Q1: What is the secret to maintaining a quality stud of budgerigars year after year?

GSB:

Unstinting good management and buying in outcrosses frequently, otherwise you produce small birds if a stud becomes too closely related.

Sell 10 birds and buy one.

Don’t put the sale money in your pocket or else the new buy becomes expensive instead of a swapping process.

Q2: What is your opinion on the modern budgerigar compared to all the different types you have seen throughout your career? Please refer to both the aesthetic part and the physiological part (size, breeding difficulties, vitality, and fertility).

GSB:

Good question!

Fanciers are apt to say:

The birds of yesterday were better than the birds we have today.

Not true at all. I have seen all the changes in progress in my 66 years at this hobby and the beauty of the top birds we have today far exceeds all predecessors.

The size of birds now is fantastic (look at the Best in Show Grey green of Les Martin’s at the 2010 Budgerigar Society Show, as well as his skyblue).

New standards are being set all the time – and now in the chase for width of face, we have what I termed “the Buffalo effect”, which has gone worldwide.

This faces us with an even greater challenge. Vitality and fertility, contrary to what many breeders think, with such big birds being infertile or difficult, is broadly incorrect.

It is a poor diet that causes such results and basically bad husbandry.

Yes, there are exceptions of course with individuals, but overall what I have said is correct.

Q3: Can you predict where the modern budgerigar will be in five years time? Have you looked beyond the “Buffalo” effect?

GSB:

Another good current question.

I am worried about the fact that I have seen birds that are already ugly with super heads, but dreadful carriage both of which are related to producing length of feather.

The word “Type” seems rarely to be heard, or even practised.

It is no use having “Buffalos” that exhibit drooping flights hanging below the body midline which exhibit narrow primaries and in some cases cannot fly.

I have seen it in several aviaries in the past few years, in the hunt breeders have for super head quality.

Without naming anyone, I know now where the long-flighted and long tails have come from – and it is not from the UK but outside the UK.

As Jo Mannes says, a budgerigar has to be a “charming budgerigar” – not a bag of long feathers and ugly faces.

Breeders beware!

Q4: September and March are the times when budgies are said to be in the peak of their breeding cycle. How do you build your birds up to get the best out of them?

GSB:

I do not, as such, as my feeding technique results, after my early mistakes and inexperience, are now near perfect.

Thus the birds come into condition naturally in September and March as the question states.

Why is this you ask? The reason is that there is still good natural light and this determines the condition factor. Artificial light is only on part of the day, so natural light is a massive factor.

This is born out by the chart in Dr Robert Marshall’s book “The Budgerigar” (it took 12 years to write) where he compares the northern and southern hemispheres as regards which are the perfect times to start breeding.

In both cases, he is dead right.

In the UK we drag our heels with decisions made by well meaning fanciers who stick to a ring date without thinking deeply. A 1st January ring issue date is fatal, as breeders work to that date and pair up for the rings for the early chicks.

Europe is far more advanced with a 1st November issue date so that pairing can be in September or early October – when there is still good light about!.

The great difficulty in budgerigar breeding is starting them.

Think about March as a month. For all my years, breeders have said it is better to start in March. It is of course the increase in light that makes it easier.

In my opinion the ring issue date and BS Show date, now being forecast to change back to November, should be re-visited fast, but then our BS gets itself strangled by the fact that rules can only be changed every three years!

Why do essential changes (that in business would be done immediately) take so long? Bizarre.

I am being constructive based on facts – nothing more – and if change is effected more rings will be sold as a result of more birds requiring rings!

Q5: What are your views on using birds with feather defects – in particular “tail less wonders” – or birds that do not keep a full complement of flight feathers? Do you feel this problem is genetic and by using birds like this could cause the problem to come out in larger numbers further down the line?

GSB:

“Tail less wonders” we obviously do not like – as it is associated with long feathers and the longest feather is the one feather that requires perfect nutrition in the aviary to grow to its full length.

Otherwise the tails succumb to borderline FM – which is what it is!

Such a bird will breed well and it will have no bearing on the chicks it produces – unless of course you haven’t paid attention to improving the diet and your husbandry.

It’s not genetic! It’s your fault!

