By far the greatest wealth of knowledge in this hobby is stored in the minds of our senior breeders and exhibitors who have been doing this year in, year out, often for 30, 40, 50 years or more. These folks have enough knowledge stored away to write a multitude of books on our favorite subject but the problem is, with a few notable exceptions, most of them are quiet unassuming people who only share their knowledge one-on-one when they really get to know you.

Too often we see folks who have only been in the hobby a few years setting themselves up as authorities only to lead many folks who follow their lead down a path of disappointment and frustration.

Your challenge, if you really want to learn the hobby, is to seek out one or more of these “old time” fountains of information and use them as your mentors, and in the process act like a sponge to soak up as many of these gems of knowledge as you can.

I count myself extremely lucky that in the 50 plus years since I started keeping budgies there have been several outstanding guys who were my mentors to help guide me along the way.

Bill Petzke

I grew up in a family in Victoria, Australia where my grandmother and several uncles bred and exhibited budgies. Bill Petzke, my favorite uncle, was my first real mentor. As a youngster I loved spending school holidays at Uncle Bill’s farm because we ended up in his aviary for hours every day.

Bill was the one who instilled in me a real love for the budgerigar and a fascination for all the varieties and colors they could produce.

He was the first to teach me that, while we are trying to develop a bird that is physically far removed from the wild budgie, if we followed nature as closely as possible they would breed successfully and in numbers, This is the basis for many practices I still use today.

While many breeders set up their birds to ring / band for the early shows, Bill set up his birds throughout the year when the birds showed they were ready. I remember him pointing out signs the hens and cocks would exhibit when they were ready to breed. The cocks rapping their beaks on a perch, dilating pupils, and fighting other cocks that came near them. The hens laying flat on the perch, vibrating their wings, gnawing everything in sight, and calling to the cocks.

Bill experimented with different styles of nest boxes, always trying to come as close as possible to the holes the wild birds used. They were all shapes and sizes but had several things in common. They all had one large entry hole and no vent holes for extra air, just like a knot hole in a tree or rotten log. He sprayed the inside walls of the nest and placed soaked blotting paper under the nest concave block to keep humidity as high as possible “just like in that rotten log” as he would often say.

He also fed a much wider variety of feed than was common in those times. The regular seed mix was the staple diet, but he also fed plenty of seeding grasses, willow and eucalyptus branches, fruit and vegetables, and dishes of supplements that were used for growing calves, pigs and chickens he had on the farm. Although his birds lacked the head qualities we see today, I still recall his birds were frequently much larger than others we saw on the show bench, possibly as a result of the supplements he was feeding.

Frank Gardner

Frank Gardner, Melbourne, Australia was the leading “Budgie Man” of the era in the years after I graduated from college and started up with budgerigars again. My father, who did not know one end of a budgie from another, bought my first pair of budgies from Frank in 1959 while off on a business trip. At the time Dad had no idea who Frank was or what he was buying, but that Skyblue cock and Cinnamon Mauve hen produced several nests of cobalts that won awards at shows and got me hooked on the exhibition side of the hobby.

It was years later, after I had finished college, that Dad went with me to visit Frank and we finally learned where my first pair came from. The lesson from that experience…”You can be lucky and produce winners even if you don’t know where they came from or what you are doing”.

Frank was the first to explain the concept of line breeding within families to improve the overall quality of your stock.

He was also a stickler for sticking as close as possible to nature when it came to nest boxes and when to breed. He would frequently remind me that in nature the birds breed in spring and autumn (Fall) and after heavy rains when they know there will be plenty of feed for the chicks.

Above all else Frank instilled in me that breeding budgerigars is not a race. It is a journey that requires knowledge, patience and a little luck. I can still hear him say:

“If you buy these two birds and pair them together, and next year do this, the following year do that… In 3 or 4 years with a little luck you will be in the cards (winning) at the local shows.”

Note: In 3 or 4 years… if you are lucky! We need someone like Frank to mentor the beginners today. So many today go out, buy a few good pairs, throw them together, and expect to produce birds that win the following year. With a LOT of luck you may, but it will be the exception to the rule. It takes years to develop a line of winning birds no matter what you can afford to start with.

Eric Monks

Eric Monks of Lower Hutt was retired by the time I moved to New Zealand in 1974 and spent most of each day with his budgies.

Eric’s first love was the Cinnamon Opaline and he worked hard to keep them clean. Flecking was not the problem it is today, but Eric culled birds when the V in the saddle was not clean or the body color started to fade.

Eric fed a basic seed mix, with the emphasis on canary for the higher protein, seeding grasses and vegetables. He was the first I saw to introduce animal protein in the form of chicken carcasses left after a family meal… and he also fed dishes of mealworms in the flights when they were available.

He loved shows and spent hours preparing his birds, starting a month before a scheduled show date. His birds were always well presented and he openly admitted that his showmanship and preparation often won awards over better quality birds that were a little rough on the day. One of his buddies was a pigeon breeder who spayed his birds with water that had a little Listerine and Witch Hazel added and Eric did likewise, This is what I still use to prepare birds for show today.

Only birds that were entered weeks before the show could make it to the judging bench, so he always started with several for each class and put them back in the flight if they dropped tails, flights or spots, or started to moult.

Eric was the first to instill the idea of mentoring new folks who joined the hobby and he helped many get started with a few pairs.

