Personally I would prefer “looking after the hens” in the first place as being a far more positive way of looking at this problem.

This is the second of a two part article – you can read part one here.

Additives

I am no great user of additives. For many years, I used probiotics every week, but I use them less frequently these days and there are no obvious difficulties.

I do sincerely believe that if it is necessary to use antibiotics at any time, a good probiotic however is essential to replace the good bacteria in the gut systems after treatment.

As far as a vitamin supplement is concerned, I would use a multivitamin solution such as “Abidec” (obtainable from most pharmacies). This will bring the birds into solid breeding condition just before pairing. Used in the water a couple of days per week will make a huge difference to the hens.

Spraying Your Birds

I do not use outside flights these days as I believe our larger hens do not benefit from the outside stresses that can occur.

I prefer large inside flights, but I do spray the birds regularly. Once those young birds start to molt, as I have said earlier, this gives great benefits as described. Certainly their condition improves drastically.

I often visit other birdrooms and see the birds on display. Almost every time I look into a flight I think, “These birds could do with a good spray”.

Birds that are not sprayed appear to have hard, dry feathers, in contrast to a sprayed bird which appears to exhibit a softer look.

Breeding Ages

For myself, young hens always breed better than over-year hens.

I remember the late Harry Bryan telling me to use hens as young as 5 months of age when they were fit and in condition. He said at the time that they breed well at that age, but might not do so later if left after the conventional age of 9-10 months minimum.

I tried it for several seasons with success, but when used later, those hens were spoiled and became almost useless in a second season.

Today I wait longer and let such young birds mature internally and take such care with them that they breed well in their second and third seasons. A lesson to be learned when buying. Ask when were they first used and at what age?

Preparing to Breed

All the good management I have discussed, but now the trick to use, when the birds approach breeding fitness, is done by increasing the artificial lighting hours and steadily increase the fully lit day to which the birds will respond.

A good spraying on selected hens will also help advance their fitness to breed. It works!

In the winter months you can increase the heat to say 50 degrees F (10 degrees Centigrade) which is sufficient for the birds and yourself .

Pair Selection

In my opinion it makes no difference if the pairs are placed into the breeding cages together immediately.

Some fanciers prefer to select the cocks and they go into the cages first, followed by the hens later.

Others do the reverse.

I am not fixed on any system, but I do like to see the pairs reacting when introduced. I then know they are fit for breeding.

There has to be a reaction of some sort. Some mate instantly, others may just “kiss” and others may be aggressive to one another. If there is no reaction at all I leave them for a few days and watch. If still nothing, I break them immediately and try them later.

Post Breeding Procedures

After breeding, your birds need rest, time to recover and re-build those muscles used during the breeding months.

I try to have two rounds from a pair, occasionally three. Feeding too many chicks by a pair is too stressful for the hens and my preference is four similar sized chicks to each box.

Two rounds of four is enough for most hens and good sized chicks will result.

Taking a third round from a hen is satisfactory, but I do not let such hens rear their chicks. If you do, then your hens are virtually useless the following season.

Taking down the Pairs

When I split up the birds, or what some call “taking down the pairs”, I like to put the hens immediately into a double breeding cage and this is the “Rest Cage” where they can build up their stamina again and particularly their muscle tones.

Taking them straight from the boxes and direct to the big flights gives them little chance to re-form their bodies for the next season.

Once they are well rested, then they go into the big flights and can withstand the competition and get full exercise along with top grade feeding.

The Over Year Hens

I leave the over year hens in the flights and tend not to show them.

I believe firmly they need months of rest before returning to another two rounds of breeding.

First time breeding hens (and they are often 8-10 months old) do not seem to know what to do when their first chick hatches.

A solution is to quickly put in a slightly older chick that has been fed and calling for more food and that stimulates the “novice hen” to feed both. Once she has the message, the older chick can be replaced in its original nest.

Egg Binding

I am fortunate in that I never seem to get a case of egg binding in my stud.

This is because of the preceding good husbandry that I practice.

They always have access to cuttlefish bone and oyster shell grit. I am not a fan either of calcium supplements as from what I have seen, the shells are so thick that it causes dead-in-shell because the chicks cannot fight their way out at 18 days.

Problems – Internal Layers – Prolapses and “No Interest”

The above are all serious problems, but again I say that if the hens are well prepared, they will avoid such matters and breed very well.

