As a direct result, it has been decided to discontinue the facility for taking payment via credit and debit cards with immediate effect.

All purchasers should therefore click on the advertisement for “The Challenge” on the home page, and follow the revised instructions for payments. Payments differ depending upon where the purchaser resides.

If, after reading the detailed instructions regarding purchasing, you have any queries, please contact Gerald directly and he will be happy to help.

Hyogo region of Japan

His first contact with budgerigars was while he was in junior-high school, when he was introduced to a hand tamed budgerigar named “Shiro” (Japanese for White).

This stimulated his interest in birds in general and he kept Love-birds, Cockatiels, Parakeets, Bengalese, Java sparrows, Zebra finches, Canaries etc.

English Budgerigars

While at college he discovered show-type Budgerigars, which were called “English Budgerigars” in Japan and this lead him into the hobby that he is passionate about today.

As Nobuyoshi says:

I started to breed English-type Show Budgerigars in 1978.

In those days, here in Japan, the studs of show-budgerigars were mainly from UK champion breeders – Roberts, Secombes, Ormerod, Moffat and Binks plus others.

In 1979, the first birds from Harry Bryan were introduced into Japan.

I was very interested in these quality birds and have bred the Bryan bloodline for almost 30 years.

However, as time went by, quality Harry Bryan birds were no longer available and so Nobuyoshi decided to breed Bryan bloodlines on a “closed colony” basis to intensify his stock.

Jo Mannes and Nobuyoshi Takenaka

Jo Mannes Budgerigars

More recently, Nobuyoshi has sought to get new blood to improve the quality of his birds and once again this has come from outside of Japan.

His search ended up with a meeting with Jo Mannes from Germany – and he has now visited Jo on four occasions: in February, April & August 2007, and September 2008.

During these visits he acquired a total of 60 quality birds.

Nobuyoshi says:

At the beginning of my search, I planned to introduce new blood into my Bryan bloodline.

However, following the visits to Jo Mannes and seeing real live birds from him, I decided it would take an enormous effort to rebuild my existing stud by crossing them with the Jo Mannes birds.

I tried to cross Bryan with Mannes in a few pairs, but they were not successful.

Nobuyoshi changed his plans and since 2008 has concentrated on building a stud of high class budgerigars based on 100% Jo Mannes bloodlines.

Nobuyoshi now keeps more than 200 Jo Mannes bloodline budgerigars in his birdroom.

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by Nobuyoshi Takenaka.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show 2011

A

B

C

D

E

2011 Baby (1)

2011 Baby (2)

2011 Baby (3)

2011 Baby (4)

2011 Baby (5)

2011 Baby (6)

2011 Baby (7)

Breeding Cages

Flights

Trophies

  ]]> http://www.budgerigar.co.uk/a-japanese-birdroom/feed/ 0 http://www.budgerigar.co.uk/uk-specialist-rare-variety-show-2012/ http://www.budgerigar.co.uk/uk-specialist-rare-variety-show-2012/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:57:47 +0000 Ghalib Al-Nasser http://www.budgerigar.co.uk/?p=6677 The 24th UK Specialist & Rare Variety Open Show will be held on 30th June & 1st July 2012.

Full details are shown below (click to enlarge).

Results and reports from previous shows (back to 2001) may be viewed at the end of this article.

UK Specialist & Rare Variety Open Show Reports

2001 to 2002 & 2004 to 2010 courtesy of Budgerigar World:

• 2001 Report (PDF 223Kb)
• 2002 Report (PDF 857Kb)
• 2004 Report (PDF 486Kb)
• 2005 Report (PDF 458Kb)
• 2006 Report (PDF 525Kb)
• 2007 Report (PDF 258Kb)
• 2008 Report (PDF 95Kb)
• 2009 Report (PDF 421Kb)
• 2010 Report (PDF 516Kb)

2011 Show report on Budgerigar.co.uk:

• 2011 Report

Votes were cast as follows (click to enlarge):

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)

The show was held in Oberwangen (3173), a few miles south west of Bern in the west of Switzerland.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Any Age – Daniel Lütolf
• Best Young Bird – Daniel Lütolf
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – Daniel Lütolf
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Bühler & Pearce

The full results can be viewed here.

Judges

The judges were:

• Jan van Meeteren, Holland (NGC-DBS)
• Han Schrijver, Holland (NGC-DBS)

Photographs

All photographs below were taken & kindly supplied to us by Marcel Bühler.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show
Daniel Lütolf

Best Opp. Sex Any Age
Daniel Lütolf

Best Young Bird
Daniel Lütolf

Best Opp. Sex Young Bird
Bühler & Pearce

These birds had a Yellow Face with no yellow in the cap.