Q6: Can you tell us a little of your selection process when looking for birds to retain for the following breeding season?

GSB:

I have a problem here.

I should have three flights and I only have two. You need three for sorting.

One for the adult keeps, one for young keeps and one for sales.

It is a big handicap here at “Tanglewood”, but I am too advanced in years to build another extension.

To answer the question is difficult for these reasons. I just have to use my eyes and decide what to keep along with plenty of quality reserves as backup.

Q7: You have been breeding exhibition Budgerigars for a very long time. If you were to start all over again, knowing what you do now, how would you go about it?

GSB:

Do nothing for a year.

In that time go round 50 aviaries in the UK and Europe and learn everything, without buying a thing.

Then analyse all your data on aviary design and quality birds and where they are and decide: What sort of budgerigar do I need to beat the rest? (That is ahead of any Ideal Budgerigar that is depicted.)

The one asset you need is DRIVE. Without it you will not get to the top.

Q8: Is there a particular fault in a bird that you just wouldn’t be prepared to work with?

GSB:

Long-flighted characteristics that can ruin a stud, which if present cannot be “worked out” by pairing to short feathered birds, back in, at a later date.

It is a terrible dominant genetic fault.

Q9: Do you have a number of different family lines? If so how many – and is there one more prolific than the others? Do you use lines as outcrosses, or do you go for outcrosses externally?

GSB:

There are three main lines here in the greens, grey greens and the blue series with, now, cinnamon being an important factor but used carefully.

My records are near perfect as anyone who has been here will tell you.

All lines are prolific with the odd exception here and there that we all get.

The longer I have been in the hobby the more I realise that quality outcrosses are a must.

The problem is where to get them and it is only the bigger breeders that have the numbers from which to be able to let you have what you want.

Existing lines are not used as outcrosses.

Robert’s query:

After visiting and discussing the birds diet, I was alarmed at the suggestion by my friend that chlorine in the water kills most, if not all, vitamin supplements that we administer in water. This to include Cytacon, Abidec and I imagine others.

This was passed on to him by a pharmacist.

Your views please.

For the correct answer, I wrote to Dr Gloria Havenhand of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK. Gloria is known throughout the hobby and is fully qualified to answer. She is married to top budgerigar breeder Don Havenhand.

Here is Gloria’s answer in full:

As we all know, most councils add chlorine to our drinking water – and if the council says it is okay – it is okay is it not?

Mainly, chlorine is added to stop harmful bacteria growing at a rate of knots in our water supply.

Remember, our drinking water is mostly recycled sewage water!

Chlorine is the “chariot of carnage” for bacteria like E.coli – but do remember that if chlorine can affect one organism, it is as likely to affect another, and another, in some way or other.

Remember all of you – chlorine gas was pumped into the faces and lungs of your great grandfathers in the First World War (1914–1918). It killed and maligned thousands on the battlefield by destroying lung and throat membranes within a few short breaths!

Chlorine is a halogen – in the same group as fluorine, bromine and iodine. These are never naturally found in nature! They can be killers above a dose of 1,000 parts in 1 million in humans and less than 100 parts per million in birds and small mammals.

They have highly unpleasant and suffocating fumes, can burn flesh and are certainly toxic. That is why they decimate bacteria!

DDT, the disaster chlorine-based pesticide of the 1960’s, was eventually banned in 1973 in the USA – it was cumulative in muscle and hence the meat and fish we all ate. DDT caused hormonal and central nervous disruption in humans and a multitude of animals sledging down the food chain. Guess what – DDT is back again today and used against the malarial parasite.

It is difficult to sit easy about any chemical – it has the habit of déjà vu!

So, where does this leave us with chlorine and the question of its effect on vitamins?

Take heed that chlorine slays most of the good bacteria in our intestines and probably that in birds too!

Bacteria spearhead the production of vitamins like vitamin B12 and vitamin K within the intestine. This is why we have so many ads on TV for Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli – good bacteria which elbow out the nasty pathogens our gut develops when slaked with chlorine, fluorine and antibiotics of any description!

You all apply and dose ill birds with antibiotics, slaying vitamins and good bacteria at a swipe!

So you choose.