Good preparation avoids such problems.

Internal layers (hens that have the normal copious droppings but do not lay eggs) need to be replaced in the flights and put on standby. They are useless as breeders.

Hens that show no interest are different. You have to look at the bird and decide what the reason could be?

If she looks fit, she should breed, but if not put her back in the flight, watch her with others and it may be she has a liking for a certain cock bird and that is the reason? Think it through!

Buying Hens

This is never to be recommended, but we all have to do it sometimes especially those who are starting in the hobby.

Always try to buy young untried hens, the younger the better.

If they are young, perhaps bar-headed hens and unmolted, they then molt in your aviary and breed very well as they feel they have been born there. Hens always breed better in the aviary they have been born in.

Buying over year hens has to be a process of caution. Most are unreliable. You must trust your seller, check the design of his nesting boxes and if you have the same design, but still she will not breed – make a different design and the result can be amazing.

The Last Word

My last tip about hens that refuse to go to nest is simple.

Is the nest box open?

It has happened to all of us at some time or other.

Rarely do our birds let us down, but they will if you have not followed all this advice about your hens, so be warned.

Personally I would prefer “looking after the hens” in the first place as being a far more positive way of looking at this problem.

Caring for Your Hens

In my opinion, it is a matter of caring for your hens really well if you want success in the nest boxes.

You have to allow them to develop properly after they leave the nest as young chicks. Wean them slowly and allow them to molt in small flights where they are not stressed. Be patient and let them grow and build up muscle and never keep them in the stock cages too long, thinking you are preparing them for shows.

Remember never, never over show hens! Always think about showing the cocks and have a reluctance to benching your valuable hens, which are the key birds for your coming breeding season.

Hen management is not easy –it does not just happen without effort. And it`s not entirely about feeding lots of additives, but rather giving natural foods, good lighting, exercise, and heat during cold periods when necessary. We all want to produce top quality budgerigars in good numbers, so forget showing week in week out.

Care for those hens and they will reward you well.

The Weaning Process – Part 1

I always think about weaning the chicks from the moment they are about to learn how to feed for themselves.

At three weeks of age, I start to put pieces of soaked millet sprays in the appropriate nest boxes. This allows them to learn to feed much earlier than usual and once they leave the nest box, they know immediately what a millet spray is and feed straight away.

A sure sign is that they do not lose that weight they have acquired in the nest box quickly – a big advantage. Fast self feeding retains their weight. If they lose weight, their development is checked and they are quite simply knocked back for a long time.

Care and management is everything from the start of weaning.

I take chicks away from their parents earlier than most other breeders. I do this to reduce the chances of them being attacked by either of the parents. I use double breeding cages as weaning cages with about 8-10 birds in each section.

It is here that they will stay until they are almost three months old when the “bars” on their heads are starting to disappear and break. The first molt is making its appearance. It is now that I transfer them into a small inside flight.

The Weaning Process – Part 2

As I transfer these young babies, I check their flights and tails, removing any broken ones. They then get sprayed early in the day and then dry off in their new small flight, placing them on the perches as I do so.

I prefer inside flights and never longer than 8 feet (2.44 metres). Anything longer is too stressful for them.

They are then sprayed at least twice per week. Never a thorough soaking – just a light spray. This allows the water to assist the new feathering to grow through by keeping them soft and clean. It also encourages the birds to preen themselves by training them in this essential operation.

Obviously both hens and the cocks are treated identically at this point in their growth – it’s just good husbandry and aviary management.

It is the exception rather than the rule for me to run such young babies into show cages so early. I think it causes stress far too much and the only time I run a baby into a show cage is when I have a visitor in the birdroom and I want to show him something special.

My aviary is about producing breeding stock for the following season and not birds for the show bench.

Perhaps I have the emphasis wrong but showing never seems to improve my stud, but a successful breeding season, by contrast, takes me forward.

The Early Months

In the small inside flights the birds are molting steadily.

Keep up the spraying and never be reluctant to handle your birds at this time, running them through your hands so they are used to it. Check each bird as you do so for broken feathers and remove appropriately. This applies particularly to the tail feathers.

Massive flights tend to result in “wild” young birds that are unsteady when we do want to show a few or even start them breeding earlier than usual.

The modern post millennium budgerigars are bigger and more densely feathered than the birds of the past and are certainly more difficult to breed with – especially the hens of course.

