Q1: Will we ever see you on the show bench again?

GSB:

I thought this might come up!

My reluctance to show goes back to the 1980′s, when at the Budgerigar Show I was twice in line for Best in Show, being in the last two selections and in each case with a far superior bird to the eventual winner.

Sour grapes? Certainly not – I believe it was political. At the time, I was “Mr Budgerigar World” and in the first case I was at home on the Saturday when I had a call from a lady – who I don’t know to this day.

She said:

Mr Binks, I was going to join the hobby but I never will after what I have just heard and seen.

When the last two birds were selected – adult and breeder – an official came to one of the judges and called him over.

He said to him “Do you realise who owns the blue cock?”

“Yes”, was the reply, “it belongs to Arthur Bracy.”

“No, it doesn’t, it belongs to Binks.”

“OK”, was the judge’s answer – “leave it to me.”

And that was me – dead!

The next occasion was in 1997, when I had, arguably, the best Grey Green in the UK. Again the result mirrored the first example and I was put down against an opaline cinnamon cock with the awful “keyhole effect”, which the judges of the day should still be ashamed of.

Witnesses? I have dozens, but again I was rocking the establishment with fresh ideas and actions that were unacceptable by just six persons – no more than that.

Today they are nowhere to be seen!

That is why I became totally dispirited about showing again – as jealousy was put in front of judging integrity.

Finally that Grey Green went on to win Best in Show, weeks later, at The Budgerigar World Show at Blackpool where 4,500 birds were on display.

However, I have recently bought ten new show cages!

Q2: The very first Budgerigar World Show at Sandown Park that you ran, really raised the bar on how major shows should be run. In your opinion, do you think that the major shows of today can be improved upon – not only for the exhibitors benefit, but also to promote the budgerigar fancy as a whole?

GSB:

That is a rhetorical question!

The first two Budgerigar World Championships arose out of looking at the Granby Hall in Leicester and The Queen’s Hall in Leeds, the later being a “converted” tram shed with the roof leaking all over the place.

I was then appalled when the whole of the Champion Adult staging collapsed.

It was a milestone and I knew I could do better.

Within 6 months, with great credit to my then printing partner John Blance, his wife and a great hand-picked team of helpers, we put on the first show in the concourse at Sandown Park racecourse. An enormous length and a pristine setting.

New staging was bought (now the BS staging, still with BW logos on it !), a hawk display in the paddock, and very large garden setting surrounded with international flags, where we sold Budgerigar World magazines, and in the garden, a pond with four flamingos which startled everyone who entered.

The judges I picked personally, as it is my view that the finest experienced judges of the day, from anywhere in the world, should only be the ones considered. This is because breeders spend all year trying to win such an event.

Selecting judges “from a list” is an insult at national level, in my opinion. Clean up that policy internationally and you make progress and credibility.

Q3: New fanciers coming into the hobby are in the older age group so someone joining at sixty years of age will be seventy years of age before they can go on to the Budgerigar Society judges panel. Do you think there should be a fast track to get people on the panel? Or do you think the judge’s training scheme has had its day?

GSB:

Oh dear – what a question!

Such a suggestion can only make matters worse. I introduced the Judges Training Scheme in the London & Southern Counties Budgerigar Society years ago.

We had oral and written questions and six judges who presided over each prospective candidate making notes throughout as the candidates went round all six classes.

All those reports were spread out in front of the nominated Council of Judges where they were studied in great detail and it was the aim to get the candidates through where possible.

Most passed, but some were asked to re-take next year. Those who were obviously incapable – and there were quite a few – we failed.

The problem later was that they then went to the Budgerigar Society scheme and passed!

I still am of the opinion that all prospective judges should attend their Area Society Judges Scheme (or nearest) based on the same format, and then go to the Budgerigar Society morning for final assessment.

I cannot see the sense of having candidates going all over the country being “trained” by judges – but then Binks has different ways of management!

If you think about it, there are two major faults in the hobby. One is that the entry fees at shows are so low as to be laughable – because they don’t relate to the cost of halls or the club’s ability to do the very best for their members. Also, membership fees are so ludicrously low – so organisers are limited in what they can put on in the way of a serious display.

Secondly, there is no effort to publicise to the general public that the show either exists, or is in the local papers or is publicised outside the hall and around the town. That applies at the top level as well. Publicity is marketing – or vice versa. No outside publicity exists in the hobby in UK. That, combined with lack of finance, because of the above reasons, is the major problem – which continues to be ignored.