Alf Ormerod

I started writing to Alf in England when I was living in New Zealand. I found it surprising that someone doing so well in the hobby would spend the time to write long letters on all aspects of breeding to a young guy thousands of miles away who he had never met.

Most of his letters related to breeding and matings, with heavy emphasis on line breeding. He felt strongly that the lesser birds from a strong family would often produce quality when paired together. I have heard comments from other English breeders over the years that they would visit Alf before breeding season and leave feeling he had lost his touch because the quality was gone… but if they returned several months later the baby flights had more than their share of stormers… and this apparently happened year after year.

He had a real interest in improving varieties. I remember in 1983 when he and Harry Bryan brought in their first spangles from Europe. They were not show quality initially, but both Alf & Harry bred them to their very best birds and within a year Harry won two Best In Shows with a Yellowface Sky Spangle cock that caused quite a sensation. In 1984, Alf sent me two of the youngsters (one with a B73 ring) so we could introduce them to USA.

In 1984, I visited Alf & Doris and during that meeting discussed flecking that had become a problem with opalines. I had bred a super young grey green opaline that had a huge golf ball head, but it was too flecked to show. They both immediately explained how to breed opaline to opaline within the family and the flecking would gradually move back over the crown and disappear down through the saddle. I assumed they were joking but later tried it… and to my surprise it worked, and in three generations I had some clean opalines that won consistently.

Harold Trethaway

When I first moved to USA in 1977, I found it a challenge to find anyone involved in the hobby, but fortunately when I did I was living within an hour of Harold Trethaway of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Harold was not your “usual” budgie guy.

In the US, many breeders keep their birds inside because of the extremes of temperature, hot as Hades in summer, and well below freezing in winter. Not Harold. He had two sheds up the hill behind his house. No heating and no air conditioning to keep it cool in summer. Yet Harold bred year around as the birds came into condition and he was a consistent winner at the North East shows.

In the summer it was so humid in the breeding shed you would break into a sweat while he showed you the youngsters and pairs he had just put up. The nest boxes were actually damp inside but his fertility and hatchability was excellent, and although I recall seeing birds panting from the heat, I do not remember any parents or young dying as a result.

Winter was the opposite extreme. It was quite a challenge to make it up the hill after a snow fall. The breeding shed had a little insulation in the form of plastic sheeting over the flights, but you still needed to be rugged up if you planned to stay for long. Again the breeding pairs and chicks seemed to thrive, although I remember the hens would not spend much time out of the nest when feeding.

The second shed was aptly called “The Ice Chest”, wire mesh over the windows and no insulation at all. First trip up in the morning Harold would break the ice in the water dish and pour in some warm water and within minutes all the birds were down at it for a drink. I often marvelled that the birds in this shed survived any winter months but they certainly were hardened to it.

Despite some of his unorthodox methods Harold taught me that budgies can survive and breed in extreme temperatures if you have fit, healthy and hardy stock.

Harold kept amazing records in notebooks for each year and within a few minutes could give you the pedigree of any bird in his flights back several generations. He spent hours checking pedigrees when he was pairing up for the next breeding season. In the 80′s, I bred a light green clearwing from a pair of Trethaway birds. Harold could not believe it initially, but started going back through his pedigree notebooks. Several days later he called to say he traced both parents back to an Ormerod cock he had purchased from Ken and Libby Tefft in Rhode Island, and when he called Alf he was told that bird had been split for clearwing in the one season he worked with them. Amazing what pedigrees can tell you.

Don Langell

Don Langell of Boxford, Massachussetts was nicknamed “The King” of budgie breeders in USA. The King had by far the biggest impact on my knowledge of the budgerigar and my success on the show bench.

I was fortunate during the 80s and 90s to have a job that enabled me to travel to New England several times each year and I always adjusted the schedule, so I would spend a day or two with Don and Jean at Boxford.

During these visits, countless hours were spent in his birdroom and talking birds around the kitchen table. Don was a master breeder and once he got to know you, every trip to the birdroom was a learning experience. Always ready to give advice and discuss his management practices and breeding techniques, Don would often challenge you to check your knowledge or to test if you really understood why he did certain things with and for his birds…. and there always was a reason for everything.

More than anyone else, Don was instrumental in developing my eye to see specific features in a bird. He did this by having me catch up birds and evaluate them for specific reasons. Much related to the various families he bred, but could also be used with budgies in general.

You knew you had made his inner circle when he would leave the keys so you could access the birdroom before he was home from his job at the bank.. but there was always a test in store… catch up 5 pairs you would breed together and explain why you would mate them that way… place the youngsters you thought would develop into the best show birds or stock birds in show cages and discuss your reasoning (and write the band numbers of any you thought would be outstanding on a wall so you could check the bird again during future visits).

Don had several families of birds in his aviary, the most prized being his “Black Band” family that produced the majority of his Best in Show winners. Another test was to catch birds from the main flight you thought were from the “black band” line and tell him what features you saw that were dominant. Initially this was a tough assignment and if I picked one or two correctly, I was happy. As years passed it became easier and easier as you saw specific “black band” features or even mannerisms. Even today, years later, I will often walk into an aviary or check a show cage and pick out a bird or two with “Langell blood”, to the surprise of the owner.

Another key ingredient to the puzzle I learned from Don was to spend plenty of time observing your birds. Don spent countless hours in his birdroom, often sitting in a rocking chair while he puffed on a cigar and watched the birds for signs they were getting ready to come into breeding condition.