Such big hens can be reluctant to fly from end to end in the big flights. It is not that they cannot fly at all, they just like to climb and perch rather than using their wings. I encourage such hens to perch by having perches closer to the floor area.

Many birdrooms have the lowest perches about 4 feet (1.2 metres) from the floor. Lower perches at least encourages these bigger hens to perch rather than gain too much weight on the floors.

Over Showing

Over showing seems to knock back your budgerigars.

It takes a lot out of a bird being out of its normal “home” and this is one reason that one-day shows in the UK have become more popular.

If the birds are really fit and well, the cocks can recover quickly, but the hens take far longer.

Show a hen several times in a show season, especially on consecutive weekends, and it is enough to jeopardise its breeding performance.

It is the experienced fanciers who show the cocks frequently. They protect their hens and only bench them at the top shows when necessary.

My Feeding Practices

This is really not the right place to discuss feeding, but its importance is obvious.

I do not believe that a simple mix of 50% canary and 50% millets is enough.

If you decide to feed what we call a 50 / 50 mix, it’s important to supplement it with a tonic seed containing a variety of other seeds including hemp and rapeseed, but I prefer a basic mixture that includes the seeds found in a tonic seed.

I am not a fan of feeding soaked oats, but I do feed them dry, or even unsoaked, as groats.

Softfood

I feed a quality commercial softfood throughout the year.

I use, what I believe to be the best that I can buy and then add hard boiled eggs and grated carrot.

Some breeders just feed this “extra” during the breeding season, but I feed it throughout the year on a daily basis.

Our heavier birds (and that of course includes the hens which are buff feathered) need more protein, and that begins with the eggs that are laid.

Hard boiled egg also improves the feather quality and colour of the finished articles.

Good sound feeding helps to build up the hens and combined with exercise, it gives muscle rather than just added weight which can be just fat.

Throughout the year, my birds also get an amount of spinach twice per week.

Part two of this article can be read here.

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1950s

In those days, nest box designs were the “leftovers” from pre-second world war thinking. They were designed to be placed inside a cage and hooked on to the rear facing cage wall with the nest hole facing the light. Other “leftovers” were like minature desks, where the parents entered via a hole on the top and squeezed down vertically. Watching them emerge was always good for a smile and a laugh, as can be imagined.

My great friend Jim Moffat used these and even up to his passing in the last decade, still had a few pairs using this box design. Old habits die hard!

It was not long before I realised that breeders were, like myself, having many problems, particularly when trying to retrieve the box for inspection, unhooking it, then seeing the hen, or the pair, dashing around and trying not to drop the box with one hand. Needless to say, at best, the eggs were scattered all over the place and many times damaged. The final irritation was when the fancier entered his birdroom, all the hens would come off the eggs to have a look at him. Lots of faces would appear to see the newcomer. This could not continue, as far as I was concerned. So my thinking cap went on.

Nest Box Design Changes

With hindsight, it is easy to look at today’s designs and accept what we have, but back then we were stuck with what we had. I realised that a box had to have the following changes listed below, to avoid the above disasters, but with the added sound reasoning required which would suit the breeding birds, before such a change was made.

So I addressed the following:

• 1 – Overcome the danger of dropping the box.
• 2 – Overcome the problem of massive disturbance and smashed eggs.
• 3 – Overcome the hens leaving their eggs when you entered the aviary.
• 4 – Overcome unhooking the box with the adult birds inside.
• 5 – Overcome the chicks dropping out too soon and either dying from cold before you got home or similarly overnight.

I started with items three and four! Build a test nesting box which could be placed on the outside of the cage, ideally on the front with the entrance hole facing away from the light. This, I hoped, would work.

In the inside I had the usual concave base. This box was up for a full season and when empty a new pair introduced. The result? A massive improvement with more chicks in that box than anywhere else!

I had 20 cages at that time. Still thinking about it. I could see that hooking on this box was stupid. Fine for taking over to the bench to inspect, but the parents were difficult to dislodge and if you held your hand under the box, it was cold. I wanted it warm! In fact doubly warm and that gave me another idea.

Why not have a double box, one inside the other with the outer box bolted to the cage? So, I scrapped that first test and re-designed again. The result? Even better! Steadiness with the parents, box solid with no movement on the cage front and with a round perch sticking out under the nest hole protruding into the cage for perching.

