This original version, now edited for international appreciation, was written by Rod Skivington and is reproduced with his kind permission and acknowledgement to the The Budgerigar Council of Victoria Inc.

GSB

Introduction by GSB

This is the second of a two part profile of the Sheppard & Flanagan partnership – one of a group of important studs that now exist in Australia. Part one introducd Bruce Sheppard and Colin Flanagan and described how the partnership was formed. Part two gives an insight into the breeding methods employed by this highly successful duo, and asks them for their comments on the Australian show scene.

Well-designed Birdroom and Aviaries are essential

There are literally a hundred matters to consider when constructing a birdroom and aviary.

Bruce and Colin have gone down different paths here – Bruce has changed little of the birdroom over the last thirty years, whilst Colin has relocated many times due to work commitments and has been continually building new birdrooms and aviaries every time he relocated.

They both said the key considerations are:

• Face aviaries eastwards, so that birds can capture the morning sun daily
• Insulate the birdroom against both the summer heat and the winter cold
• Clear roof panels can be painted white to reflect the heat and still allow light in, this has significantly reduced the sun from heating up the birdroom
• It is essential that a birdroom has good ventilation
• Aviary floors must never be permitted to get wet, they must remain dry
• Aviary lofts are a great way to feed vegetable and citrus foods that are damp and will be discarded and fall outside and not mix with droppings, this is now a common design feature for all of their aviaries
• Take care in the birdroom layout to enure efficient daily routines, otherwise the routine will take time away from your birds and desire to improve the stud
• Fresh and clean drinking water must be convenient
• Cages and breeding boxes must be large and well ventilated
• Extending daylight utilising timers is essential for both the birds and the carer
• Provide a 24 hour night light (15W pilot lamp) allowing birds to find the breeding box if disturbed at night
• A radio that provides a constant background of noise so that other bumps in the night are less of a threat
• A well sealed birdroom will prevent mice from disrupting the breeding season and seed storage must be kept clear of fouling from mice etc.
• Hawks need to be kept from the outside wire, this can be easily achieved with shade cloth
• Vacuum aviaries weekly and clean birdroom floors daily to keep the dust down
• Water and seed daily

Feeding and Maintaining our Birds is critical

Feeding of quality budgerigars is a science according to Bruce and Colin, they both have a strong ethic in this area which has been developed over decades, and they expect that their programs will continue to develop as more is understood.

• Seed – Golden Cob Premium Budgie, daily
• A large variety of other seeds are provided on a regular basis
• Multi vitamins are a regular additive
• Softfood is not fed
• A wide range of vegetables and fruits are fed on a regular basis, offering something daily
• Clean water daily or more often in the summer months, Bruce prefers large drinkers in the loft, while Colin prefers large glass bowls on the floor

The Breeding Season

Management of the pairs during breeding season is very important if you are to maximise your opportunities and in turn produce more and more each season.

• Bruce and Colin refer to themselves as traditional breeders, that is they pair up on the Queens Birthday weekend in June, take two rounds, and in turn empty and clean out the birdroom by the Christmas break
• Checking pairs twice a day is a minimum during the Breeding season
• Establishing foster pairs early, when you recognise some pairs are not feeding well enough, or too many chicks in the same nest the same age, or more than 4 chicks per pair, you need to start moving chicks to save them don’t hesitate
• A strong culture of accurate record keeping is essential
• You must repeat the same pairing each year if they continue to breed you great chicks or even a National winner each time, it may seem simple enough, but many breeders feel they can do better and change the pair!
• Trim feathers from both the Cock and Hen and if need be then in between rounds is equally important
• One difference between the two establishments is that Colin does not wean his youngsters from the parents “until the babies are almost ready to breed”, but Bruce takes the babies away “almost before they can fly” as he believes that this assists in a reduction of possible scalping incidents in the breeding cage and rarely loses a chick because it has been weaned too young

