Maja and Pierre Swart

When people ask us how we managed to build up our current stud, a number of things come to mind.

The Principal

First of all – how do you tell somebody just in a few short sentences how to do it, because anybody can do it, if they put their mind to it.

It is actually a very simple principle, but that is the only easy part, the principal, the rest is not so easy.

Doc Robinson

Many years ago we obtained a Grey cock from the famous Doc Robinson line.

It was a good bird, but no longer a young bird.

We paired it to a nice Opaline Light Green hen that we got from another person, who claimed that it came with a Doc Robinson bloodline in it.

This pair produced five chicks.

The youngsters were not outstanding, but fair. We wanted good chicks from this cock, so we paired it up to a better hen.

Needless to say no chicks!

We tried the cock with a few other hens, bred a few more chicks, but nothing much, and in the end the cock died.

Keep the Blood Together

After a while we began noticing that his chicks with the Opaline Light Green hen began to look better and better every day.

Unfortunately, we had already got rid of the two weaker ones – both hens.

That was a big mistake!

One of the chicks, an Opaline Sky-Blue cock, won us our first Major award – Best Beginner on Show at the 1996 Eastern Cape Area Show.

We started to use these three cocks – some of which can still be traced back in our birds’ pedigrees.

This was the first hard lesson we learned – keep the blood together and don’t be too hasty evaluating youngsters from good blood lines.

We made a promise to ourselves to be very weary of this in the future.

Very Good Youngsters

The same year we paired a good Molkentin-bred cock to a De Beer hen – which was very average but she was very well bred.

This time we saw the chicks were good and we kept them breeding for 3 more rounds, fostering all the chicks.

We tried to get as many chicks as we could from this pairing.

Later we paired the hen and cock to different partners after they had rested well.

Both the parents produced good offspring for us with different partners.

We learned our second very important lesson: when both birds (the cock & hen) are predominant in producing good offspring, the chances of them producing very good youngsters is good.

Pairings Will Start To Pick Themselves

We started to make sure that we test-pair our birds with different partners, taking just one round and then at a later stage pair those birds together that have produced good youngsters with different partners.

One thing that is coming out of this system, is the saying that “you have to know your birds to breed them”.

Using this system is slow in the beginning, but after a very few years it will get momentum.

Good families will start to build and pairings will start to pick themselves.

Outstanding Quality

In 2005 we picked a Yellowface Grey Cinnamon spangle cock and a Grey Cinnamon spangle hen – they just looked perfect for each other.

We must admit that it is not a pairing everybody would have made, but we knew their backgrounds.

Both their parents produced good birds.

We waited for them to mature and then paired them.

At first a huge disappointment, the hen began plucking just after the chicks had been rung so we had to foster them out.

As the chicks started to feather up we realized that our calculations were spot on, they were all of outstanding quality, producing many Best In Show and CC winners.

A Blessing In Disguise

The hen plucking her chicks in this case was a blessing in disguise.

It made us implement a new system.

In the past we fostered the eggs of every second round, but we now began fostering the chicks as soon as we rung them.

This lets the hen go through the full breeding cycle but is just shortens it.

If a pair is looked well after in this way then it is it will easily produce 20 and more real quality chicks and any breeder will know how valuable this is for any stud.

Pair Up As Long As Possible

Many visitors over the years were amazed by how many chicks we were able to get from a good pair.

Remember that when two birds produced good chicks with different partners, and they are paired together, they will then produce the required quality youngsters.

They should be paired up together as long as possible, to get the maximum chicks possible.

We had some pairs together for as long as 2 years.

Brothers And Sisters

We also used the sisters and brothers of the Spangle Grey Cinnamons extensively enlarging the family and also adding other colours.

We paired a well bred Opaline Cobalt to one of the daughters of a Spangle Cinnamon pairing.

This produced our 2007 National winner, his mother’s sister was also best opposite sex at the same National.

Today we have very good Grey Greens, Light Greens and Greys, winning the South African National in 2011 with a Normal Grey.

Brothers And Sisters

If this sounds very easy to you, let it be a fair warning, because it is not.

You should be prepared for all kinds of setbacks that come with breeding good birds, i.e. French Moult, infertility, chicks being attacked by parents and the list can go on and on.