The last was also a developing problem as I found that a round perch became slippery with use, so a square perch, as with the major perches in all cages, was fitted. Finally, I had forgotten about the chicks dropping out too early. The new test box was the same as previously in depth from the base of the entrance hole to the concave. Back to the drawing board and try an 8 inch (20 cm) drop. Certainly better and by this time various manufacturers were taking notice and marketing, “The Binks Type Double Nest Box”.

That snowballed and a few years later everyone had them. Then the Binks name vanished – hardly surprising and understandable, but the hobby was breeding bigger birds and was the better for it.

Darker is Better

In 2000, a visit to Jim Laurie in Scotland made me think yet again. He was a breeder who had very thick walled wooden boxes some 9 inches (23 cm) high outside measurement but only a 5 inch (13 cm) square concave in the base. Breeding was fantastic as he had coupled the feeding to my diet and was breeding better results than I was. He was, because of the thickness of the box walls, spraying the boxes every night very heavily. Naturally I was very interested. Could my 8 inch (20 cm) boxes be still too shallow? Time to test again! This time up to 11 inch (28 cm) height (outside measurement), but more of that later.

Jim Laurie had a great knack with budgerigars, as most Scottish fanciers will attest to. With his deep boxes and with five chicks in most of them, they were crammed into the boxes – vertically when the parents were in there! And they were big chicks that you could hardly get your hands round. However, they could not reach the nest hole easily until nearly four and a half weeks of age and that had the benefit of holding back the hens from laying too soon and having those eggs scattered and soiled in the process.

My only reservation was the 5 inch (14 cm) square base. I felt it could be enlarged to the standard 8 inch (20cm) x 5inch (14 cm) size, made 11 inches (28 cm) deep and a small inside stepping block under the nest hole glued in – mainly to keep the eggs restricted into the resultant smaller area in the concave. Remember, the darker the box inside, the better the hens sit and incubate. That leads to more chicks on the perch at 6 weeks of age.

I did this and now have 56 boxes with all these factors incorportated. The result? I breed budgerigars reasonably easily given full attention to other well understood essential factors. Boxes today are a far reach from the very early fanciers’ techniques. They started with a coconut shell!

Note: This article is more fully discussed in “The Challenge” book which is to be recommended as an essential addition to your library. Other successful designs are also discussed.

They had many alterations and additions to their property and now have a quality home. However, a problem arose due to a new security light situated on the rear face of their house. To say it was bright with its halogen lamp was perhaps the understatement of 2010!

When it is on, triggered by foxes (which abound round here), it illuminates our bedroom – such that you wake up frequently! On one occasion in the dead of night, I ventured out and looked at the back of our home. When the security light came on, not only did it illuminate the back of the house, but I seriously thought about cutting the lawn while I was out there!

Luckily, the aviary faces away from that light source, but the garden is nevertheless lit really well and I am now certain that some hens come off the nest and cannot see their way back when the light eventually goes out.

So, my thoughts went back to my own security light that I had installed some years ago on my seed store, which is halfway down our plot. This was to assist visitors who came in an evening to see their way to and from the aviary.

As it turned out, the same triggering of the light by foxes took place and I was losing chicks in some numbers – all dead in this or that nest – until I realised the problem was a change in their environment. So out came the plug and it has never been on since.

Visitors now grope their way again through the garden if they come late in the evening. I don’t mind waking up periodically, nor do I mind feeling my way to and back from the aviary, but really it is a question of priorities – so out went my light – permanently!

We all recall the advice about car lights flashing on aviaries at night, but this Halogen security light factor, while not new in themselves, is certainly worth remembering for all members of the hobby.

It may be anything that causes the lights to trigger – foxes, the local cat on patrol, your dog having a stroll from his kennel and so on. You may be totally unaware that a series of unaccountable tragedies in the birdroom could be the result of a security light. Be warned!

I have now had a polite chat to my new neighbours. Problem solved.

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.

I began breeding this marvellous Australian Grass Parakeet at the age of 12, immediately after the 2nd World War – 65 years ago!

I am still as fanatical today about breeding top quality exhibition budgerigars though I do not claim to be so obsessed to the exclusion of my family and golf – the latter modestly. Over the years, many hundreds of Australian and New Zealand fanciers have visited my home in Virginia Water and all have been welcomed.