Less is more – I would advise.

This is why so many bird fanciers use bee propolis essence – the natural antibacterial from the beehive – essential to apply to feather problems externally and immune boost internally and which has no detected effect on vitamin and nutritional absorption.

Vitamin absorption and use by date are singularly time based – so a daily supplement is okay – but is just waiting around the intestinal bend to be devastated in its form!

Use you head and your heart.

Further Reading:

• Halogens
• Bee Propolis Essence

The classic example is easily seen by judges who do exactly that, which can cause problems especially if they are not accustomed to breeding a new advancement of this or that feature.

During the past 8 years, such a feature has become highly desirable. This is a change in the way the feathers grow from their follicles in a different direction in the head region.

It is understandably called “Directional Feathering” and is now perhaps the most wanted feature by most breeders around the world.

The high-headed narrow-faced budgerigar is a matter for the past and there is little doubt that those great breeders, who have regrettably passed on, would be amazed at the strides that have been made with feather length and direction in such a short space of time.

How to Breed with Directional Feathering

If you want to breed a stud that is prepotent (i.e. every bird possesses the genetic background to consistently breed a specific feature to whatever it is paired), then each bird you use to begin with has to exhibit that visible feature.

You may have to buy it in to start with and then work hard to spread it across the stud.

It should be emphasised that the result of directional feathering is when the bird is examined from head on. The line that is created with the feathers either side of the beak, begins low down and sweeps up and around the cere before dropping down on the opposite side.

Gerald Binks called this line “The Buffalo Effect” in 2004 when accidentally pencilling the feathering line, just described, on a photograph and it jumped out at him that the line duplicated the horns of the water buffalo.

The phrase is now part of budgerigar terminology.

It is important to remember, that to start with, it is the direction of the feathers of the pairs selected that is vital. Their length is not so vital to begin with. That will follow. Once you have the direction fixed you are on your way.

Conclusion

There are dangers to be mentioned.

In the process of developing our “buffalo faces”, we have to be aware that the body feathers are also lengthened.

These may result in a very untidy and loose feather appearance to the rest of the body and indeed the face.

So here is the next challenge! How do we achieve the quality “Buffalo Effect” at the “top end”, but at the same time retain type and stance with the feathers clear of the perch, in conjunction with the overall length of the exhibit?

It is entirely possible that the directional feathering can be overdone to the detriment of bird(s) in question, so that to be perfectly factual you end up with what can only be described as an ugly specimen and hardly worth the name of a “budgerigar”.

We as fanciers have to tread a very fine line as we improve, so watch the type as you strive for width and “Buffalos”.

Success is the opposite of failure. The former can only be realised when we breed many Best in Show Winners.

Examples of Directional Feathering

To view examples, please click on the images below.

Which Ideal Budgerigar?

Mr Evans referred to the beautiful, well shaped and proportioned bird looking like the Ideal Budgerigar.

My initial question is: “to which Ideal is he referring?”

Is it the one published by the Budgerigar Society in the 1980s, or the most recent one published with its “buffalo effect” – very well illustrated in the second edition of The Challenge book, with the modern frontal view, by Roy Aplin?

Feather Engineering

Mr Evans said the modern bird is about feather and, of course, he is correct.

It is called “feather engineering”.

The body has not changed greatly since the 1980s but the length and shape of the feathers has changed radically as well as their direction.

The judges, especially those who do not breed these buffalo faced types, have to struggle, but nevertheless they have to move with the times or look silly.

An Ideal has to be ahead of what is currently being bred so that we can strive to improve to that standard.

Some features are always being surpassed but others are not. Some features are being overdone so that the beauty of the budgerigar is lost – but those extremes can be reduced fairly easily.

Therefore a lot of small features have to be worked with to achieve what is desired, to bring the breeder complete satisfaction.

Catch Up

Mr Evans is right in saying we are going too far in some cases, but this is the fault of breeders who simply follow the herd without deep thought and cannot see the small changes that the skilled breeders are doing.

In other words they are on “catch-up” continually.

When I returned to the hobby six years ago, after a ten year break, the first thing I noticed was the extra length of feather and the lack of body and shortness of body on birds.