The cap was white – in fact almost whiter than white if this could be so.

Kerle Faced Blue

On asking Kevin where these birds originated, he told me they were from Graeme Kerle of Townsville in Queensland.

In 2003, Graham produced the following from a Yellow Faced Opaline Cobalt hen (purchased at auction from Ernie Wise of New South Wales) and a Spangle Grey cock (non yellow faced, purchased from Robert Manvel also of New South Wales in one of his sale lots):

• 2 x Spangle Yellow Faced Sky cocks
• 1 x Spangle Yellow Faced Sky hen
• 1 x Spangle Sky cock

The Yellow Faced progeny were all visual “Seafoam” and were quite obviously different when viewed in the nest – the mask being yellow, the cap white and the body colour “Seafoam”.

Neither parent had any visual variations to what would be described as “normal” for their respective variety.

The initial resultant offspring from this pairing suggest that the Spangle was not a Double Factor Yellow face.

Seafoam Yellow Face

The term “Seafoam” was nominated by Jennie Liebich as soon as she sighted them.

The body colour in each resembled the colour of the sea, just below the foam of a breaking wave.

“Seafoam” does not reflect the mask and cap colouration, but the body colour only.

Realistically they could be called “Kerle Faced Blue” to reflect the origins – or “Seafoam Yellow Face” to embrace Jennie’s initial artistic interpretation.

Seafoam Pairings

The pairings at Graeme’s, resulted in nests averaging 70% visual “Seafoam” – with the non-visual still carrying the trait, as “Seafoams” were bred from these non-visual pairings.

Visual “Seafoams” to Normal Green series birds, resulted in visual Blue series (“non-Seafoam”), and Opaline Green hens. These paired back to Blue series (“non-visual Seafoam”), then gave a very high visual result in “Seafoam” of about 60% – this being Graeme’s assessment.

Jennie’s Pairings

When the first of these “Seafoam” birds were produced, Graeme, as I understand it, gave a couple to a backyard breeder not knowing what he had produced.

Kevin noticed some on a visit to Graeme’s and was fortunate enough to obtain some to breed with. Kevin then was kind enough to gift a couple to Jennie for her to work with.

The pair that arrived with Jennie back to Mount Gambier, were both visual “Seafoams” (one being Normal and the other a Spangle), and when these produced chicks she and I were overjoyed to see that a couple were “Seafoams”.

Regretably, these chicks did not seem to have a long life expectancy, thus a number of outcrosses occurred quickly, to try to ensure that the strain remained.

Note that Graeme did not have the same issue – it may have been that the birds that arrived at Mount Gambier were a little close.

On pairing non-visual to visual, there are now a couple of “out crossed” visual birds to work with.

There are others that have been paired to non-visuals with no resultant visuals as yet – thus more “proofing” will be required to fully ascertain breeding possibilities.

Further Birds

Graham and Kevin have sent down some further birds (“non-visual”) that have produced this new variety for them. Jennie and I cannot thank these two gentlemen enough for giving us the opportunity to work with these and the previous pair of birds.

One interesting occurrence, is that we now have a Green with a Yellow Mask and White cap – produced from two blues!

Sharing the News

This information is being released in order to share this new mutation with others – and to also see if changes are occurring elsewhere in the world of a similar nature.

It is a bit premature to determine the breeding habits of this variety, noting that it is Dominant but other surprises might present.

I believe the Spangle has something to do with this mutation – other aviaries that I have visited recently have changes occurring, and all of these go back to the Spangle parentage.

It is also interesting, as Roy Aplin (of the United Kingdom) painted birds similar to these some years ago – predicting such a change might occur.

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by Nigel Tonkin.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

"Seafoam" Opaline Light Green
front view

"Seafoam" Opaline Light Green
back view

"Seafoam" opaline baby
stage 1

"Seafoam" opaline baby
stage 2

"Seafoam" opaline baby
stage 3

"Seafoam" dam

"Seafoam" - Primary, Secondary
and Tertiary Tail Feathers
and Upper Tail Coverts

Buckton’s Sponsorship Ceases

It is with regret that the sponsorship with Bucktons will cease as from end of April.

This sponsorship deal, going back to 2000, has been fruitful to the Budgerigar Society as well as its members.

The Society has purchased pop-up banners to pass on to its General Council members to take to shows, together with question boxes to promote the Society and consult the general membership.

