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

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

Svetlana Folomeeva

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

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

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

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

Breeding in Russia

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

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

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

A Seminar

The Moscow Budgerigar Society is called the “Apogee”.

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

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

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

Feeding Techniques

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

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

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

Welcome & Thank You

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

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

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

Appeal

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

Photographs

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

Click on any image to enlarge it.

The aviary

The aviary

Young bird

Young bird

Young bird

 

 

 

 

 

 

I first became interested in budgerigars in 1965 and at that time I kept about 5 pairs in a mixed aviary.

It was in 1986 that, after a visit to the aviary of Gerald Binks, I decided to breed budgies of show quality to compete in shows.

Since I was always fascinated by the colours, I decided to build an aviary for only “Rares”. This was not the easy way to start – but it was a challenge and I still have the rares today.

History

As a boy, I was always fascinated by birds and other animals, but I think it was in my genes because my grandfather was a well known racing pigeon breeder and my father kept canaries.

So, I was destined to do the same.

First, I started with racing pigeons, later on canaries and then I concentrated on budgies.

Many years ago I became a member of a local club and soon after that I became a member of the boards of several clubs. First the parrot clubs, then later on I started, with some other fanciers, the B.G.C (Belgian Budgerigar Club). I also became the first Vice-President and after that I became President. I was at that time one of the delegates at the W.B.O. for Belgium.

It was Gerald Binks who taught me the way to breed and keep budgies. After a while I became a correspondent for Budgerigar World for my country and I am still a member today.

Meanwhile, I became involved in the Belgian Lovebird Society as editor and judge and I still have the same interests in the “rares”.

I reorganised the BBS and was editor and member of the board. At that time I was also one of the two Belgian delegates at the WBO meetings and an WBO judge. BBS was one of the three budgie clubs
in Belgium. I left the club in 2008/2009 and in 2011 the club stopped its activities.

Breeding

Keeping rares is one thing, but breeding them is quite a challenge.

So I bought a lot of books and videos and attended as many meetings as possible to learn about other aspects of the birds – such as genetics, colors, feeding, standards etc.

I contacted Mr. Inte Onsman, from MUTAVI, and through him I learned about the genetic rules. Indeed, I was so involved with this subject that I became the liaison for MUTAVI in Belgium.

To breed rares you need to have a basic understanding of genetics, otherwise you will miss a lot. You can breed good budgies without knowledge but specialising in rares demands the knowledge of genetics.

In the past my aviary contained Slate, Saddleback, Texas Clearbody, Easley Clearbody, English Fallow and recently Recessive Pieds.

Breeding rares without some good Normals is not possible – you need them in order to obtain a better standard in the rares. That is why I always try to put a good Normal to a mutation – this makes the birds stronger.

My Normals came from two different lines namely, BA23 (Mr. Gerald Binks, U.K.) and RE 08 (Mr. Roger Reynders, Belgium).

Now I have also birds from German breeders Mr. Dieter Keller (100% Mannes line) and Mr. Gerd Bleicher (Anthracite line).

Every year I visit one of those breeders to obtain one or two outcrosses and, due to the mixing of bloodlines I used in my aviary from different breeders, I have developed new genes from Mannes and Moffat through the BA23 bloodline, Ormerod and Mannes through the RE 08 and Keller bloodline.

With that base I try to build up my own strong bloodlines.

For a few years I do not attend any of the shows with my birds in my country. The reason for that is a lack of time on my part and also a lack of co-operation within the Belgium clubs.

In Belgium we have 2 clubs. There is a lot of discussions and politics going on between those clubs and members – so I decided to leave that and concentrate only on breeding.

With the modern way of the Internet and websites I have no problems in keeping contact with breeders all over the world and selling my birds to countries like Germany, The Netherlands, France, U.K., Portugal and the U.S.A. (where I introduced the Slate).

I like to enjoy myself in this hobby and that is why I do this.

Slates

My first Slate came from a breeder in The Netherlands, who had stopped breeding Slates because of the lack of interest from the breeders in this mutation.

I concentrated on the normal Slates without darkfactor, one dark factor and two dark factors, I am getting rid of the Opalines because I do not like them.

Slate is a sex-linked variety, so if you want to start with Slates it is better to start with a visual cock or hen, just to be sure you have the mutation. Later on in your breeding program you can use split birds.

To improve the mutation I have never paired Slate to Slate and prefer to put a blue split cock to a slate hen.
It is also possible to breed Green series Slates – but in my opinion it is better to stay in Blue series birds.

Always avoid the grey factor as it masks the Slate. The Slate mutation is sex-linked.

Fallows

Breeding Fallows is a real challenge, not everyone is able to do this because it takes years of breeding to obtain a very good bird.

If you want to breed Fallows you must understand the differences between the three mutations:

• English Fallows
• German Fallows
• Scottish Fallows

Most common are the English and German Fallows.