Most probably the French Moult set us back the most.

We started to use a product called Viro Kill which also kills the Polyoma virus. We are using it extensively, touch wood but for a number of years we don’t have that problem anymore.

Fresh Produce

Recently we started producing less and less numbers, we knew our infertility was not because of inbreeding, so we had a good look at our feeding system.

We decided to reduce all the added vitamins and replacing it with fresh produce, it seems like things are starting to pick up again and chicks are hatching more than before which to us is music to our ears.

Focus, Dedication & Observation

If you want to keep on breeding quality budgerigars you have to be focused, dedicated and at all times very observant, but most of all be ready to absorb setbacks every day.

If you can do that, you are half way there.

Good luck with your own creation of an excellent stud.

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by Maja & Pierre Swart.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Swart Aviary

Yellow Face cock
son of Cobalt Spangle below

South African National 2011 CC Winner
Light Green cock

Opaline Cinnamon Grey cock
Split Lacewing

South African National 2011 CC Winner
Yellow Face cock

South African National Winner 2007
Cobalt Spangle

Registered Grand Champion
Grey Green Cinnamon cock

The next Spangle Day and AGM will be held on Sunday 22nd April at the Loddington Village Hall, High Street, near Kettering, Northants NN14 1LE. The morning session will be allocated to a guest speaker. Birds will be accepted between 10.00 and 10.30 am and will be judged by the President Bob Allen. All members, fanciers and guests are welcome. The afternoon session will be allocated to the AGM commencing at 2.30 pm.

The spangles fared well at the Association’s 2011 club show, which was held in conjunction with the Budgerigar Society Club Show, when two of the major awards were won by spangles. This was the Best Young Bird in Show (where Geoff Bowley won the award with a superb Spangle Light Green cock) and it was another spangle hen of the same colour that won the Best Opposite Sex in Show for Geoff & Anne Moore.

The total entry of 214 was slightly higher than in the previous year, with Philip Dye judging the Spangle Greens and Terry Tuxford judging the Spangle Blues. Our congratulations are extended to all our members who did well with their spangles at this prestigious show.

The honour of staging the Best Spangle in Show and Best Spangle Blue by a member went to Geoff & Anne Moore, who benched a nice Spangle Grey cock to win the young bird challenge certificate. The Best Spangle Green in Show went to Jerry Donovan with a Spangle Light Green cock. The Best Double Factor Spangle in Show went to Brian Wilson with a Yellow cock.

Once again winning members were treated to some wonderfully designed certificates. The Best Spangle in Show and four major winners also received special certificates enclosed in glass frames, which added a further special touch to the awards. Our special thanks are extended to John Cosby for producing those wonderful certificates.

John Cosby, as always, manned our stand throughout the weekend and we extend our thanks to him as well as to Rod and Sue Clarke for dealing with our patronage and trophies, assisted by Cy Thorne; and to all other committee members for their assistance.

Members are reminded that subscriptions are now due as from 1st January and should be sent to the Membership Secretary John Cosby at (“Shambles”, 7 Oakwood Lane, Moston, Sandbach, Cheshire CW11 3PR). The new rates are: single £8; partnership (same address) £12; partnership (different addresses) sum of total members; juniors, registered disabled & OAP £5. The society also offers a life membership at 20 times the current subscription.

The Association has its own website, which can be visited at www.spanglebudgerigars.co.uk. For all other information other than subscriptions & patronage please contact the chairman Ghalib Al-Nasser.

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

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

Svetlana Folomeeva

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

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

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

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

Breeding in Russia

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

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

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

A Seminar

The Moscow Budgerigar Society is called the “Apogee”.

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

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

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

Feeding Techniques

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

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

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

Welcome & Thank You

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

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

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

Appeal

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

Photographs

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

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The aviary

The aviary

Young bird

Young bird

Young bird

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have, for many years now, been exporting birds to Japan. Principally these have been to Mr Ozeki, and, despite never having met Mr Ozeki in person, I have developed what could be described as a long distance friendship with him and his wife, Eiko.

As always, I select birds to match the budget figure stated by the buyer. They trust me to choose the best available birds for the amount involved, whatever that may be. This approach has always served both me and my customers well.