He bred year round when the birds were ready to work and paid little attention to the calendar.
He often reminded me of my Uncle Bill Petzke years earlier,while watching for the cocks to start fighting, rapping the perch with their beak, and calling to hens in a distinctive tone that is more shrill and different to normal chatter. The hens would be calling too, laying flat on the perch while pulling their feathers tight till they had a “snakey look” as Don put it, and gnawing any piece of wood in sight. When the appropriate pairs showed these signs, into the breeding cage they went. I am certain this was a major reason why he had such high fertility year after year.

Nest boxes were another pet subject with Don that again brought back memories of my Uncle Bill back when I was a teenager. Don’s nest boxes were a box-inside-a-box design which was somewhat radical in the 80s, but quite common today. They hung on the front of the cage so the entry area was shaded so the hen felt secure. A handful of pine or cedar shavings was added to the nest to help stimulate the hen into breeding condition when she cleaned most of it out. The nest had the usual entry hole but no vent holes to allow extra air circulation. The outer box was varnished (for appearance) but the inner box was always uncoated wood so it could absorb moisture and keep the humidity level inside the nest high. After eggs were laid Don would cover the eggs in the concave with his hand and lightly spray water on the walls of the box to further increase humidity during his twice daily inspection. He would also mist both parents when they were out of the nest so they would transfer additional moisture to the eggs when started sitting again.

Gary & Kathy Hicken

On returning to the hobby (in 2009) it was quite a challenge to get reasonable quality start-up breeding stock. Fortunately several friends, who had been in the hobby when I left, were able to help out with a few pairs. With USA being so large and serious breeders in far off cities, most of the birds were sent in sight unseen. Fortunately the guys did well by me and shipped in some fine birds that have bred well during the first two seasons.

One aviary I have been able to visit is Gary and Kathy Hicken at Logan, a suburb of Salt Lake City in Utah. Gary has been showing budgies since 1975 and is a judge in high demand.

The Hicken’s have developed their own line of birds over the years and today have arguably the best stud of birds in the US frequently dominating the top bench where ever they show.

They have selectively imported every 3-4 years to maintain vitality and bring in or develop certain features they want in their stud. Breeders like Fred Wright, Molkentein and DeBeers are common in the pedigrees of their birds today. In the past year they added birds from the Lastella stud which had been influenced by imports from Daniel Lütolf a few years back.

Once again there is a lot to be learned by spending time with breeders like the Hickens and picking their brains. Kathy handles much of the feeding and day to day management of the birds while Gary, who is always busy with his duties as local Chief of Police, takes care of most pairings and the breeding season.

A few things stand out apart from Kathy’s regular schedule. They always buy the best quality feed available and buy in relatively small quantities so it never sits too long or goes stale. The birds are fed soaked seed and greens/veggies each morning.

The entire aviary is misted with a “fogger” every morning with a solution of water and disinfectant, and birds are misted too.

Gary strongly believes his best birds consistently produce his best youngsters so his breeding team is also his show team. To get full advantage of his very best cocks he runs the best five with 4-5 hens during the breeding season. Chicks are fostered soon after they hatch, the original hens gets to rest a while, and a new hen is then introduced into the same cage where the cock is waiting.

To keep numbers in check, Gary is constantly culling throughout the year. He limits the maximum number of cocks and hens, so if he wants to add one of the young cocks to the breeding/show team for next year he cuts one of the older cocks and it heads to the sales flight. This ensures he always has his optimum number of both sexes and that overall quality is always on the improve.

New Ideas & Techniques

As you can see, even after 50 plus years in the hobby, there are always new ideas and techniques to consider introducing into the day to day management of your stud.

Absorb all you hear, then select those that make sense in your situation and give them a try.

You will be amazed what you can learn from these mentors with years of experience in the hobby.

This article was kindly supplied to Budgerigar.co.uk by Barrie Shutt

Live parrots are currently not permitted entry into Australia from anywhere other than New Zealand (and then only genuine pets accompanying people who are emigrating to Australia from New Zealand).

Import conditions have not been developed for the importation of live parrots from any other country.

Biosecurity Australia is the agency responsible for risk assessment of new commodities.

Please note that once any risk assessment process starts, it is likely to take a period of years to complete.

Risk assessments are completed on a work priority basis, and it may take some years for a commodity to start being assessed. This request would need to go through the import access request system by way of Import Market Access Advisory Group (IMAAG).

Parrots are listed as Priority A for assessment by Biosecurity Australia but are not on the 2010 work plan. Conditions will not be finalised for at least 12 months, and possibly much longer.

Biosecurity Australia

Biosecurity Australia (“BA”)is the unit within the Biosecurity Services Group, in the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, responsible for recommendations for the development of Australia’s biosecurity policy.

BA undertakes science-based risk assessments and provides quarantine policy advice to protect Australia’s animal and plant health status and natural environment. It also provides technical advice to enhance Australia’s access to international markets and participates in international organisations that set biosecurity standards.

BA develops and reviews quarantine policies. The process to develop a new quarantine policy, where no policy exists, is called an import risk analysis (IRA) and is undertaken by BA scientists and technical specialists.

BA also provide scientific and technical advice and support to help Australia maintain or gain entry to international animal- and plant-related markets.