The Real Priorities in Building a Competitive Budgerigar

• Right back from the days of importation it was clear that the main feature of this stud was going to be strength of shoulder, and this key feature remains the highest priority for the partnership today
• The bird must fill the cage and literally be a hand full
• Mask and spot are very important and again need to be presented on the wide shoulders to catch their eye
• Birds must be truly representative of their respective variety
• If you want to improve your specialist variety, always put your best Normals into this line to breed splits. Only use a split to recessive when the split is better than the recessive. Never use inferior normals to breed splits
• Bruce & Colin consider that flecking has it’s place in the stud, and ticked birds are often shown when birds of the same quality but clean are not available, so flecking is very acceptable and can in fact be an advantage if managed well
• It is important to be ruthless with hens that do not perform, the hen is so important for the number of and size of eggs, fertility and feeding, you need to be able to trust the hen that you are about to put with your best Cock Bird. You also need to trust her with fledgling chicks while you are at work during the day

The Australian National Budgerigar Council Inc. (A.N.B.C) National Show

Q: Why has Victoria dominated the Nationals for many years?

Both New South Wales (NSW) and South Queensland have been within a class of winning on many occasions, it would not take much for either of these two states to have won in recent years.

At his point, however, it is worth mentioning that the introduction of the “champion” status in Victoria some 10 years ago has stimulated many exhibitors to strive for the highest membership status. To remain in the champion section you win 30 points each year to maintain a presence otherwise you drop back into the open section.

Getting into the champion section is a bit like improving your golf handicap, while staying there becomes very personal indeed. Consequently there are many more birds on the bench, the birds have improved and less people have exited the fancy because of these new challenges.

Q: Are there too many varieties at the Nationals?

Victoria expanded the shield competition for a number of reasons but one of these reasons is not well understood.

By increasing the number of specialist variety classes, so too, you increase the number of first places on offer. Winners are grinners, more people have more opportunity, more membership points and more people are happy!

So, increase the fancy, increase the number of winners and increase the number of grinners. Therefore, increasing the number of classes at the Nationals would follow the same philosophy.

Q: Do overseas judges add to the National competition?

Overseas judges are good for the fancy in Australia, particularly when they add value through feedback whilst visiting and judging at our shows.

By commenting on the comparison of the quality of birds benched in the UK versus Australia, we can get good feedback on where we are deficient to the UK birds or where we compare favourably.

For example at a recent National, comments were made about some of our lesser varieties (i.e. Blackeye and Clearwing) being “true to the standard” for these varieties. Where the actual variety was almost lost to the UK.

Also, the winning Fallow at the WA National was stated as being “the best Fallow I have ever judged” from a UK judge.

Q: What benefit do you see in having an optional third bird benched per zone at the National competition?

This would increase the spectacle but most importantly allow exhibitors, who often manage to get a bird into the zone team only to see it left as the reserve bird on the day, to feel a sense of achievement.

Points, like at the Victorian Shield competition, would only be allocated to the first two birds from each zone, but, instead of having the bird left in the holding cage, you may still be the 3rd best bird in Australia for your particular variety.

Even with the smaller zones, imagine the boost in confidence and pleasure one would get when just having a bird in the National.

Regardless of which zone, often this extra bird is from a beginner or intermediate exhibitor and this would enhance their profile and assist in generating further interest from their fellow club members to strive for success in future years.

The Victoria Scene

Q: The Adult Shield

The Sheppard & Flanagan Partnership does not show in the Budgerigar Council of Victoria Inc. (BCV) Adult Bird Shield to enable other Mountain District members the opportunity to get more birds into the Shield competition.

This allows them to obtain Exhibitor Points where they may not be able to do so when the Partnership has 3 birds in the team.

Another reason is that showing should be a focus for your “current breeding stock” and past seasons’ birds (i.e. Young birds and Unbroken Caps).

Q: Exhibitor Points?

Current points to enter and retain Champion status should be increased to reduce the ease of obtaining Champion status through one or two birds.

Points required should be increased to 100 or 120 points per three year period as the number of points available now compared to when Exhibitor Points were introduced is substantially higher.

One option may be to also increase the number of points available by giving points down to 6th place at the Shield competitions and / or giving points for Best Opposite Sex at Diploma Shows.