Q4: What do you think of the forum and the use of the World Wide Web to promote our hobby?

GSB:

I have to apologise, but with my time being so occupied with all that I have to do with my own website – www.budgerigar.co.uk, which has gone ballistic – I have not had enough viewings on the forum to pass a full comment.

However, I have heard that one fancier, who has an advert with the Forum, is being overwhelmed for stock.

Such is the power of promotion and advertising, as discussed above, that both your Forum Site and mine possess.

All internet promotions are the modern way of advertising – but we should all get to the general public, not just preach to the converted.

I now believe that printed magazines in our hobby have had their day – times have changed.

I gave my final lecture lasting two hours at the Budgerigar Society Convention in Woking in May 2011 – so ably organised by Roger Carr and Fred Wright, among others. Before I started I asked about 100 seated fanciers if they were on the internet – and at least 80% put up their hands.

Among birds being checked in was an outstanding bird (for its time) in full condition, and the buzz among the officials was on the lines of – “Here is the Best in Show”.

Overnight, both tail feathers disappeared!

They were not even on the cage floor. The question was, who was the culprit among the overnight stewards? Then it was realised that one of them had a very good bird in the same class. Such are the vagaries of human nature to win at all costs! The outcome, of course, was that no tail – no win!

Quality Nutrition is Everything

Anyway, that was yesterday, but in 2010 the problem takes on a different aspect which results in the same feeling of depression by the owner(s).

I refer, of course, to the fact that you can breed a super bird with all the right head qualities, depth of mask and so on, until it gets to 5-7 weeks of age and suddenly it loses its tail feathers! It can be earlier or later. The bird is what I have always thought – a borderline French Moult victim.

The reasoning is that the tails are the longest feathers in the budgerigar body, and thus require a perfectly nutritious metabolism to sustain these feathers soundly to full growth and permanence, until the first normal moult.

The Puzzle

So, your “Best in Show” winner has succumbed to the dreaded title of a “Tail-less wonder”.

It is now left with a familiar situation, where, for the very observant, the tips of the feathers that normally are left in the feather follicle, as in a standard French Moulter, are not there! I find this difficult to understand and so far I have no answer to it.

As the bird continues to grow, tiny new tail feathers start to appear – but then stop growing. If pulled out, you find a clean outer stump from within the follicle at the base, where growth has started, but stopped, as the poor nutrition (?) has failed to support them further.

To contradict this statement, we can now look at the adult “Tail-less wonder”. By the time the bird has reached, say, 10 months of age, it still continues to create the same kind of stumps as before – but it has, by then, a high quality metabolism because it has been fed under your good management. So why no normal tail growth at this stage?

Feeding Changes Can Cause Trouble

Obviously, we are not all good avian managers and so many fanciers try all sorts of commercial products (that may affect their studs adversely) in the hope that something “works”.

In “The Challenge” book, this is discussed at length. In my case, I realised many years ago that one new product can upset the complete metabolic balance that can easily precipitate French Moult. Budgerigars are very sensitive to nutritional changes!

Binks Receives A Hit!

By reason of a balanced nutritional input, I have not had any French Moult for years – unless I push a pair to breed too far and ask for trouble.

This season (2010) I have produced a light green normal chick that at 5 months of age looked superb. Mick Freakley and Geoff Tuplin saw it and waxed lyrical – but days later – no tails!

I immediately thought of something that has been in my mind for many many years. We have all these specialist veterinarians, some of whom are paid by various societies in the world, who deal with the basics of diseases that in the most part are well recorded and have been so for years. The question in my mind is simple and is vitally important to us breeders, namely: Why has no research been carried out on the tail loss factor?

Infected Follicles?

In the past decade we have swiftly become interested and have acted upon acquiring longer feathers and directional feathers on either side of the head, to create what I termed for the hobby as “The Buffalo Effect”.

Not easy to achieve, but the hobby at large is trying and is already succeeding in many aviaries. This has to put extra strain on avoiding the loss of tails for the reasons given above.

So, with this personal experience in mind, I approached Dr Rob Marshall for his (and I stress his) comments and the possibility of some positive research into the state of the follicles, post the loss of their tails.