BA specialists are active in the development of international quarantine standards and help to develop quarantine expertise in the Australasian region.

As a World Trade Organization (WTO) member, Australia is obliged under the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) to consider all import requests from other countries concerning agricultural products.

Decisions to permit or reject an import application can be made only on sound scientific grounds.

BA also works with international agencies that set standards for animal and plant health. These are:

• The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which informs member countries of animal disease outbreaks throughout the world, and studies new ways of controlling animal diseases and sets international standards.
• The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) which provides a framework for international cooperation, sets international standards and exchanges information on plant health

The event will take place from 27th May – 2nd June 2011 in Canberra, New South Wales, Australia and is being hosted by the Budgerigar Society of NSW Inc.

The event features:

• A two day show
• Tours to some of the unique highlights of Australia’s national capital and surrounds
• Seminars & lectures from international breeders
• The annual meeting of the World Budgerigar Organisation (WBO)

To find out more, please click on the images below – clicking on an image will open/download the PDF file containing the information.

Budgerigar.co.uk has received the following request from Dr Marc A. Noakes. Marc is an experienced geneticist who is researching the yellowfaced factor – and would like your help!

Here is his appeal – please help him if you can.

Dear All,

I am a friend of Ron Hunt (Australian national budgerigar judge) in Sydney, and an honorary member of the Australian Pied Budgerigar Society. I am also a molecular geneticist turned school teacher with a PhD in genetics. I have resumed breding budgerigars and zebra finches after several years absence in America (Washington State University) doing postdoctoral research on multiallelic, immunological and sex genes in salmon and trout.

I grew up in the Macarthur budgerigar club with Ron and have been involved in budgerigar breeding for about 30 years now. I breed birds to satisfy personal and research interests in the conservation of antique mutations and varieties, as well as to help my fellow breeders of budgerigars and zebra finches better understand the mechanisms of inheritance and small population management, including conservation.

The Budgerigar Society of NSW (BSNSW) has approached me to help clarify the present confusion in yellowface inheritance. I understand Peter Bergman’s 5 allele model and I am very familiar with multidomain proteins including heterodimers. However, Peter’s description of that model is incomplete and thus confusing. I am trying to simplify/clarify the model with the aim of making it more accessible to the general enthusiast who has a basic understanding of inheritance. This includes clarifying the relationship between the lemon/cream face mutation and the yellow/golden face mutation.

I am seeking clubs or individuals who are willing to provide information in the form of photographs, descriptions, annotations and breeding results.

If you are able to help, please download and read the “How to Help” PDF document. Then, e-mail me at the address below, or consider joining my Yahoo! group as this will make communication easier. Also, if you know someone (or another club/society) who would be interested in helping out can you please forward this message to them. In return I am happy to provide participants with copies of the survey findings.

I look forward your reply.

Sincerely

Dr Marc A. Noakes
Science Department
John Therry Catholic High School

If you can help, please read the “How To Help” document and contact Marc as follows:

This original version, now edited for international appreciation, was written by Rod Skivington and is reproduced with his kind permission and acknowledgement to the The Budgerigar Council of Victoria Inc.

GSB

Introduction by GSB

This is the second of a two part profile of the Sheppard & Flanagan partnership – one of a group of important studs that now exist in Australia. Part one introducd Bruce Sheppard and Colin Flanagan and described how the partnership was formed. Part two gives an insight into the breeding methods employed by this highly successful duo, and asks them for their comments on the Australian show scene.

Well-designed Birdroom and Aviaries are essential

There are literally a hundred matters to consider when constructing a birdroom and aviary.

Bruce and Colin have gone down different paths here – Bruce has changed little of the birdroom over the last thirty years, whilst Colin has relocated many times due to work commitments and has been continually building new birdrooms and aviaries every time he relocated.

They both said the key considerations are:

• Face aviaries eastwards, so that birds can capture the morning sun daily
• Insulate the birdroom against both the summer heat and the winter cold
• Clear roof panels can be painted white to reflect the heat and still allow light in, this has significantly reduced the sun from heating up the birdroom
• It is essential that a birdroom has good ventilation
• Aviary floors must never be permitted to get wet, they must remain dry
• Aviary lofts are a great way to feed vegetable and citrus foods that are damp and will be discarded and fall outside and not mix with droppings, this is now a common design feature for all of their aviaries
• Take care in the birdroom layout to enure efficient daily routines, otherwise the routine will take time away from your birds and desire to improve the stud
• Fresh and clean drinking water must be convenient
• Cages and breeding boxes must be large and well ventilated
• Extending daylight utilising timers is essential for both the birds and the carer
• Provide a 24 hour night light (15W pilot lamp) allowing birds to find the breeding box if disturbed at night
• A radio that provides a constant background of noise so that other bumps in the night are less of a threat
• A well sealed birdroom will prevent mice from disrupting the breeding season and seed storage must be kept clear of fouling from mice etc.
• Hawks need to be kept from the outside wire, this can be easily achieved with shade cloth
• Vacuum aviaries weekly and clean birdroom floors daily to keep the dust down
• Water and seed daily

Feeding and Maintaining our Birds is critical

Feeding of quality budgerigars is a science according to Bruce and Colin, they both have a strong ethic in this area which has been developed over decades, and they expect that their programs will continue to develop as more is understood.