Other Comments

Q: 1st September Ring Issue

The Sheppard & Flanagan Partnership sees no reason to change their “traditional” approach and will continue to pair birds up on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, even with the change to the ring issue.

Just because the rings arrive on 1st September, does not mean you have to put a ring onto a chick on that day!

Remember, you don’t have to change anything if you don’t want to.

A whispered comment was heard that the ANBC almost got the ring issue right … it should have been two months earlier … i.e. 1st July! Then the full circle would be complete (for those that are too young to remember, many, many years ago our rings were issued on 1st July each year.)

Q: Judging

It is often difficult for judges to judge certain varieties when they have never bred the particular variety, particularly when it comes to some of the lesser varieties.

If you have not experienced the results of breeding certain features or varietal characteristics then it is difficult to comment on these factors on the exhibition specimen.

Q: Dwindling Membership Numbers

It was interesting that some experiences from their early days in the fancy, that have vanished in more recent years, may have attributed to our falling membership numbers.

There is no real formal education programme to learn varieties, husbandry or how to improve quality through breeding programs (i.e. Line breeding, etc).

Many new members also want “instant successes” without doing “the hard yards” and achieving success through a number of years of work.

Mentor programs or aviary visits incorporating some sort of training programs may be of assistance.

Also, the target “new member” is no longer the teenager or youngster – due to modern electronic and technological completion – but should be the young family or older generation who no longer have kids to look after but yearn for a hobby to keep them occupied.

• By Symptoms
• Emergency First Aid Medicine Options
• Medicine Options for the Flights
• Medicine Options for Breeding Cabinets

By Symptoms

• Sick birds are given their best chance of being saved by adding an appropriate medicine into the ER/Quik Gel formula and administering it directly by crop needle.

  At the same time, whilst waiting for the final outcome of veterinary tests, adding Quik Gel to the drinking water may temporarily protect healthy in-contact birds.

  First aid medicines are “guestimated” from the following list of medicine / symptom options.

Emergency First Aid Medicine Options

• The symptoms are used to “guestimate” the first choice of medicine. The correct medicine choice is confirmed by a positive response of the sick bird to the medicine or from the results of veterinary testing.

   
  The probability of selecting the correct medicine is improved by knowledge of the symptoms and behaviour of the various diseases.

  • Sulfa-type Antibiotic (Sulfadimadine / Trimethoprim)

     
    Sulfa-type antibiotics should be selected when:

    • A sudden cluster of deaths occurs in the flights
    • Stained vents appear in individual birds
    • There is an odour associated with the droppings
    • When the dropping is watery
       

  • Penicillin type Antibiotic (Amoxycillin / Tylan)

     
    Penicillin-type antibiotics should be selected when a sudden illness is associated with:

    • Feather staining above the nostrils
    • Vomiting after cold weather
    • White or brown droppings
    • French Moult and Yellow Belly
    • Pasted vents
       

  • Doxycycline hydrochloride Antibiotic (Doxycycline 10%)

     
    Doxycycline-type antibiotics should be selected when:

    • Intermittent deaths & recurrent diseases occur throughout the stud
    • There is widespread infertility or poor breeding results
       

  • Anti-fungal Medicine (Amphotericin B)

     
    Antifungal medicines should be selected when an illness is associated with:

    • Black or brown and large droppings linked with weight loss
    • The presence of mould on droppings
       

  • Baytril (Enrofloxacin)

     
    Enrofloxacin-like antibiotics should be selected when an illness is associated with:

    • Mice infestation
    • Contaminated food
       

  • Canker Medicines (Ronidasole & Metronidasole)

     
    Canker-type medicines should be selected when:

    • There is vomiting, sudden severe illness with dark green droppings often starting in related birds
    • Watery, smelly droppings of breeding birds
       

  • Water Cleansers & Water Buffers (Water Buffers or Citric acid)

     
    Water Cleansers should be used:

    • In the drinking water to protect all in-contact healthy birds whilst a diagnosis is being confirmed
    • Following a disease to disinfect the flights breeding cabinets, water and food containers

     
    Water Buffers should be used:

    • Whenever there is wet weather or when large droppings appear in the flights
       

Medicine Options for the Flights

• Flights crowded with young birds are especially susceptible to illness because of the fierce competition for feed and rest.