My mind says:

• “How do I clean up the follicle, so that the growth can behave normally?“
• “What is inside the follicle that is stopping new tail growth?“
• “Is it an infection? If so, which bacterium is it, and how do we knock it on the head?“

Finding A Cure?

When I was approached, at the age of 19, with a kind invitation to join Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (for two years at her expense), I tried to join the Black Watch Regiment- as I have a Scottish (and Lancashire) background.

I was rejected for flat feet much to my now wife’s amusement!

So, I found myself in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and was eventually put in charge of The Medical Centre near Aldershot, under a gaggle of qualified Doctors.

Where is this getting to, you will be asking?

Well, I learnt a great deal in patient treatment – especially treating boils. We used a paste that was applied to the infection called Magnesium Sulphate paste. This is still available from your pharmacy. It has the capability to draw out all forms of nasty boils until they are clean and heal.

I decided to get some recently and, while it is early days, I am melting the paste and working it into the tail zone and seeing what happens – if anything! There have to be more modern treatments, of course, but I am currently stuck in the past!

Conclusion

I have now received the report from Dr Rob Marshall (see below).

Close scrutiny will reveal that the possibility of a cure has to overcome factors in the bird’s background – but my latest question to him is “How do you explain that the bird with the best head qualities – with the slightly longer feathers – is affected, but its nest mates – also stunning light greens – do not have the problem? Certainly ALL have the same genetic background!”

Please note: If you are serious about your hobby, I would urge you to obtain Dr Marshall’s book “The Budgerigar” which took 12 years to compile. Details of how to obtain a copy can be found below.

• Tails You Lose! – Part 2 of 2 (Dr Rob Marshall’s report)
• Dr Rob Marshall’s book – “The Budgerigar”

From: Bill Gillen, Australia

Hi Gerald,

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

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

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

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

Gerald responds:

Dear Mr Gillen,

You are safe to obtain Brewers Yeast from any source.

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

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

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

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

Gerald S Binks

When I wrote “The Challenge”, I omitted a guide that first appeared in my first book – “Best In Show”, published in 1974.

So, I am now pleased to correct the situation with this handy reference guide for breeders, enabling them to know exactly when to assist the struggling chick and particularly when not to intervene!

As we know, opening too early can reveal the chick which still has not absorbed the yolk into its body and it is pale and weak. The outcome is death! Opening too late and the chick for various reasons also dies, unless helped a fraction earlier. Close observation and timing are therefore vital assets to your husbandry.

Remember, if it is the first chick to hatch, leave the empty shell in situ and move the tiny chick to a pair you know feeds small hatchlings really well to increase its chances of survival. Also bear in mind that a pale chick may not make much squeaking noise.

It is the bright red chicks you want. A red chick will be fed as the hen will feed it easily, but if the chick does not call because it is exhausted and weak it may not be fed and will die.

Fanciers frequently blame a hen for “crushing” tiny chicks. Occasionally this is true especially when young hens are in use and have no idea what to do when a chick hatches. However, the most common reason is that non red chicks have not demanded to be fed and consequently look “flattened”.

At my stud at “Tanglewood”, I managed to lay my hands on an incubator. This is used entirely for two purposes, but strangely not for hatching eggs!

It contains large plastic eggs, from Germany in my case, plus a surgical mask that is there to warm up “cold” eggs that a hen has deserted, or, kicked to one side in the nest and also for chicks that have similarly been left to go cold.

Deserted chicks may often look dead and white, but it is surprising after a few hours how some can recover using an incubator. Remember it is vital to attempt to save every chick for your end of year tally and some of those could be Best In Show possible contenders.

The Freakley and Ainley partnership, based in Leicester and Rochdale in England, was formed in 2002 and has enjoyed a highly sucessful record at the Budgerigar Society Club Show, including back to back Best In Show awards in 2007 and 2008.

The DVD, entitled “FA1 – The Freakley & Ainley Partnership”, is a full colour professionally produced 90 minute film.

Packed with tips from the partnership, the DVD provides a rare insight into champion budgerigar breeders and exhibitors.

Features include:

• Bird room design
• Feeding
• Pairing
• Show preparation
• Interviews with leading fanciers

The DVD also features exclusive footage of the 2009 World Show.

The DVD can be purchased online via the Freakley and Ainley website: www.fa1-stud.co.uk

A preview of the film can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhvJi4QNsL4