• Seed – Golden Cob Premium Budgie, daily
• A large variety of other seeds are provided on a regular basis
• Multi vitamins are a regular additive
• Softfood is not fed
• A wide range of vegetables and fruits are fed on a regular basis, offering something daily
• Clean water daily or more often in the summer months, Bruce prefers large drinkers in the loft, while Colin prefers large glass bowls on the floor

The Breeding Season

Management of the pairs during breeding season is very important if you are to maximise your opportunities and in turn produce more and more each season.

• Bruce and Colin refer to themselves as traditional breeders, that is they pair up on the Queens Birthday weekend in June, take two rounds, and in turn empty and clean out the birdroom by the Christmas break
• Checking pairs twice a day is a minimum during the Breeding season
• Establishing foster pairs early, when you recognise some pairs are not feeding well enough, or too many chicks in the same nest the same age, or more than 4 chicks per pair, you need to start moving chicks to save them don’t hesitate
• A strong culture of accurate record keeping is essential
• You must repeat the same pairing each year if they continue to breed you great chicks or even a National winner each time, it may seem simple enough, but many breeders feel they can do better and change the pair!
• Trim feathers from both the Cock and Hen and if need be then in between rounds is equally important
• One difference between the two establishments is that Colin does not wean his youngsters from the parents “until the babies are almost ready to breed”, but Bruce takes the babies away “almost before they can fly” as he believes that this assists in a reduction of possible scalping incidents in the breeding cage and rarely loses a chick because it has been weaned too young

The Real Priorities in Building a Competitive Budgerigar

• Right back from the days of importation it was clear that the main feature of this stud was going to be strength of shoulder, and this key feature remains the highest priority for the partnership today
• The bird must fill the cage and literally be a hand full
• Mask and spot are very important and again need to be presented on the wide shoulders to catch their eye
• Birds must be truly representative of their respective variety
• If you want to improve your specialist variety, always put your best Normals into this line to breed splits. Only use a split to recessive when the split is better than the recessive. Never use inferior normals to breed splits
• Bruce & Colin consider that flecking has it’s place in the stud, and ticked birds are often shown when birds of the same quality but clean are not available, so flecking is very acceptable and can in fact be an advantage if managed well
• It is important to be ruthless with hens that do not perform, the hen is so important for the number of and size of eggs, fertility and feeding, you need to be able to trust the hen that you are about to put with your best Cock Bird. You also need to trust her with fledgling chicks while you are at work during the day

The Australian National Budgerigar Council Inc. (A.N.B.C) National Show

Q: Why has Victoria dominated the Nationals for many years?

Both New South Wales (NSW) and South Queensland have been within a class of winning on many occasions, it would not take much for either of these two states to have won in recent years.

At his point, however, it is worth mentioning that the introduction of the “champion” status in Victoria some 10 years ago has stimulated many exhibitors to strive for the highest membership status. To remain in the champion section you win 30 points each year to maintain a presence otherwise you drop back into the open section.

Getting into the champion section is a bit like improving your golf handicap, while staying there becomes very personal indeed. Consequently there are many more birds on the bench, the birds have improved and less people have exited the fancy because of these new challenges.

Q: Are there too many varieties at the Nationals?

Victoria expanded the shield competition for a number of reasons but one of these reasons is not well understood.

By increasing the number of specialist variety classes, so too, you increase the number of first places on offer. Winners are grinners, more people have more opportunity, more membership points and more people are happy!

So, increase the fancy, increase the number of winners and increase the number of grinners. Therefore, increasing the number of classes at the Nationals would follow the same philosophy.

Q: Do overseas judges add to the National competition?

Overseas judges are good for the fancy in Australia, particularly when they add value through feedback whilst visiting and judging at our shows.

By commenting on the comparison of the quality of birds benched in the UK versus Australia, we can get good feedback on where we are deficient to the UK birds or where we compare favourably.

For example at a recent National, comments were made about some of our lesser varieties (i.e. Blackeye and Clearwing) being “true to the standard” for these varieties. Where the actual variety was almost lost to the UK.

Also, the winning Fallow at the WA National was stated as being “the best Fallow I have ever judged” from a UK judge.

Q: What benefit do you see in having an optional third bird benched per zone at the National competition?

This would increase the spectacle but most importantly allow exhibitors, who often manage to get a bird into the zone team only to see it left as the reserve bird on the day, to feel a sense of achievement.

Points, like at the Victorian Shield competition, would only be allocated to the first two birds from each zone, but, instead of having the bird left in the holding cage, you may still be the 3rd best bird in Australia for your particular variety.

Even with the smaller zones, imagine the boost in confidence and pleasure one would get when just having a bird in the National.

Regardless of which zone, often this extra bird is from a beginner or intermediate exhibitor and this would enhance their profile and assist in generating further interest from their fellow club members to strive for success in future years.

The Victoria Scene

Q: The Adult Shield

The Sheppard & Flanagan Partnership does not show in the Budgerigar Council of Victoria Inc. (BCV) Adult Bird Shield to enable other Mountain District members the opportunity to get more birds into the Shield competition.

This allows them to obtain Exhibitor Points where they may not be able to do so when the Partnership has 3 birds in the team.

Another reason is that showing should be a focus for your “current breeding stock” and past seasons’ birds (i.e. Young birds and Unbroken Caps).

Q: Exhibitor Points?

Current points to enter and retain Champion status should be increased to reduce the ease of obtaining Champion status through one or two birds.