Straightaway, I thought of the combination of the more yellow / medium feathered birds of the 1980s and 1990s, with a bigger body than the birds I was looking at, at that time.

What we are looking for today, is a combination of directional feather along with tiny features that only experience will reveal in our studs.

The Jigsaw Puzzle

Yes, of course we still have what I term as “bags of salt” draped round the perches, but has nobody noticed that this awful stance is disappearing?

Be very attentive at shows and look closely at all the birds and you will see these changes.

Building an Ideal is like completing a jigsaw puzzle and most of the difficulties are finding where the smallest pieces exist to be able to complete the picture.

The Missing Pieces

When we recall the bird breeding in the past, to the times when breeders were approaching “The Ideal” of the day, they acted in the same way.

In those days, you could find the tiny pieces in a lot of aviaries if you were focused on those missing pieces and they were there if you hunted for them.

You worked with the purchases. You did not buy your way to the top, but bred them to beat the opposition.

The late Harry Bryan was THE man of the period to spot those missing fragments and he was the classic breeder who worked with each of them to produce his next winner.

So focus on what you think your birds are missing but strive at it to create a new Ideal that is ahead of its time.

The standards that are drawn and written are a guide only and can be interpreted in different ways by each breeder. Be an individual and create a world class bird in your own way.

That is the way to breed top class exhibition budgerigars.

I was in touch with Peter van Amelsvoort recently and we discussed the matter of feather problems that occur in budgerigars.

If they are pets or show birds, the problems are the same, but best avoided. Today, we have big birds, but with, in some cases, narrow primary flights which have not broadened sufficiently during their early growth in the nest.

The result could be seeing a lot of birds on the flight floors, but that is too big an assumption in most cases as so many birds these days actually like to spend time on the floor hunting around for scraps and bathing where possible, but they are all on the perches at night.

If you are to avoid narrow flighted birds, you have to have first class nutrition in the first place and quality feeding from the parents.

That does not always happen.

The alternative is to have such birds in stock cages all the time, but that is defeating matters.

What is needed is a selective approach to using only birds that can fly perfectly and gradually get the primaries wider vis-à-vis their overall size.

A suggestion is that we select wide and long feathers on the head region, but shorter feathers below the spot line on the wings and tails. Difficult, but not impossible.

This was the background to me approaching Daniel Lütolf in Switzerland for his thoughts.

My question to him was simply could these different feather structures be achieved in the one bird?

Daniel Lütolf

I agree that feather problems may be come a bigger problem than it already is.

I do not think that the canary or pigeon fanciers suffer very much with this area, but all the parents, grand-parents and so on of a bird about to be purchased have to be checked first before using them.

Attention must be paid to looking at all the primary, secondary and tail feathers when you are buying a bird and of course looking for developing cysts at the same time.

Strict rules and attention to see if a bird has any of these problems, has to take precedence over any other qualities a bird possesses. It’s the only way to rid a stud of such problems.

A breeder has to check all his birds individually for such features before he goes out buying new outcrosses and act accordingly. Commonsense tells you this.

It is not a secret that I buy in about 10 birds each year. The problem I have is where to buy the right birds in a quality sense, that also have no feather problems at all and are good flyers, however big they are.

Birds that are not fully complete can be used successfully provided there are no cysts at all including on the wing butts and up in the tail region.

When I get, say, 12 chicks from a pair and two top ones have a mild feather problem, I will note it but breed successfully with them. Normally the resulting chicks are fully feathered because they have received a better quality nutritional input from the parents, in particular from the hen. A borderline french moulter, for instance, will not necessarily breed the same problems. Nor will the next generation.

I do not like studs with small flights where the birds tend to just sit there and not fly frequently. Your question Jos, is a difficult one that we all face.

Somehow we have, as breeders, to find a balance between long feathers in the head region and much stronger feathers on the wings and body.

This is the big challenge, but few people really examine their birds carefully for these features before they go out to buy new stock with the same problems.

Dr Robert Marshall has responded in “Tails You Lose! – Part 2 of 2″.

So if you have experienced this and have some reaction, do please add a comment at the end of the article(s).