English Fallows are supposed to have an iris ring with no white so the eye seems to be red. In fact, there is an iris ring but it is deep pink in color.

German Fallows, on the other hand, have a white iris ring and between the two mutations there is not much difference in body color.

Paring German and English Fallows together is not a good practice because the youngsters are all “black eyed” and split for German and English Fallow. The Fallow mutation is recessive.

Most Fallows are small birds, so when you are breeding this mutation you have to use your better Normal birds – this is why I said earlier that it is always good practice to breed back to a Normal.

I prefer not to use Cinnamon because I found that it did not improve the Fallow mutation.

In my breeding room I have only English Fallows and after 10 years of breeding I do not have the standard bird that you would expect.

In conclusion, I can say that the Fallow is a very attractive budgerigar, but is a bird for the experienced breeder.

Clearbodies

Here we have two types who are common, the Texas Clearbody and the Easley Clearbody.

The Texas Clearbody is sex-linked whilst the Easley Clearbody is dominant.

The Texas Clearbody is the most common variety to be bred in Europe. It has close links to the Ino mutation to which it is dominant.

An Ino cannot be split for Texas Clearbody, a Normal can be split for Texas Clearbody and Ino, but Texas Clearbody can be split for Ino.

In my aviary I have two different lines which can produce Clearbody. The first line is a mating between Clearbody and Ino, the second line is a combination between Clearbody and Normals.

Later on I have put the youngsters from the two lines together to produce a Texas Clearbody with the correct markings.

Texas Clearbody coming from the first line have a better yellow color but the wings are white, those coming from the second line have better wing markings and color on the flights. Putting them together gives me a bird who has a nice body color, good wing markings and a better standard.

I have had the Easley Clearbody in my aviary since 1999 and I am trying to breed a DF Easley Clearbody, so the challenge goes on.

Anthracites

Since 2007 I have introduced the Anthracite mutation in my aviary. You can read more about this in other articles on my website – didiermervilde.bestofbreeds.net.

Aviary

I have two aviaries, so to understand it better I will call them Aviary 1 and Aviary 2.

Aviary 1 is a wooden summerhouse with 20 breeding cages with no special facilities.

Aviary 2 has a wooden construction and isolated walls, tile floors and is just big enough to be managed on one’s own very effectively.

Inside the aviary I build breeding cages and a flight for the surplus birds and young. The breeding cages measure 30 x 30 x 80 cm, the inside flight is 4 by 6 metres.

In recent years I built a second flight which measures 3 by 3 metres.

I use outside boxes for the breeding cages and keep a record of all my birds on the computer so it is easy to see which pedigree and bloodline they have.

As seed I use a mix of 50% canary seed and 50% millets.

As additives I give Abidec (multi-vitamin solution) and Cytacon (vitamin b12 solution) – a product that I buy in the U.K. because in my country it is not available – and for the youngsters I use Biovit soft food. I also give grit and iodine blocs.

I give the additives continuously in the breeding season, and twice a week in the non-breeding season.

I give the soft food once a week in the non–breeding season, and every day in the breeding season.

An Enormous Challenge

Breeding rare budgerigars is certainly an enormous challenge.

After years of work and with a little luck, one day you will achieve success.

Enjoy your success and be aware that breeding budgerigars is a challenge but first of all it is a lovely hobby.

Photographs

All photographs below were kindly supplied to us by Didier Mervilde.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Normal blue cock

Cinnamon blue cock

Australian yellowface blue cock

Full Crest cobalt hen
(Best Rare at the BBS show in 2007)

Lacewing yellow cock

Anthracite cock

Recessive Pied opaline blue cock

Normal Greygreen cock

Lutino cock

Normal grey hen

Recessive pied Opaline Cinnamon blue hen

Full Crest Opaline green hen

Dutch pied cobalt cock

Australian yellowface Opaline cobalt
recessive pied cock

The First Purchases

When making these first purchases don’t expect to buy a champion’s best visual birds, remember he/she has probably spent many years of time, effort and money building up the stud to its present standard.

What perhaps you should look for, are those which I call stock birds. These birds will, with luck, be closely related to the seller’s show team. They will show good features but also have some faults. Look on these birds as being like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle – your job is to put these pieces together to make the finished article.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that these first purchases will form the foundation of your future stud – so the better the birds you start with, the fewer the faults you will have to improve.

I would suggest that you don’t buy all fine feathered birds – try to obtain one or two that are coarser feathered, even if they are of a paler colour. Look also for good head quality – this I consider to be the most difficult feature to establish and maintain.

The First Few Breeding Seasons

These first purchases will form the basis for your new stud and, because the birds are likely to have common backgrounds, after the first breeding season you should have a few birds that are better than those you started with.

