Q1: Please explain your feeding regime – including any extras you may give for the breeding season, and do you stop these extras at the end of the breeding season?

GSB:

Keep a variety of seeds so that the birds can select what they want, but keep the canary seed content high as it contains the highest protein.

Extras are a multivitamin (Abidec here in the UK) and vitamin B12 (Cytacon here in the UK), plus the seed mixture is given a low dose of cod liver oil (vitamins A & D) all year, to ensure that the birds’ metabolism is high and they then breed well, rather than sit there and do nothing.

I also give Hormova and essential minerals.

Routine is year round. Budgerigars object to changes in diet.

Q2: Please explain the importance of giving grit in our birds’ diet

GSB:

Whatever else you may have read about grit not being needed, forget it.

Nature provides an organ in the digestive system called a gizzard. It is a very strong muscular organ with a tough lining. Its purpose is to muscularly move and – provided there are two types of grit being provided (soluble and insoluble) – it will work perfectly to grind down the seed intake so that it is easily digested.

No grit – no proper digestion.

Grit must be replaced weekly – no longer than that.

No grit — no teeth!

Q3: What single product do you consider the best you have used throughout your breeding career? Also do you think it is still a strong contender among the other maybe more modern, products?

GSB:

Undoubtedly Hormova – not Hormoform.

It is sold by Harkers in the UK and used by some European breeders.

It recently changed its base powder from a red appearance to white. Some breeders find the birds reject this and I have passed that back to Harkers and they are looking to change it back again.

I thought it would make no difference and said so – but I was wrong.

Fed in finger drawers, the overall vitamin content is perfect and I first saw it 55 years ago in Joe Collyer’s aviary. Fertility and chicks were there in bucket loads.

Many modern products are made by well meaning manufacturers – but they are in the main, not budgerigar breeders.

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.

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

GSB: Firstly, it is vital that you keep an accurate record of any bird that is paired that possesses flecking of any density whatsoever. Grade it as a percentage of density, in your opinion. In this way you will create details of any flecking present in the pedigree of each bird for future reference.

So, you have a flecked quality cock that obviously you want to pair to a visually clean headed hen – otherwise the problem will be deepened. You now refer to the background of the hen. Has she any flecking hidden there in her history?

No – then pair her to the flecked cock.

Yes – then find another partner.

The results will be say in a nest of five chicks, one clean headed bird ,one or more slightly flecked and perhaps one dense in flecking. Discard what is not usable and note all details on your records.

Would you recommend installing an ioniser in the aviary?

GSB: Frankly no. Its purpose is to make dust particles coagulate so they drop to the floor quickly and keep the air cleaner.

With aviaries, the problem is that our birds are kept behind wire cage fronts or flights with retaining wires, or mesh. This fact prohibits the action of your ioniser taking effect, as the wires act as an impenetrable field.

The result is that the birds’ air cannot be cleaned, and putting an ioniser in, say, the flights, could be a serious hazard to the birds should they chew the device.

What should I do if I have some hens with white ceres which never change to brown?

GSB: If the hens are feather fit and active, pair them up.

The problem is connected to an imbalance in the endocrine system with the ductless glands. These include the thyroid, the pituitary, the gonads and the adrenals among others.

The same cause can result in a cock bird with a perfectly blue cere that turns dark brown – an imbalance of the ductless glands of which the pituitary is “the conductor of the endocrine orchestra”.

Pairing may stimulate this system and good results can be obtained in many cases.

Why is cod liver oil often recommended, as the birds do not ingest the husks?

GSB: Cod liver oil has three main constituents – vitamins A & D plus iodine.

Tests were done many years ago on seeds coated with relatively small amounts of cod liver oil and it was proven that in allowing the seed to absorb the oil for 12-24 hours, the kernels had absorbed the oil through the husks.

Also oil is swallowed as the husk is sucked by the birds.

Cod liver oil is seriously valuable for its vitamin contents as these give health and great energy to the stock, as well as the iodine content for the thyroid – without which budgerigars do not reproduce easily.

Aviary Maintenance – External

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

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

Aviary Maintenance – Internal

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

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

Nest Boxes

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

Incubator

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

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

Increasing Fertility

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

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

Seed Mixtures

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

Avian Flu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Searching for the perfect diet

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

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

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

The Importance of Grit

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

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