kill off everything mentioned, use a super product from VETREPHARM (in Hampshire). This is put in the bottom of each bin before loading and fumes over 48 hours. The seed is unaffected and 100% safe to use.

Avian Flu

To conclude, a word about Avian Flu H5N1. Either keep the stock under cover or make certain that any indigenous wild visitors cannot excrete into the outside flights. As of November 2009, DEFRA has designated that the UK is free from any reports of Avian Flu. However fanciers should check the DEFRA website for any changes.

I am one of those breeders who believe in the old fashioned tried and tested methods of feeding. When it comes to feeding, it is THE vital factor to success. If it (the feeding) is out of balance by the smallest amount and by that I mean it is changed frequently and has an absence of essential vitamins to support the seed input, then failure will result in the number of chicks bred and FM will arise easily because YOU have allowed to do so!!

Let me suggest some points to you. Your seed is grown in different parts of the world. African sources are often grown in poorly fertilised land and harvested early so that it ripens during shipping. That means it lacks in particular vitamins A & D. These two are more vital than anything else in breeding budgerigars and if you have two bad seasons on the trot, you are virtually dead in the water. So, you have to supplement artificially. In my case my solution is to administer small amounts of cod liver oil to the seed all year (remember it is stored in the liver and is not excreted). That covers the situation. I also give a multivitamin solution and cytacon (obtainable from your chemist). Over and above those they get Hormova in finger drawers and in the flights all year. Another old product – that works superbly. With this system plus grits being changed every week, and cuttle the only other additions are soaked seeds and biovit soft food. That system breeds budgerigars. Only if I depart in any way from this routine do things go pear shaped. Where does the FM come in, I hear you say. Well here it is:

FM will appear certainly here at Tanglewood every year. Shocked are you? Ah, but let me qualify that. It appears right at the very end of the season with the odd chick that hasn’t been fed properly and no more than that. The final pairings are tired and they sense they have had enough, so feeding becomes a chore in a few nests. However it is never the sort of FM that, in addition to all flights dropping, the body is affected as well and the chick looks retarded. That I honestly say. What I do do, is to be very observant from May until I stop and I check all the flights and tails every day. lf I see a big headed chick around this time I also “play safe” and remove one tail feather. That is purely an insurance. If I find any flights affected at this time, the bird has every primary and secondary feather removed as well as the tail and I get the affected chick out on the cage floor immediately so that it starts to get better nutrition for the replacement feathers just removed. The new growth will be fine – provided your principal dietary input was super to start with!! You should have had a very good season by the time a few FM’s arrive at the very end. Let’s face it you can live with that by that time. Remember it is the longest feathers in the body that are affected starting with the tail. Big headed birds in the nest towards the end of the season are likely candidates (long feathers). Watch them very carefully.

FM is like the cold virus in behaviour. Like a cold it doesn’t last. Taking out the flights etc clears the follicles which allows new growth to get through. This proves that the “FM virus” is a passing matter. So far I haven’t found a better technique to overcome FM problems but I do miss out when I am on holiday should any arrive. With good management practices success will be the reward — but that brings me back to not telling the public what a great hobby this is.

To finish on a promotional note, if your editor will allow me, I have heard it said that because I don’t show today, I cannot have good quality stock. If you don’t know, the Moffat stud was willed to me and was combined with my winning grey greens that emanated from pair 16 in the mid eighties which won Best Breeder at the B S and Best in Show at BW in 1988. To that, I have added super quality stock at great expense from Jo Mannes, Reinhard Molkentin and another line which has just started last season. If you hear such comments, would you be kind enough to ask them a question? The question to be put is simple. “Have you been to Gerald Binks’ aviary and seen for yourself? ” A lot of Scots have already made the trip and take a vastly different view. Think about a visit next year.

My new website is now up and running which those with computers should find interesting as it includes among many headings my previous “Thoughts from Tanglewood” which seemed very popular when I wrote it in my magazine Budgerigar World. The web address is www.budgerigar.co.uk.

Finally, to all the Scottish societies and clubs, can I leave you with the suggestion you contact every local paper you can think of and promote the hobby as being one to get old and young alike interested in. People are getting fed up with watching a computer screen as well as TV. They want something more stimulating or as parents they want to get their growing children off the streets. Local papers will jump at the opportunity to fill their columns if they get articles about a “new” hobby people have not heard about. Remember I started at the age of 12. By 14 I was committed to the hobby and the satisfaction of ME breeding a GOOD one has never left me.

A common question put to me is “how do I achieve a good fertility so that I do not have two poor seasons that can easily put me out of the hobby?”. Firstly let me address a depressing scenario. Here we have the enthusiastic fancier who has, we can say, 20 breeding cages into which he can drop perhaps 30 pairings over a normal season. If he has small birds he may not have many fertility problems but with the larger big birds, especially hens, it becomes more difficult in at least 80% of the nests. It’s easy to breed with the “mice”, but not with the “rats”.

Our fancier may well be feeding a number of items over and above the standard seed mixtures along with water and some vitamins that he has heard about – but really doesn’t understand. In some cases he’s not really interested and this is very true as I have found that in my book “The Challenge” fanciers love to read the “juicy bits” but when it comes to the two most important chapters in the whole book – the ones on feeding – they gloss over them. They are the vital chapters because without taking them step by step and understanding what is required, then a failed breeding season is very likely. Next stage is depression and that can be followed by “exit stage left” from the hobby. Two consecutive seasons like this and it’s a certainty.