With my administrative background, I was also privileged to have been the UK co-ordinator for the nine Australian shipments of some of the UK’s finest budgerigars to Melbourne, before a ban was instituted as a result of infected ostriches arriving from Canada at the Spotswood Quarantine Station in Melbourne. That ban has not been lifted for budgerigars, but I believe pigeons were permitted until the Avian Flu outbreak arose.

Luckily 4500 budgerigars did pass into the Australian hobby which has helped enormously with head quality improvements and many fine birds are to be seen these days on the Australian show benches.

The Attack Principle

The desire to breed super exhibition budgerigars is the ambition of every fancier in every country. I am well aware of the fact that the Australian show scene and its structure and administration is different to the UK. That aside, we all have the same aim as it is the finest birds on display that we wish to breed and own for the simple reason of pride in having achieved something that money cannot buy.

That said, there always comes a point where you have to “speculate to accumulate” and buy the essential outcrosses to avoid losing size as well as quality.

Sell ten birds and buy one has always been my philosophy.

The Early Years

By the early years, I mean the first ten – perhaps even longer. There is so much to learn from each breeding season, particularly establishing a feeding regime that really works well and breeds many budgerigars each season from the best birds you possess.

I cannot stress enough how important that is. Two consecutive bad seasons can destroy a stud. That is the danger we all face as it brings you to your knees and so many leave the hobby at that point. If it happens there is only one person to blame – you! This is the point when the strongest characters refuse to give in and “attack”.

In “The Challenge”, I have listed in depth many proven successful diets, including Australian diets, that have stood the test of time. Those diets should be unchanged in their entirety and not added to with something that “so and so” is feeding at your club. If you do then the stud as a whole is rocked and as budgerigars object to change, it will show adversely in the breeding cages later on.

Once you have your proven diet working well, may I suggest you write it down and place it on file because it is so easy to forget an item(s) from the daily routine – then trouble arrives and your memory for what has gone wrong will fail you.

Get the feeding right and you can progress to look elsewhere if another problem appears. Remember, you need to produce quantity as well as quality from a nest so that you can select the best two and sell the rest.

Establishing The Basics

Like a great house, your stud has to be built on very solid foundations. Your initial problem may be financial. If not then you may be lucky, but if you are financially strapped you may well be better off in the long term, so do not despair.

This is the way I began as a boy, but I learned the hard way and was the better for it. The hobby is filled with a cross section of characters. Happily most are honest and will help beginners in a constructive way, but a few are depressing.

I clearly recall my first attempt at buying from one of the top ten UK fanciers when I was fourteen years old. It was my first lesson. I travelled a long way by train to this “famous” fancier. He asked me before I had even seen any of his birds, how much I had to spend. I had saved all my pocket money and I said (this was 1948) I had £20.00. His reply was stunning to a beginner. He said “You won’t get much for that young man”.

My father, having taught me well about the world being full of good and bad people, prompted me to say: “No problem, but I am not interested in your birds” and I left immediately. He never forgot me and always came up to me at shows after that, obviously ashamed. A lesson learned regarding buying and selling and how to treat people decently and fairly.

By contrast, you can have the odd well off fancier who likes to enter the hobby with a bang. He knows little but thinks money will get him to the top. They rarely last the distance and every country will have such examples. They might win for a while but their lack of experience results in their quality dropping, with poor results, and out they go.

So be encouraged that if you have a small pocket, as I did then, you will make a better fancier if you attack at all times as best as you can. If you are patient and sensible, it is a valuable lesson not to spend anything for 12 months, but in that period visit all manner of studs and shows to get your “”eye for quality” well established.

You will also see all manner of aviary designs and that will give you a good idea for construction of your own aviary. Remember that an aviary has to be designed for what is the best for the birds, not necessarily for what is best for you.

Have You The “Eye”

This title means: have you learned exactly what is wanted in order to win at top level?

The next question, if you want to save a great deal of expense, is “if not, why not ?”. With long-standing experience let me tell you that top quality judges, and there are many of them, also breed top quality birds. By doing so, they keep up to date with new features that are difficult to achieve. They can see faults to the millimetre and that isn’t very much. If he / she cannot do so they are second grade judges and there are even more of those.

It is my contention that the top national show, in any country, should be judged by the former group at all times – as breeders have been striving all year to win and thus deserve no less a compliment. Officials just working through a list of “qualified” judges to please all the judges, irrespective of their individual ability, is an insult to every fancier and indeed any non-exhibitor looking around the show.