Points required should be increased to 100 or 120 points per three year period as the number of points available now compared to when Exhibitor Points were introduced is substantially higher.

One option may be to also increase the number of points available by giving points down to 6th place at the Shield competitions and / or giving points for Best Opposite Sex at Diploma Shows.

Other Comments

Q: 1st September Ring Issue

The Sheppard & Flanagan Partnership sees no reason to change their “traditional” approach and will continue to pair birds up on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, even with the change to the ring issue.

Just because the rings arrive on 1st September, does not mean you have to put a ring onto a chick on that day!

Remember, you don’t have to change anything if you don’t want to.

A whispered comment was heard that the ANBC almost got the ring issue right … it should have been two months earlier … i.e. 1st July! Then the full circle would be complete (for those that are too young to remember, many, many years ago our rings were issued on 1st July each year.)

Q: Judging

It is often difficult for judges to judge certain varieties when they have never bred the particular variety, particularly when it comes to some of the lesser varieties.

If you have not experienced the results of breeding certain features or varietal characteristics then it is difficult to comment on these factors on the exhibition specimen.

Q: Dwindling Membership Numbers

It was interesting that some experiences from their early days in the fancy, that have vanished in more recent years, may have attributed to our falling membership numbers.

There is no real formal education programme to learn varieties, husbandry or how to improve quality through breeding programs (i.e. Line breeding, etc).

Many new members also want “instant successes” without doing “the hard yards” and achieving success through a number of years of work.

Mentor programs or aviary visits incorporating some sort of training programs may be of assistance.

Also, the target “new member” is no longer the teenager or youngster – due to modern electronic and technological completion – but should be the young family or older generation who no longer have kids to look after but yearn for a hobby to keep them occupied.

This original version, now edited for international appreciation, was written by Rod Skivington and is reproduced with his kind permission and acknowledgement to the The Budgerigar Council of Victoria Inc.

GSB

Introduction by GSB

This is the second of several Australian articles to be published on Budgerigar.co.uk to illustrate the effects that the UK hobby has had on the Australian fancy since the first UK exports arrived in the 1990s.

Prior to 1989, the Australian Standards excelled in type, but lacked credibility in head qualities.

It should be stressed that this partnership is but one of a group of important studs that now exist. These will be featured at a later date. It does however, in itself, depict the improvement that has been made by S&F given such a small initial outlay that they could afford at the time.

At the Beginning

Most of the bird fancy has heard of this most formidable budgerigar partnership, but perhaps few know the story of how this partnership has developed to this pinnacle of success that they now enjoy.

They first met as they joined the 1st North Moorabbin scout troop when they were just eight years of age. In later years they played for a local football club alongside each other in the back line for the under 15s and under 18s.

In the early scouting days (and unbeknown to each other) they both had a few pairs of birds breeding at their homes. It was their parents that identified this common interest and, as they lived in the same suburban block, the two became inseparable at weekends as a brief bike ride would link their common interest.

Their combined confidence grew and they travelled beyond their suburban block in East Bentleigh in search of other breeders. Alan Moss and another breeder in Bentleigh were a real hit for these two boys as they witnessed at first hand other breeders with all those new varieties and so many breeding cabinets.

It was not long before they found another breeder – just a short bike ride away lived Frank Gardner. There is no doubt that this introduction was the turning point for these two young lads in their budgerigar breeding future.

Developing the Essential Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes

Back in those days, Frank Gardiner was the Chairman of the BCA, the Chairman of the Judges and standards committee and ran the monthly judge’s training school at the Camberwell football ground, his contribution to the bird fancy was significant and he was a respected national icon of the bird game and was even said to have invented the budgerigar!

Frank took these two enthusiastic youngsters under his wing and the tuition that was passed on over many, many years was second to none. In those years when Frank went out judging he had the two youngsters in tow most of the time.

Frank had a constant stream of visitors to his birdroom – people such as D Demoore, A&D Bassett, B Grinlington, A Bugg, L Vines, H Eady, I Hunter, J Scoble, H Heath and many more – but what an introduction for these kids and be assured they were there listening to every conversation.

After a long conversation with Bruce & Colin’s parents, Frank was permitted to take the boys to a local budgerigar club meeting. They were probably around 14 years old by this time and it just happened to be the Nepean Society. Here they were introduced to more big names of the bird game – G Campbell, G Gill, B Adams, R Reed, H Wise, C Bishop, F Stone, B McDowell and J Tanner.

In those days, as part of the monthly meetings, Frank Stone conducted a monthly education program that focused on a variety or an aspect of the fancy. This was accompanied by hand-out notes that were cherished by the two as they were so eager to learn.

Under the close tuition of Frank, Bruce and Colin passed the judges test before they had their drivers’ licenses, and importantly Frank instilled in them the important values for a judge and what it meant to be a competitor – all of which these days are more commonly referred to as life skills.

The Nepean Society is responsible for giving them their strong competitive nature. Nepean was a strong club and very competitive in the various local inter-clubs and shield competitions – all of which flow onto the National competition.

The two are quite passionate about being foundation members of the Mountain District Society, as it was a difficult time for them as they severed long standing ties with Nepean and almost immediately had to compete against their old and favoured club at the shield.

They went on to establish even more relationships with a new bunch of members such as B Grinlington, J Hobbs, B McVilley, J Verdonk, N Collins, P Bach, A Borg and R Skivington.