Naturally it is a problem that should be able to be cracked – somebody may even have found a cure to clean up the feather follicle to allow new growth to re-appear. If so, please do contribute.

Leave it to me to follow up any sound suggestions and I will take it from there.

GSB: Apart from an overall treatment in the first instance, if it has never been done before, you should not treat again unnecessarily.

The sensible action is to isolate ALL new arrivals in a separate room and treat them immediately before release into the main stud.

Your outside flight must also be covered on the roof to prevent any indigenous infected birds excreting into it and thus infecting your disease free stud.

There are countless examples of fanciers ignoring these basic rules and budgerigars being lost in good numbers

When buying a bird, what should I check before parting with my hard-earned money?

GSB: Firstly examine the bird closely. Is it tight in feather or loose feathered and huddled? Catch it and check for the following:

1. Is it clean round the vent area and with no stained feathers?
2. Is it full in the hand and has bright eyes?
3. Look for and feel for any cysts around the lower gut area and in particular examine the wing butts where cysts are easy to miss.
4. Feel the crop. Is it normal with some seed inside it or is it bloated – which raises a question about the bird’s digestive tract?

My aviary is completely enclosed. What should I do about the lack of direct sunshine with its vital vitamin D factor?

GSB: Vitamin D that is lost in this way should be replaced artificially via multivitamin solutions and / or cod liver oil bought from your pharmacy.

Should hens be taken to shows?

GSB: Hens are generally more easily stressed during transport and while being moved around inside the exhibition. I suggest that you take them to no more than two to three shows only and certainly not three day shows.

On arrival home from a show, give them every care and attention and allow them access to food and grit before extinguishing the lights should you arrive home late.

Do not overshow them and they will subsequently breed well.

Streptococcus Faecalis

Fanciers will have seen a bird(s) with the nostrils within the cere exuding a fluid. This is often associated with darkened feathers immediately above the cere. The fluid can also possess a foul smell. At the same time, the nostrils can be seen to be closing as the fluid slowly hardens around the nasal apertures.

These symptoms are classic signs of a streptococcus infection, specifically streptococcus faecalis. It is a natural inhabitant of the gut which keeps the inborn bacteria that a budgerigar possesses at a level to prevent intestinal disease. Bring in stress however and the balance is upset. Travelling can cause it, especially birds being transported between European and UK breeders over long distances.

Also, birds with megabacteria can be linked with streptococcus infection.

Ideally, such birds should receive a 7 day long course of Amoxicillin Trihydrate. This will clear the infection in association with nutritional suplements, but in the case of birds with other underlying problems may not be effective. A swab taken via your veterinary practice will confirm, or otherwise, if this is the problem.

The above is an extracted precis from Dr Robert Marshall’s superb 2009 publication “The Budgerigar”. The book comes in hardback, contains some 415 pages and over 2000 colour photographs and charts.

Gerald Binks says of the book:

Taking 12 years to produce, there has never been a more extensive volume to help our birds survive when ill. It is a perfect volume to have to hand.

To order your copy, please use the links on the Dr Robert Marshall page.

This glossary of terms is here to answer such questions.

If you have heard a term used that does not appear here, please contact us and we’ll add it to the list below.

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A beginner faces many problems. At shows, all he/she sees are rows and rows of birds. He/she can spot the winner of a class and those unplaced, but filling in the gap and knowing the reason the sixth bird beat the seventh is beyond him/her. He/she knows perhaps a little about nutrition and he/she has some idea that his/her children grow more quickly with a sound diet. He/she wants to get involved in the hobby, breed some birds and get the pleasure of the “hands on” feeling of being in charge of a real stud.

What is a Stud? A true stud is a group of inter-related livestock which all possess similar high quality features which are highly desirable to everyone. If these parameters do not exist then you possess a “collection” and no more.

Looking at Detail

My advice is to spend the first year looking around. In that year you will need to study birds and by that is meant close study, not a fleeting glance. Every bird possesses fine detail. Each one has a different feather density and pattern. They have differing lengths, widths and direction which all combine to create quality, or otherwise. Feathers can make or break the showbird or result in the stockbird, the latter possessing more faults than the former. Until you can foresee an Ideal Budgerigar, which is slightly ahead of its time, from every aspect and feature, then you will be breeding budgerigars which will soon be left behind in the pursuit of excellence.