Long Service Awards

National Council for Aviculture (NCA) Long Service Badges were awarded to:

• Gold (25 years service)
  • Roger Carr
  • Bob Francis
  • Dave Herring
• Silver (20 years service)
  • Ghalib Al-Nasser
  • Gren Norris
  • Dave Whittaker
• Bronze (15 years service)
  • Janice Al-Nasser
  • George Booth
  • Grant Findlay
  • Donald McCallum
  • Alex Woan

Roger Carr was also installed on the NCA Roll of Honour for his long and outstanding services to the fancy.

UK Breeders at World Show

Four UK budgerigar fanciers recently entered their birds at the World Show in Spain.

Geoff Capes & Roger Carr won Gold Medals and Roy Aplin won a Silver & two Bronze medals.

Birds in Team Classes to be included in Benched Figures

After receiving correspondence from Land O’Burns BS, it was agreed that correctly entered birds in team classes will count towards the benched figure at shows.

This means that the number of birds rather than the number of teams will count towards the final benched figures.

All paper work related to patronage returns have been amended to take this into consideration.

Anthracite Variety Recognised / Rare Varieties Class Changes

The Rare Variety & Colour BS submitted a request to recognise the Anthracite variety, having met all the criteria for recognition of a new mutation, and also a Colour Standard for the variety.

They also requested that the variety to be exhibited in the Rare Variety classes.

The Council accepted both recommendations and decided that, to give the varieties grouped in the Rare Variety classes a chance of competing on an equal footing, the Clearbody variety (both Texas & Easley) will now be exhibited in the Any Other Classes.

All these changes to take immediate effect.

Biosecurity & Cleaning Changes

Some amendments were made to the Biosecurity Guidelines so that cage covers can now be removed inside the hall at a designated area before checking in and checking out.

Both the top and slope of the show cages now need to be cleaned.

It was also agreed that designated treated areas of the floor may be used as well if necessary.

Judges Panel Changes

Both Miranda Humphreys & Graham Turner were admitted to the Subsidiary Judges Panel.

The following were admitted to the Retired Judges Panel:

• John Grubb
• Horace Holland
• Robert McLean
• John Mason
• Frank Punchard
• Les Stanley

The following were removed from the Judges Panel either for failure to pay subscription or failure to complete the Judges Return Form:

• Duncan Folley
• Steve Speed
• Rodney Harris

Both John Bowie & Derek Hardie resigned from the Judges Panel.

The Budgerigar

All members of the society receive a full colour magazine (“The Budgerigar”) which is published bi-monthly.

The March issue of “The Budgerigar” has been sent to all paid up members containing the ballot forms to elect the new General Council from 20 candidates.

There are also nine resolutions put forward for members to vote on.

BS 2012 Spring Event & AGM

Plans are well ahead with the next Spring Event to be held on 11th – 13th May 2012 at Seaton Burn within the Northern BS area.

The speakers are:

• Gerd Bleicher (Germany)
• Carlos Ramôa (Portugal)
• Ghalib & Janice Al-Nasser (Guidelines)

The judges booked are:

• Dave Cottrell
• Terry & Linda Jukes
• Ron Pearce
• Fred Wright

The format will be similar to the event held in Woking last spring.

The Society’s AGM will be held on Saturday 12th May.

BS Club Show 2012

The Club Show this year is going back to its old date on 17th & 18th November.

The committee accepted a trophy donated by Joe Nevin for Best Yellowface Any Age and have also decided to accept birds on the Saturday morning as well as on Friday.

Judges booked for this year are:

• Maurice Roberts (President)
• Ian Clarke (Trainee Judge of the Year)
• Marcel Buhler & Carlos Ramôa (overseas judges)
• Linda Jukes
• Robert Ellis
• Pete Hutchinson
• Dave Wall
• Kevin Shillings
• Dave Guppy
• Adrian Terheege
• Ron Pearce
• Phil Reaney
• Colin Parsons

Section judges will be:

• Bob McCabe
• Doug Pringle
• Geoff Tuplin
• Clifton Wixon

Dr. Marcellus Bürkle, a specialist bird vet from Germany, will be the speaker at the morning seminar.

Judges for 2013 were also nominated and selected.

The exhibitor’s package of free entry to the show on Sunday for benching 15 or more birds (excluding sales) will still be in operation. First time exhibitors at the Club Show will be given a voucher for a free catalogue when checking in their birds.

Subscriptions

The 2012 subscription fees are:

• Single – £25
• Partnership same address – £37.50
• Senior member & OAP – £20
• Junior – £16.25

The veterinary diagnostic service fee is £10 per annum.

More information can be obtained from the society’s website (www.budgerigarsociety.com) or by contacting the Budgerigar Society office.

The show took place in the Bernie Mullane Sports Complex in Kellyville – a northern suburb of Sydney, Australia.

410 birds were benched from 46 exhibitors.