Bruce and Colin were fortunate enough to join Frank as councillors on the BCA and it was here that their involvement in the administration of the fancy began.

To date Bruce has been the Chair of the BCV, Treasurer, Ring Registrar, Chair of the Judges and Standards Committee, as well as an ANBC delegate and team carer on many occasions. Colin has been the BCV Vice President, BCV Secretary, a member of the Judges and Standards committee, Classis Show Manager, National Show Manager and ANBC WBO Delegate.

Forming the Partnership

At the beginning Bruce and Colin showed separately, though birds were exchanged regularly between the two at the time of pairing.

The Sheppard & Flanagan partnership was formed in 1990 – by necessity in a way, as individually they could not afford to import a shipment of birds from the UK separately. So, as a partnership, they participated in the very first shipment (nine birds) and the majority of their stock was purchased from Tom Williams and Peter Sanderson.

The limited numbers of birds that came in from the UK really restricted the flexibility for the two – when you divide some nine birds into two separate sheds there is not a lot to work with!

Fortunately a few of the imported birds were prolific breeders, consistently producing strong shouldered birds, with great length of body, exceptional head feather and deep mask that were full of large spots.

Something that was plentiful in those early days was smaller type cobby hens. They exhibited really good conformation with no real faults other than being a little smaller.

And herein lies one of the great secrets of the bird game. The hen described in the last paragraph is a breeding type of hen – a hen that is bomb proof i.e. she will breed no matter what cock she is paired too! If you are to be successful, first and foremost, you must have birds that will breed for you no matter what the circumstances. You must have a line of hens that are strong on fertility, feeding, nurturing and weaning.

The Success

All readers, especially those outside Australia, will want to know how successful Colin and Bruce have been on the show benches in recent years.

Suffice to say there is no doubt they have both made their mark on the Australian National Budgerigar Council Inc. (A.N.B.C) National Competition Show. For those unfamiliar with the Australian structure, for exhibits to be accepted for the National Show, they first have to be assessed at State level as a first hurdle. After that, if thought worthy, they go forward.

The National Show takes place mostly in the east of Australia to sympathise with those who travel for days from Western Australia, from Perth, to get their birds there.

Colin and Bruce live in the State of Victoria which is a bed of quality breeders. At the Victorian Shield Competitions they have had great success in the last four years with twenty Unbroken Cap Bird Shield wins and nineteen Young Bird Shield wins.

At National level they have also been highly successful and as a result of their success were awarded the A.N.B.C Hall of Fame Trophy in 2007. The photographs of their entries in recent times accompanying this article, tell their own story.

Today

Bruce and Colin have been fortunate to have visited many aviaries in the UK and stewarded at the BS show.

Together they have established a strong nucleus of Normals, Opalines, Dominant Pieds and Cinnamons, before moving into a much wider range of more specialist varieties, where each concentrate on only a few but they do include: Blackeye, Clearwing, Greywing, Yellow-Face, Crest, Spangle, Lacewing and Clearbody.

Bruce and Colin beleive that a full collection of varieties does go a long way to ensure that Mountain Districts are able to compete with the best of the Victorian clubs.

These days they have almost “come the full circle” in that they see more of each other as they are getting older – even with the distance between their residences.

They are also keen to point out that a very important part of the successful partnership was the support of their partners – Karen and Leanne – along with the birdroom manager at Colin’s place – his daughter Stephanie.

Part two of this article can be read here.

From Daniel Lütolf, Switzerland

I just visited quickly your website.

Well done, big compliment, lots of useful information.

Concerning the information for budgerigar breeders, as it develops, it may already be the universal site for the worldwide budgerigar hobby.

I can imagine, you are quite tired after that big effort, but it was really certainly worth it!

From Jac Cuyten, The Netherlands

As we can expect from a man like you, another super initiative for all budgerigar breeders all over the world.

Of course you may place the Cuyten DVD trailer on your website and it will be an honour to see you in Holland some time.

A lot of winning birds you will not see from me, because my pleasure from the hobby is directed to the breeding side. This is the great challenge for me.

Of course I can send you pictures of my best birds and I will see to that later.

Quality wise I feel I am making another step forward this year.

From Steve Bailey, United Kingdom

Congratulations with the new international website. I am sure the whole hobby worldwide will get involved within it under your stewardship.

I am delighted to be back in this great hobby after several years of absence and would like to take this opportunity to personally thank you for your help getting me started again. I have achieved considerable success at top level shows with your birds (as is fairly well known) and have now built up a very good stud of birds in which I take great pride.

Once again, I wish you every success with your new venture.

From Larry Moore, United States of America

My friend you have done it again!

The new website is exactly what this hobby has needed for a very long time.

We can always count on you to come up with something innovative that will benefit everyone in the hobby.

Continued good luck.

From Casper Maree, South Africa

Congratulations with your new site.

I have already spent some time on it and it proves to be THE site for the future.

All the best for the future.

From Matt Welchman, Australia

Congratulations on a fantastic site and a great idea.

The WWW is the key to the continuation of this wonderful hobby.

I recently started a web page for the Central Coast Club and have had great feedback – The Internet is an invaluable tool for the hobby today.

From Ron Payne , United Kingdom

Congratulations on the new web site, I spent a couple of hours going through it last night and didn’t realise time could go so fast!

Perhaps the word on the street should be “Binks has put his far-reaching thinking cap on again!”