Care Has To Be Taken

Step by step, Tatsuhiro Ozeki has bred some beautiful birds and his photography of his stock speaks for itself.

He is now, like all breeders, wanting birds with the “buffalo effect”, but that can, as I have seen in a few cases, ruin the appearance of our birds unless carefully watched.

Make no mistake. We want to widen the feather across the face, but I have seen an example where it has been taken to extremes and the beauty of the budgerigar has gone and appeared ugly.

I cannot imagine a skilful breeder like Mr Ozeki doing this at all, but he has great experience behind him. It is the fellow with little experience that has to be watched.

The Japanese Scene

There are four societies in Japan comprising two hundred breeders and Ozeki himself began breeding budgerigars in 1972.

Each show has around 300 birds benched and many of the birds go back to the days when the late Harry Bryan exported to that country.

It is alleged that a lot of inbreeding has taken place by pairing Harry Bryan blood inwardly for years and years, so consequently the quality has dropped without careful use of outcrosses being dropped in periodically.

Not so Ozeki, but I personally believe after buying solely from myself (not the crests) for many years, that he needs related new blood that has outcross blood within it. I know he realises this.

The Eiko and Tatsuhiro Careers

Tatsuhiro Ozeki worked in the textile industry for more than 44 years, before, at the grand age of 60, starting his own business! This was also with textiles, printing and selling what the Japanese call “Art Water-Moss”.

Tatsuhiro also works in the Aichi Prefecture and Tsuchiya Corporation research and development centre (www.tsuchiya-group.co.jp).

His wife, Eiko is a highly skilled lady who teaches the astounding practice of creating Japanese dolls with a standard of workmanship that has to be seen to be believed. Exquisite, would be the word I would use and my wife and I have three of them here at Virginia Water which we treasure. Her skills also extend to creative “Water Moss Exhibits”, again her skills are very evident.

The Birds and The Aviary

The bird photographs speak for themselves (see below).

The aviary is a state of the art establishment and has 32 breeding cages breeding some 150 birds per annum. There are 14 stock cages and 2 flights.

On the feeding side, Ozeki gives 12 forms of grain sources plus cod liver oil, sesame oil, safflower oil, a mineral source, salt, seaweed, and soluble multivitamin.

In all he has a running total of some 300 birds at any one time and, the normal varieties apart, he is the number one breeder of crests throughout Japan.

He is a judge of course but has not yet had the pleasure of being invited to judge outside of his country. Big National Societies – please note!

The favourite colours are spangles and the dark factors (especially the violets), but all his colours possess quality across the board.

Add in “buffalo effect” and it is very possible Ozeki could be one of the world’s best and most skilful breeders ever! Time will tell.

Here is a small selection of Tatsuhiro’s birds.

Lütolf has that special eye that sees far ahead of the current ideal representations of the day. He sees what is beyond what is currently being bred and winning on the show bench. Harry Bryan in the UK had that ability, as does Jo Mannes in Germany and Henry George in Australia, to name a few.

Lütolf is 42 years of age and has been breeding birds since he was 11. A great deal of time and money was spent with little success until he purchased birds from Heinrich Ott, a top Swiss breeder. Heinrich Ott treated him very well, selling him stock, which bred superbly and produced his early winners. The pedigree background to Heinrich’s stock was based on Omerod and Sadler blood.

Lütolf’s career is as a teacher, he teaches senior pupils in maths, geography and history. He travels extensively, going overseas to far off places so that he can pass on his experiences to his pupils, but he never forgets his birds at home and the friends whom he trusts to look after his birds safely, and he gives a big thank you to them.

The Lütolf aviary is split into three levels because of the steep gradient of his home. It is modest in presentation, but the birds are exceptional in quality…but difficult to buy if you strive for the best.

Lütolf realised early, that he needed to design a bird to be ahead of others. This came from his ability to carve and paint.

DL: “I like big birds in proportion to their length. I knew that the 8 1/2 INS, small Budgerigar, in today’s exhibition world (216mm) was useless.

All top birds of today require a longer 9 1/2 ins (241mm) length to get the bird in balance, coupled with the shoulder substance that is required.

The shorter length results in a bird with no substance and is completely out of date if you wish to win on the show bench, irrespective of your chosen variety.