Here in UK is a classic case of one such fancier who approached me for help. He was just not breeding birds of any consequence. You may know him. He is Geoff Bowley who is a quality judge and whose father won Best in Show at our biggest event some years ago. His fertility was appalling. Geoff is but one of hundreds who have called me over time with just this problem. My reaction is immediately to request every single item that goes into the husbandry of the stud in a nutritional sense. I write them all down as they list them. I can then assess what is going wrong and I can say that 90 per cent of cases are solvable instantly. This is based on having studied nutrition in zoology at school added to all the mistakes that I have made myself in the hobby. In my case, and I appreciate that the UK feeding methods are unlike diets abroad, I was searching for a diet that would stand the test of time year in year out.

Searching for the perfect diet

After the 2nd World War in 1945 the UK hobby just survived with a few dedicated fanciers with relatives who were fighting being pressed to bring home seed in their kit bags whenever possible. Forget the kit – just get the seed!! The birds were terribly small but bigger than the wild variety. Head qualities were non-existent. By 1975 however the British had forged ahead with the massive improvement in head qualities including depth of mask, spot size, backskull, but until recently not width of face with directional feather.

So how did the UK, now joined by Europe, improve everything? The answer lay with two areas – Nutrition and Selection – and thinking what exactly could be ahead in time but not yet achieved. You had to know a budgerigar’s features to the millimetre to be able to do that. The credit for these forward-thinking stages goes to names such as Harry Bryan, Angela Moss, Frank Wait, Maurice Finey, Joe Collyer, Doug Sadler, Alf Ormerod and Margery Kirkby Mason to name but a few. Binks was around but no more than that. Progress depended, they all agreed, on nutrition and everyone had their own haphazard ideas. All sorts of vitamins and mineral salts were thrust into the birds. Everybody had a biscuit tin full of seed mixture to which was added 12 teaspoons of cod liver oil and then a product called Kilpatricks Pigeon Minerals was added. This contained a multiplicity of minerals but mainly salt and carbon. The tin was shaken and the blackened mixture was given after 24 hours. That was THE most successful post war diet and into the 1950’s that still existed, but it was dead easy to breed budgerigars by the bucket-load. I never forgot it but by the 1960’s new products entered the markets which looked better. After a while I realised that even though they looked good they were made by “chemists” who understood their chemistry but they didn’t know anything about budgerigars and what they really required to make them highly fertile and far bigger than their ancestors.

Now I come up to the year 2000 and beyond. Size, feather growth and directional feather is all the rage. Few fanciers have the latter and to obtain them requires a big dip in the pocket. For many years now I have gone back to basics with a high vitamin A & D inclusion in the diet and this is where the Geoff Bowley’s of the world go wrong. Their birds look fit when you see them, but the big birds of today demand this high dose to give them the vital energy to reproduce instead of just sitting there or laying infertile eggs. I personally still use cod liver oil but in a lesser quantity at two teaspoons to 12 pounds of seed. I also use the Kilpatricks Minerals and it has shown me how important minerals are over and above grits and cuttlefish bone. “Binks has, I suppose, bred a fistful again” is something I hear occasionally. So Geoff Bowley was given my diet in full. He applied it fully and after a few months on it his birds were put down to breed. The results were terrific and he wrote it up in a magazine. However two years later I heard he was doing badly again which I found astounding. When I found out the reason it was Geoff who said “I really couldn’t get on with the cod liver oil, so I dropped it”. I was staggered but it proved my point 100 per cent. Today I find that if your birds have the right diet balance there is little need to trim the vent area. Thick feather there doesn’t matter if the birds are bursting with energy.

The Importance of Grit

This is a subject that is a bit obscure to many fanciers especially when they read articles by a few veterinarians “that grit is not necessary”. I find this point of view bizarre. Nature has provided birds with a toughened muscular section of their digestive tract called the gizzard. It will only function given grit in both soluble and insoluble forms. E.G. Sharp granites and shell grits. No grits and the gizzard lining becomes ulcerated and breaks down and another distressed bird is found on the floor soon to die. Take shows for example. What is the first thing the birds go to on return home especially in your country where they are away from home for longish periods. You know they go immediately for the grit pots. The “grit not necessary brigade” is very wrong in my personal view for giving out such bad advice. Birds do not have teeth so that is replaced by a gizzard and its contents. No “teeth” no proper digestion and nutritional conversion.

Let me turn to the presence of grit in the aviary. Ask yourself, “How often do I top it up or replace it?” Chances are you just see the grit there and think the birds turn it over except that they do not! What they do is choose the particle they want from the top surface and the smaller particles are rejected and a dust accumulates. You will have seen this I feel sure but have you replaced it regularly enough. In flights it is so easy to overlook this important management practice. It also extends to every grit pot when the birds are breeding. They do the same and the bowl looks fine and full but the birdbrains only take the top layer. Remember the swallowed good grits are expelled once they are worn down in the gizzard and require replacing. If none is available then the chick rearing process is affected and dead or scrawny chicks may be the result. You are the sole provider for your stock. Any failing will be reflected in your breeding or health conditions. There is no substitute for quality husbandry.