From Jane Todd, South Africa

Your website was forwarded to me by the Budgerigar Society of South Africa today.

I just went to have a quick look and was amazed at the extent of information on it!

I now live in South Africa but originated from Hertfordshire and have recently become a “budgerigar fancier”! I started off with larger parrots such as African Greys, Amazons etc but find the budgerigar far more endearing and intend extending my collection.

Thank you for your website, I will view it often.

From Jim Marshall , Canada

I have just visited your new website and may I congratulate you on a very friendly and most comprehensive information bank regarding our great hobby.

The world wide web is a boon for the “Global Budgerigar Fraternity”.

Thank you for sharing.

From Didier Mervilde, Belgium

Like always with you, a very nice website and an “A+” for the hobby.

I am looking forward to the articles. Congratulations.

From Maurice Laker, United Kingdom

AT LAST a website for the hobby.

I am looking forward to spending some time on it.

Well done and congratulations on this new venture.

Any help I can give you please ask.

From Jos Reynders, Ireland

Congratulations on a job well done.

I heard about it so I was looking forward to seeing it for the last few weeks.

I was greatly surprised. I expected quality, but this is outstanding.

A great stimulous to the hobby worldwide.

Again thanks very much.

From Michael & Dean Borcherds, South Africa

Firstly congratulations on a truly brilliant website & the thinking & marketing behind it.

It is inspirational.

Wishing you & hopefully the hobby all the very best through its pages.

From Javed Khananza, Pakistan

Excellent site with tons of information.

We can say it’s an encyclopedia of information for fanciers.

From Alan Taylor, Spain

As an ex-budgerigar breeder now living in Spain, the web is my only way of keeping in touch with the fancy.

In my involvment with the fancy I was subscription secretary for the V.B.C. and show secretary for both the L.C.N.W.B.S.and Merseyside B.S.

I would like to congratulate you on the website – it is certainly one of the best that I have seen.

Best wishes for the breeding season.

From Prof. Maher Hamed, Egypt

Congratulations and thank you for launching such a valuable, helpful and interesting new website.

I enjoy reading the information, advice and articles in it. Many thanks.

From Ralph Jenne, Germany

Thank you for this really good website! You have clearly invested a lot of time.

I hope that this international website takes our wonderful hobby even further forward!

Greetings from Freiburg!

From Gary Sutton, United Kingdom

The Budgerigar hobby has been in need of just this type of website.

Congratulations to all involved.

In my opinion, Gould has never been given enough acknowledgment for assisting Charles Darwin, and really taking the major roll in cataloging and identifying the birds which Darwin brought back from the Galapagos Islands in 1836.

John Gould (14th September 1804 to 3rd February 1881) was an English ornithologist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed “Darwin’s finches”, was pivotal in the inception of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, though they are barely mentioned in Charles Darwin’s book, “The Origin of Species”.

Gould’s Work with Darwin

When Charles Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens collected during the second voyage of HMS Beagle to the Geological Society of London at their meeting on 4 January 1837, the bird specimens were given to Gould for identification.

He set aside his paying work and at the next meeting on 10th January 1837, reported that birds from the Galapagos Islands which Darwin had thought were blackbirds, gross-bills and finches, were in fact:

A series of Ground Finches which are so peculiar that they now form an entirely new group containing 12 new species.

This story made the newspapers.

In March 1837, Darwin again met Gould. Gould explained to Darwin that what he thought was a wren and had named it the Galapagos “wren”; was in fact another species of finch and that the mockingbirds he had labelled by each island were an amazingly separate species rather than just varieties but with relatives on the South American mainland.

Subsequently, Gould advised that the smaller Southern Rhea specimen that had been rescued from a Christmas dinner, was a separate species which he named Rhea darwinii, whose territory overlapped with the Northern Rheas. Darwin had not bothered initially to label his finches by Island names, but others on the expedition had taken more care.

Gould now sought specimens collected by Captain Robert FitzRoy and his crewmen. From them he was able to establish that the species were unique to the Islands, an important step on the inception of his theory of evolution by natural selection.

John Gould’s work on the birds was published between 1838 and 1842 in five numbers, as Part 3 of the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, edited by Charles Darwin.

I think it is fair to assume that John Gould played a large role in Darwin’s theory of evolution even though it is scarcely accredited. We as budgerigar breeders have proved that a species of bird can be changed over time through selective breeding, which is carried out in nature by Natural Selection by only leaving the strongest to survive.

However, we as breeders do not allow the strongest to survive as the exhibition budgerigar would revert back through Natural Selection to its wild state. Consequently only the ones we believe are esthetically pleasing to us as breeders of exhibition budgerigars are allowed to be bred with or survive.

By doing this we can stretch, widen, change the feather structure and even increase the bone structure and consequently the body size of budgerigars. By this process we prove that a species can be changed in certain respects.

In his final years, Darwin was fascinated by pigeons and the way breeders had developed them through selective breeding from the common ancestor of the Rock Dove. He devoted much of his later life to studying the Racing Pigeon.

So in March 1855 Charles Darwin was to become a pigeon fancier and set up a breeding loft at his home in the village of Downe, Kent. However, we as budgerigar breeders are doing much the same thing by attempting to defeat Natural Selection, which incidentally as I certainly know we can never win!

Nevertheless, we as exhibition budgerigar breeders are having great fun while trying.