The author is on record for spotting a critical measurement in quality birds that he had not seen in 25 years of practical breeding and showing. That said, nobody else had spotted it either. The point is that you think you are looking at show features, but often you can miss the obvious. Only experience can overcome these difficulties, with a near obsession for the hobby.

Initial Purchases

So Mr/Mrs Beginner you’ve done your opening homework. What do you do now after your gleaming aviary is finished and is ready for stock? Certainly your travels will have left an impression, but you may not have thought about which style of bird you want to breed. It is no use buying a selection of good birds. They have to be the right birds with the right faces. When you look at a person it is their face you look at first of all. The same applies to budgerigars.

Look at the Ideal and look for birds with the qualities that can push the budgerigar ahead of the Ideal. Some fanciers will possess birds that have some of those features. Concentrate on them and buy them or their older relatives which may be cheaper. Buy this bird with width, that bird with length, those with type and so on. Try to buy every feature that is needed in YOUR IDEAL. If one feature is missing then the house of cards will fall.

Spots are very important. You can breed outstanding birds, but if the spots are small the impact is lost. A bird without large spots is like a man in a suit without a tie. Both are unfinished. Learn the hereditary faults such as hinged tails and short masks. Think about buying some select three year old cocks that you have confirmed, bred well in their last year. They will go on to breed very good birds and the outlay will have been much less.

Always try to buy young hens initially, and subsequently breed your own, if at all possible. Everyone needs hens. Remember it is the hens that have a strong bearing on spots and it is the hens which give more problems than cocks when breeding.

Areas to Avoid

Birds at exhibitions possess, in general, one vital feature. It is called SWANK. Without it established in your stock from the start, you will not compete for the top awards.

What are the features that contribute to swank? Firstly, length has to be evident. With length in your birds you can create a smart bird with all the other features, but build up those features on a short bodied bird and all you create is a cobby bird, as it is termed, with which you can do very little. You must learn to appreciate the length of a bird’s body from the top of the wing butt to the perch. This is the feature the author missed for years and it is so important. It dictates the length of body and also the stance. Budgerigars with swank look down, not up. This is partly created by the head feather formation. Some birds stretch upwards and possess an aristocratic look. That’s swank! Avoid buying birds that lie across the perch thus reducing the length just referred to.

Avoid visually poor birds when you first buy, irrespective of the entreaties of the seller that, “it’s related to my Best in Show winner from my best line”.

Avoid purchasing birds from unhygienic aviaries. Birds often carry hidden diseases from such places.

Avoid fanciers who only have a few top quality birds with no depth of quality behind them. You want to buy from aviaries that possess large numbers of outstanding birds because you will want to buy from them again, in future years, to sustain that line.

Beware being sold birds that have had difficulty breeding; hence, purchase young untried hens! Ask the breeder to show you his/her breeding records before you make your final decision. The author has always had the practice, for first time buyers to his aviary, of offering to change any bird that doesn’t breed, provided the bird is returned fully fit. This applies only to the first visit. After that initial help, the purchaser is on his/her own. Other breeders criticise this as being too generous, on the grounds that the birds are often in unskilled hands. In practice, it works out at perhaps one bird a year being changed and it is an endorsement of your reputation at the same time. Look for such breeders.

Final Advice

A very sensible policy is to buy from two studs only. Remember that by buying all over the place you accumulate all manner of hidden faults as well as good visual features. Selecting two studs which possess the style of bird you want to breed, which could even be cross related in themselves, is perfect.

Keep the picture of the birds you want to breed uppermost in your mind at all times and don’t buy stock that doesn’t possess some of the details required to achieve your ambition.

When you acquire your initial birds, be patient with them. You are inexperienced, so accept that and remember livestock doesn’t always behave as you would wish it. If 75 per cent of them breed well, be pleased with that to begin with and learn from the habits of those who have misbehaved.

Reinhard Molkentin, the world famous German fancier now living in South Africa once said, “The outstanding fancier has a vision of a bird of the future. He/she can see special features and he/she selects birds with those vital feather features and puts them together.” Nothing has changed since then.