I digress, but I make the point to illustrate how essential it is to possess the eye for every detail.

How Width Of Face Appeared

From the 1950′s until the 1970′s, the majority of us were breeding very good birds – or so we thought!

Somewhere towards the end of that period, a few fanciers realised there were far better birds around that were streets ahead of the so called “Ideal Budgerigar” as depicted in drawings.

One fancier in particular, Ken Farmer, wanted to capture the look that the Norwich canaries possessed with their lateral feather over the head and eyes. Until that time, the UK breeders had all their birds with their head feathers growing from front to back over the head. So now the hunt was on for any birds that possessed what is now called “lateral directional feathering”.

By the 1980′s, the numbers of such birds had increased slightly. The late Harry Bryan was a breeder who would scour the country for birds with “width of face”, as well as not losing the quality features already established. Not easy.

In 2010, that feature has become somewhat more common, but almost every fancier that comes into any aviary is looking for width – and it is that feature that by its very nature is expensive to acquire.

In 2005 I named it “the buffalo effect”, which is a descriptive wording that has gone world wide as a result of “The Challenge” book. Everybody in the UK who arrives at my home wants “buffalos” but so do I – and it is a struggle to keep them!

Focusing The Super Bird In Your Mind

I will now assume you have progressed a little. So now focus on the finest bird you have ever seen – forget “The Ideal” as it is probably behind what is actually being bred, but it has helped as part of your apprenticeship.

Carry that image of the finest bird in your mind. It is vital as you are now going out to buy birds to build that bird yourself from hundreds of good birds that may be on offer. Even better, you may have the ability to see beyond the best birds ever seen, but such fanciers are rare. Exactly what financial level you enter the hobby is personal.

Buying The Foundations

Your two selected breeders for purchasing should have a common genetic denominator – so establish where their original stocks came from. This is important because otherwise you will be buying unrelated birds which all have hidden faults that emerge in droves. By comparison, super quality birds will suddenly appear from pairing related stock.

I also stress that you should get pedigrees immediately you purchase the new birds, so that you know exactly what you are doing over the coming years. My records go back to 1950 (believe it or not), but in practice one never goes back that far of course.

Another tip – when you go to buy, go alone. You are in a much stronger position to deal with your seller on a one to one basis and you will not get distracted from getting what you want, bearing in mind what I mentioned earlier. You also have much greater leverage in the process.

Starting The Breeding Season

It is a fact that South African, Australian and New Zealand fanciers have it far easier to breed budgerigars compared to those in the Northern hemisphere. This is due to the sun and far better light that is available in the south. Reinhard Molkentin in South Africa confirms this as he has bred in his own country (Germany) as well as in South Africa where he now lives. So you all have a big advantage.

So let me assume you have bought three cocks and four to six hens, as not all will be in condition to breed simultaneously. The cocks should have been selected on the basis that any one can be paired to any of the hens you have chosen.

Watch the hens closely, as it is the hens that have to be caught up as they rise up to a peak of “itching to breed” and are chewing branches at every opportunity. I prefer to place the hens in the breeding cages with the boxes open, so they get used to their new territorial area for 48 hours before the cocks are introduced. Then you get great fertility results. Your season has started.

Looking Ahead

Assume you have now bred say 16-24 chicks.

Remember to feed them as well as you did when they were still with their parents. So many fanciers drop off the vitamins and soft food intake and wonder why their birds are not big after 18 months growth. You should be able to have big birds, certainly if they are Normals, by the age of 10 months and then you will know that by 18 months you will have a massive handful later on.

You now have to select what to keep and what to sell. With the income, go back to the original sellers and buy just one super bird – far better than any of the first group. You then move this bird, a cock being the obvious choice, into the genetic pool you have started. Then in the following season get him paired to as many of the best hens available as is possible, while transferring the fertile eggs out to other less important nests.

Now the excitement starts as the quality being produced suddenly shoots up and in nest after nest some great chicks start appearing. Other fanciers now become aware of your stud and begin to come round and try to buy from you. A great time, but keep it going and refuse to sell what  you want for next season – bearing in mind you need one third cocks and two thirds hens. You are on the way to the top!

Conclusion

Never forget, that when you get serious setbacks, you are in livestock and they have a habit of losing their breath – permanently. That is the time to forget it and in 24 hours go back on “the Attack!”.