Results

The major results were as follows:

• Best in Show & Best Any Age – I Hanington
• Best Young Bird – A & C Druery
• Best Any Age Opposite Sex – A & C Druery
• Best Young Bird Opposite Sex – Welshman Family

The full results can be viewed here.

Judges

The judges were:

• Terry Bevan
• Craig Buckingham
• Andrew Plunket
• Allan Reid

Photographs

All photographs below were taken by Nola Bradford & kindly supplied to us by Santo Calabrese.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Best in Show

Jean Painter & Ian Hanington

Jean Painter & Alan Druery

Jean Painter & Ray Welshman

Judges in action

Show Manager, Kathy Manton and
Assistant Show Manager,
James Matthews

The opinion on how best to breed them was interesting, but at times a bit heated

Why is it that breeders of these varieties are so guarded about so-called breeding rules?

Why is it that certain colours should not be used?

Yes, varieties such as clearwings or grey wings should not be paired to either opaline or cinnamon, but it doesn’t stop there – next it is colours like grey and grey-green that are regarded as bad pairings – why?

Wouldn’t the overall quality of the offspring get an increase in both size and quality?

You could always pair back into mainstream colours to re-introduce contrast. Would a judge have the courage to reward a quality clearwing if it was grey or grey-green? I would hope so, but we all know this would not happen. Imagine the flack from such a decision!

UK & Australian Versions

So how do you improve the clearwing variety?

How many dark factor birds of great quality are available? Not many, so by sticking to the rules means slow going, plenty of waste and possibly plenty of frustration.

So why not use the grey factor to your advantage? You can always breed the colour back out when the quality improves.

Let’s move on with this further. The UK versions suffer greatly from muddy wings, but do have great development in quality. Here in Australia the opposite is true – clear wings but generally poor quality! So many look small, narrow – even “mean looking” at times, they certainly look out of place on the show bench.

Ideal First, Variety Second

How do we fix this problem?

I think the standard is the fault.

Now please, you clearwing breeders don’t jump on me here, but is it wrong to be putting the bird’s markings high above it – conforming to the ideal of what an exhibition bird should look like?

Why does the grey or grey-green have to look as close to the ideal as possible then its faults will be the deciding factor in regards to winning any awards?

So on this basis why should any other variety be subject to any other system than this?

I firmly believe that any variety regardless, should conform as close as possible to the ideal first, then variety content second, and this is how all should be judged – not the reverse as is the case with many varieties.

However, it has to be said, no variety will improve until it is bred with quality first. Yes, some will always suffer from quality regression, but, without doing it this way first, they will never stand a chance to truly improve.

The Spangle Example

Let’s take the spangle.

Most of the purists advocate to breed with only those that have perfect wing markings and true bullseye spots. Under this idea we wouldn’t see too many good ones on the show bench.

Let’s face it, it will be very hard to maintain quality with perfect variety content. I do not advocate ignoring the variety markings, but it needs to be in balance – quality first, variety second.

Spangles suffered badly from indiscriminate pairing (as has been the case with opaline), so are they capable of breeding true to type anyway?

Take the black-eye yellow, many of the very best struggle to remain clear of markings. Many that win could be disputed on the question of: are they black-eyes or poorly marked suffused dilutes?

The problem here is the questionable birds are far superior in quality, another case of quality first, variety second, the way it should be.

Quality First – More Examples

I don’t profess to be an expert, but the only way forward is to use quality stock regardless of colour and then use splits from these to improve the size and quality of your variety of choice, it should never be the other way round.

I am very happy to use any colour to improve my clearwings – as I do with my dilutes. There is much to be gained from grey-greens, they are easy to buy and their feather type is so valuable.

I would like to briefly touch on Ian Hannington’s fallows.

They have breathtaking size, quality, deportment and variety content. These birds are eagerly sought-after – using top quality stock paid dividends.

Another example here is Wayne Cusack. He is well known for his success with the black-eye self (four times national champion), and his birds are again highly sought-after.

His birds maintain size and quality, then variety – his hens are as big and as good as some normals. His dedication and commitment to using quality birds paid off.

Breaking the Rules

I think you have to be a very dedicated breeder to have a go at many of the specialist varieties, as it slow going.

However, you should never limit yourself and your variety’s improvement with all sorts of restricting rules.

I break many rules with my stud – all you have to do is to keep very good records and you will never look back.

There is much to gain from looking outside of the circle, don’t weigh yourself down with rules. The primary objective is – pair your birds with quality.

Photographs

All the colour photographs below were sourced from The Challenge.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

English White-wing

English Yellow-wing

Australian Yellow-wing

Australian White-wing

Superb head quality