It is your choice, as a beginner, into which direction you go as you breed and as you create YOUR designer bird. You have to focus on that and set higher standards every season. I have always selected birds with big feet, but am careful in my choice of breeding hens.

I select birds with very big bone structure that are thick in the neck area. Interestingly, such birds create a problem that many of us are familiar with. This is the problem of today’s rings being too small for the bigger birds of today, and such rings have to be cut off before serious damage is done! Every year I was forced to cut off rings. I now get rings allocated officially that are larger in diameter at 4.4mm. They are perfect and there are no further problems for the birds and are accepted on the show bench.”

The Colours

The colour range that Lütolf has is broad. There are Spangles, all the Normals and some wonderful Violets, Olives, Lutinos, Texas Clearbodies, Yellows, Dilutes and Recessives.

All have mouth watering quality.

He is now starting to attack the Clearwing variety.

DL: “To improve any variety, you have to pair them at the start to your very best birds. This is what Reinhard Molkentin did, followed by Jo Mannes with the very small Spangles that arrived in Germany years ago.

To improve the recessive varieties, Clearbodies and Lutinos, I pair them to Spangles. The Spangle variety will improve such varieties considerably.

Always remember that if you want to improve a rare variety you have to pair them to the best you have and if necessary go out and find a super bird no matter what its colour happens to be.”

Pairing

Unlike the majority of breeders today, Lütolf breaks away from the conventional way of pairing Normals together.

He mixes many colour factors together continuously. Buying a pure bred is therefore difficult, but if the quality is in front of you, you take a different view. He never breeds two super birds together, or inbreeds, to avoid any feather problems or cysts. Nature does not select pairings as we do as fanciers.

Lütolf also watches the mixed sexes and ages of the birds in the flights. The practice of having the sexes separate in different flights, he feels, encourages homosexuality and the following effect of cocks being afraid of certain hens that are perhaps aggressive by nature. Hence infertile eggs. If he sees a pair making up, then the chances are they will go straight into a breeding cage – and they breed.

Lütolf is also critical of the standard practice we follow of pairing our Greens together and our Skyblues together and so on. He believes in mixing the colours, but in addition he uses the grey factor frequently, across the colours, a view held by Harry Bryan but not Dr. Alfred Robertson of South Africa, the well-known breeders of their period.

To support his views, Lütolf will buy an outcross, breed with it and very often sell it immediately. It has left its blood behind and served its purpose.

Lighting Periods

The breeding room has a very powerful extraction system and recently a superb timed spray system developed by Sigbert Pestringer, to remove dust. The aviary always feels fresh.

The lighting routine is interesting. Lights come on at 07.00 hours. The birds emerge to excrete and mate. They go off again at 13.30 hours and come on again at 15.45 hours. This follows a resting period that the observant will see easily in their own studs. At 15.45 hours they again mate with the light coming on until 23.30 hours.

Feeding

Avoiding discussion about the normal feeding procedures, Lütolf prefers to feed natural products as well as seed etc. Hormova is the only manufactured product used, together with various natural vitamin sources.

Water is often changed twice daily to which is added a small dash of vinegar and lemon.

DL: “This lowers the possible rise in bacterial infections.”

When breeding, the canary seed is increased. When not breeding, the millets have the upper hand. He feels that small sunflower gets the stock too fat.

We now come to vegetables. The range is very extensive and remarkable. Everything comes from the local market. Lütolf checks that none have been sprayed with pesticides and he uses natural food only.
Fennel, peppers, carrots, blackberries, broccoli, cauliflower, uncooked beetroot, grape leaves, tinned maize, and parsley to name most of them. All are chopped and desiccated, and when finished, some 10mls of olive oil is added and mixed in. Apple slices are dropped onto the flight floor.

I wondered what else olive oil could be used for?

DL: “When chicks turn white for no reason I give one drop to the beak and they return to normal colour.

However I do not know why!

The credit for this belongs to Reinhard Molkentin, not myself”

Soaked wheat and oats are fed on alternate days. Tree branches are always in the flights and changed regularly.

Conclusion

Lütolf birds are very big and my concluding comment is that Lütolf’s “quality of birds in depth”, in the top range, is one of the best I have seen anywhere in recent years.