My suggestion would then be to select the best three or four young hens – consider their strengths and weaknesses, then go back to the original breeder and try to purchase two cock birds that are very strong in one or two of the areas where the hens are weak.

Don’t be tempted to buy birds that are just a bit better overall than the hens you have.

What you are looking to do, is to buy the features you want.

For these two cocks I suggest that you would expect to pay at least the amount you paid for the first two or three pairs.

The cocks should be used across all the hens.

The following breeding season, cross-pair their chicks – which should show an improvement in the features you require.

If one then carries out the same procedure, trying to improve any other faults, gradually the standard of one’s birds should improve.

Progress to me is all about selection and it’s no good just pairing two birds together with no purpose in mind.

Mixing it with Normals

When visiting most top UK shows it is obvious that even most of the best Lutinos are some way behind the top “Normals” with regards to size, feather and head quality – so at some point I consider it would be wise for the Lutino breeder to ‘dip’ into the Normal.

However, my view is that it’s pointless doing this unless your Lutinos are already of a pretty high standard.

Bear in mind, when one does this one should be using top quality Normals, excelling once again in the features you require.

It’s worth bearing in mind that these pairings may not be the perfect answer – because many times, not only does the Normal bring in the good features you require, but they can also bring in faults such as wing markings and green suffusion – so beware!

The challenge for the Lutino breeder, is to produce birds that are equal to the Normal in stature, but also have the deep buttercup yellow colour that the variety is all about. This is no easy task to produce this type of bird in numbers.

Defining the Lutino

I have described below some of my thoughts on what a Lutino is – and some of the faults that occur – which may be of help.

One tip, that may be useful, is if one avoids pairing two light shade birds together – one will always produce some offspring with a satisfactory depth of colour. Light shade to light shade always means pale youngsters.

The Lutino is the Albino form of any green series bird. The fact that the Albinoism generally hides the variety involved, means that the bird should appear “clear coloured yellow”.

The shade of yellow will be either – light, medium or dark because the bird will carry either:

• No dark factor – light
• One dark factor – medium
• Two dark factors – dark

This would equate in normal green series birds as follows:

• No dark factor – light green
• One dark factor – dark green
• Two dark factors – olive green

The actual colour will be the background yellow colour of the individual bird being masked and would, therefore, match the colour of the mask, wing feather edges, background colour on nape of head – all green colour and black pigmentation having been taken away by the Albinoism.

There will be no totally white feathers on the bird apart from the cheek patches.

The only other things that I believe affects the colour of the Lutino are:

• By adding the grey factor, one would produce a dull version of the yellow
• A fine feathered bird gives the impression of being a better colour than a coarse feathered bird
• The light in which the bird is viewed can also affect the appearance of the colour

Faults in the Lutino

Faults from a variety point of view are:

• Markings of any sort anywhere on the bird -this includes Cinnamon markings and throat spots
• Violet cheek patches
• Green suffusion – this can vary depending on the light type in which the bird is viewed

In my opinion, birds displaying these faults should be penalised very severely – even if the budgerigar content is good – because they are breaking away from the whole point – that the Lutino should be a clear bird.

I would point out that the above views are based on my experiences and in no way would I pretend to be an expert.

Gallery

The author wishes to thank Terry Tuxford and Ghalib Al-Nasser for the use of their photographs in this article.

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Lutino cock - another member of
the 2011 show team

Lutino Cock, Colour Champion

Lutino Cock, Son of
Colour Champion

Lutino Cock, Breeder CC Winner
S&RV Show 2011

Lutino cock - a member of the
2011 show team

Lutino Cock, Any Age CC Winner
& Best Red Eye S&RV Show 2011

Lutino Cock, never shown

Lutino Cock, Nephew of
Colour Champion

John did an initial simplistic presentation specifically for the Australian National Budgerigar Council to show where the Yellow Faced should sit within the Australian Matrix, just below the Normal blue series. Nigel expanded this presentation, inclusive of photos, percentages, examples and had John review to ensure that he was okay with the changes.

Each country MAY have the Yellow Faced variety ‘mixed’ with a particular variety, when we would argue that the Yellow Faced ‘Normal’ should be shown as the Yellow Faced in a class of its own and all others with a Yellow Face be exhibited within the variety.

I use as one example, the Albino. In Australia this is shown in the Yellow Faced class, we would argue that it is an Albino first, with a Yellow Face – thus should be shown as an Albino. This example could be used for all varieties in the blue series.

I trust fanciers enjoy the presentation and consider the reasons behind it.

To view the presentation, please click on the slide below (left).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Colours

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

All have mouth watering quality.

He is now starting to attack the Clearwing variety.

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

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

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

Pairing

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

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

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

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

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

Lighting Periods

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

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

Feeding

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

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

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

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

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

I wondered what else olive oil could be used for?

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

However I do not know why!

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

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

Conclusion

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