I take a laid back attitude preferring to look at the end of season total rather than getting depressed about losses over which I have no control. By the same token I am obsessed with good husbandry throughout and certainly this has a direct bearing on the end results.

Feeding

This is where it all begins. There is a familiar adage that “You only get out, what you put in”. So very true, but, as I have written before, this can be overdone or conversely underdone – both with disastrous results.

I do not propose to dwell on this, suffice to say that if you have a copy of my publication “The Challenge”, then I urge you to really spend time on reading the two most important chapters – both are on feeding. The chapters are pitched in lay terms so my advice is to read both above all the other “glossy popular chapters”. They are the basic key to success without which you cannot achieve success in the hobby and these chapters also contain examples of International diets that have proven themselves over years of trial and error.

Bad feeding and poor husbandry both combine to give a poor season. Remember that.

Starting The Season

There is no doubt that the start to any season is the most difficult. I can tell that the birds are ready to breed by looking at the behaviour of the hens as well as their condition. All my flights have the sexes mixed year round. This is because the current year stock learn their sexual habits very early. If you keep the big hens separate they just sit in the flights and get overweight with predictable poor results. Mix them and keep them active.

You will have gathered that I ignore the fixed ring issue date we have in the UK (1st January), which I have tried to alter for 20 years (to no avail) because of the climate changes that have affected the start up period dramatically. However, there is hope on the horizon as the Budgerigar Society Exhibition, which is our most important show, is now held annually in the last weekend of September, resulting in a 3 month gap before our rings arrive and our birds, as a generalisation, need to be paired immediately after the show.

Pairing

The larger the stud the less the losses, whatever they are, affect you. If you are in livestock you have to expect tragedies – especially during the breeding season.

My pairings are made in a strict procedure. I place four birds to a show cage, sexes separate, all down the full length of the birdroom three cages high. This puts all under slight stress and shows up the faults particularly with type and stance faults.

I also select each pair on the basis of ideal choice first and pedigree second. Never the other way round. I certainly never pair birds by selection from the flights. I want the show cages to reveal their true qualities if they have any. Not all do and that applies to every aviary!

Laying

I have, like many other breeders of top quality birds, found that, unlike the post second world war birds which laid in 7-10 days, the massive birds of today take longer in many cases. Indeed, 21 days is not uncommon before the first egg appears, especially with maiden hens.

I have also established that with modern feeding techniques one can pair such birds earlier than the advocated 10 months minimum age. I can often see hens at 8 months that are raring to breed – so up they go and are successful. The downside is that such hens are difficult to start feeding their young due to inexperience and relative age, but I will come to that later.

Remember, I, like many other breeders, have totally enclosed aviaries and no outside flights.

The First Clutches

I now assume you have nests in with eggs everywhere. Fertility is the big hurdle and the worrying time. Bad fertility and you can suffer.

Again, coming from long experience, this is caused by you and your feeding and your poor husbandry. You are the provider. This cautionary comment applies to very low fertility over 60 per cent of your pairings – at least.

Looking on the bright side, let us assume the reverse situation and all has been done that can be done and 60% of the stud is fertile – perhaps even 80%. You will never achieve much more and certainly I always have to carry out what I term a “Cabinet Re-Shuffle” a couple of times in the early stages of any season for a variety of small reasons.

Disturbance

I recently had an e-mailed video from an airline pilot (Liam McGuiness). He has fitted up a webcam on a nest box to watch the habits of a pair. It was highly noticeable that the cock is a real interference as eggs are hatching, treading all over the place and on the small chicks and on the top of the hen.

Cocks that tend to sit outside the box are much to be desired. McGuiness stated that:

“The cock does feed the chicks, one is a day old chick and the other a three day old.

The hen has to work hard to protect the chicks when her partner flies in. You can see her leaning into him as he tries to barge into her to get at the chicks. She tries to keep the chicks beneath her while he is treading everywhere. In his attempts to get close to her he wraps his wing around her while he bullies her into submitting into being fed.

He gets very frustrated and disturbs her far more frequently than is necessary. Sometimes he rushes into the box, climbs all over her and then rushes out again. Chicks can easily be crushed at any time through these disturbances.”

Transferring Eggs

Some advice – do not handle eggs unless absolutely necessary. Your hands possess germs on them all of the time. They are one of the most infectious parts of the human body and will pass germs on to the egg surfaces – these are porous and you then wonder why some eggs have been addled, or dead-in-shell has occurred just as hatching is starting.

If the transferring of a clutch is unavoidable, wash your hands in warm water first.

Then take full note of two areas.

1. Where the eggs are positioned in the clutch to one another. Careful examination with a laser torch will show that the earlier fertile eggs are located on the outside of the clutches where they are placed by the hen to allow more gaseous exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen to take place. Moving those eggs to another nest, without thought, into the middle of the receiving nest, can result in the death of the embryos.
2. Before I move eggs I mark each with a felt pen dot on the top surface so that that are placed in the same correct rotational position in the new nest.

We have begun to start chasing for our chick target result at the end of the season.

Hatching

Starting with dead-in-shell as the negative possibility, that again is poor feeding coupled with perhaps the Australian dryness requiring regular damping down in your birdroom. However a dry atmosphere is only about 10% of the dead-in-shell problem, at most. The rest is diet input.

We can have irregular hatching – by which I mean some chicks arrive bright red in colour and full of strength to call for food. Others can just emerge, pale in colour but they are exhausted and do not call. A hen faced with this will just ignore them until they are flattened. Not her fault – in this case it is yours! There are occasions where you find an egg(s) just struggling to hatch which requires help by you to assist. There is a chart in “The Challenge” advising you when to intervene safely.

If your chicks are red and active and get full crops you have your diet correct. Make a note of every mortal item that you are giving and the methods you have used to achieve such success. You will need that list in later years. Be sure of that because you will inevitably forget something that had brought you to such a high pinnacle earlier. I know that from my earlier years.

So, the hens are feeding and they are being fed but in a nest of five or more there are problems arising. I personally like four chicks per-round-per-pair – so moving chicks to less occupied nests has to be done. I do not like to do this as the crop milk from the original parents is different to the fosters – but one has no choice.

Keep a close eye under a nest of four chicks that have one or two late bred day olds underneath them. Again they are red, perhaps fed well and survive under the weight of the bigger chicks. But you have to move them both to save them, and if you do not the larger chicks will eventually be the first to be fed anyway and your small ones will go backward.

Returning to other nests, you will see the chicks are becoming scrawny in appearance. This means the hen(s) have a nutritional factor (F) missing from their crop milk. Exactly which factor one doesn’t know, but as soon as you see it in the oldest chick, move all out elsewhere. I mark my records with (F) for future reference.

I do recall that Robert Manvell wrote me a letter years ago in which he said he found that if there were too many nests with scrawny chicks, the addition of vitamins within a syrup base, such as vitamin B12, if overdone, can give rise to this problem. I agree with that.

Changes

I have made changes to my nest boxes periodically but based around the box-within-a-box principle. Some seasons ago I felt that the shallow boxes, some 8 inches deep, were too shallow. The chicks would exit too early and the hens were laying their 2nd round too soon.

Chicks were having to be returned and eggs were thus scattered and lost. With the end target in mind, I made the boxes 11 inches deep and the problem was solved. The chicks cannot reach their exit until old enough and the hens delay their cycle. More eggs saved!

Conclusion

If you want the results, and remember you need a full nest of chicks from which to choose the two best and sell the rest, then you have to work for it.

The aviary has to have priority in your day and time given to it.

I trust some of these practices that I employ at my home in England prove an incentive as well as giving all readers some sound tips on reaching their annual target year-in-year-out.

Remember – write it down when you have it spot on.

Having spoken directly with him to get the accurate reason it turned out to have nothing to do with administering an emtryl based product to eliminate trichomonas infection as was being rumoured. It was a product used to stop vomiting which experienced fanciers are familiar with, but there was nothing wrong with the product if used correctly. It is a European product called Chevi-Col which also goes under another name Cabrol-Col.

33 breeding cages were in use at the time and the correct dosage applied, but due to circumstances it was given for 7 days and not 5 days. Daniel heard bizarre sounds coming from the breeding room and found several birds behaving as if they were severely handicapped for no reason. Several were already dead and very quickly a total of 18 dead cocks were the result. The result, because of over use and because the cocks are always drinking while the hens are in the boxes, was that their nervous systems were ruined and basically the birds were poisoned.

Apparently there is a UK Fancier, Neil Murray, who has experience of this product and across the hobby it now seems that using this product is considered very risky especially if some birds drink more than others and over a longer period than recommended. Daniel blames himself entirely for his own stupidity – easy with hindsight. Fanciers beware!

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.