   
  At this time often the birds “just don’t look right” and it is difficult to know whether or not to use medicines.

  At the first signs of large droppings, Quik Gel should be given to the flock before thinking about using antibiotics.

  Veterinary dropping tests are the best means for determine an appropriate antibiotic.

• At the First Signs of Illness in the Flights

  • Isolate sick birds for individual emergency first aid treatment
  • Select a medicine from the symptoms and add to ER/Quik Gel, then administer by a crop needle
  • Add Quik Gel into the drinking water of all other birds whilst waiting for the diagnosis from veterinary tests or response to the “treatment trial”
  • Clean then disinfect or blow-torch floors of flights
  • The correct choice of medicine is confirmed by a positive response of the sick bird to the selected antibiotic. The entire flock (except breeding pairs) should receive this antibiotic medicine when two or more birds have died within a two-week long period
  • Antibiotic choice is incorrect and should be changed when the ill bird fails to respond after 48 hours of emergency first aid treatment. By this time veterinary tests should have returned a definitive diagnosis and indicate the best antibiotic to use

Medicine Options for Breeding Cabinets

• Individual breeding cabinet rather than flock treatment is the best approach for most breeding problems as most diseases of the breeding season reflect the health status of the individual pairs rather than the entire flock.

   
  It is far better to treat individual pairs in their individual breeding cabinets and to avoid flock treatment when problems occur in the breeding cabinet. Exceptions to this rule occur when food contamination infects all breeding pairs and when Psittacosis and French Moult are seriously impacting on breeding performance.

  Flock treatment for the breeding birds is given only for those diseases transmitted through the air or food (French Moult, Aspergillosis, Mite Infestations and Psittacosis) and is not recommended for other diseases such as Canker and Megabacteria which reflect a weakness in individual pairs.

• At the First Signs of Illness in the Breeding Cabinets

  • Treat the individual bird in the breeding cabinet with ER/Quik Gel and selected antibiotic by crop needle
  • Add Quik Gel and selected antibiotic to the drinking water of the affected breeding cabinet
  • Clean and disinfect the affected breeding cabinet
  • Mix Quik Gel into the drinking water of all other breeding cabinets
  • The correct choice of medicine is confirmed by dropping tests or a positive response of the sick bird to the selected medicine. This medicine is then given in the drinking water of in-contact breeding birds but not to the entire breeding room
  • Medicines are stopped but crop feeding continued when the ill bird fails to respond after 48 hours of treatment. By this time the veterinary tests should have returned the diagnosis and the best treatment

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GSB: Remove any eggs that you do not want to transfer, but leave the box open for a day.

After a day close off the nest box entrance. Allow the pair to adjust to the new scene for another 2 days.

Then remove them to a stock cage along with others similarly affected, but make sure the pair are close together.

After two weeks there, both should be safe to place in the flights and the hen’s internal organs will have reduced back to normal. Treat hens very carefully at this time.

I came into budgerigars for the hobby – not politics which is depressing when it is destructive rather than constructive. Should I stay?

GSB: It is not a good answer, but it’s life everywhere especially in all forms of exhibition livestock breeding.

Successful societies are when there is a good chairperson who will not brook troublesome members who are out of order and do not know how to behave in a public meeting. A weak front table of well intentioned fanciers who form the officers of the society, is a measure for aggravation and loss of members.

The cure is obvious. You have a vote! The society is more important that an out of hand member.

Put another way, tennis was more important as a game than the irrational behaviour of John McEnroe in his heyday, which should have been stamped on immediately on the very first occasion it occurred.

Regarding artificial lighting, what extra hours does one allow for the aviary lights to be on when darkness begins to set in ?

GSB: In the northern hemisphere, as a generalistion, lights should come on in the summer months at about 17:00 hours until 22:00 hours.

In winter advance this to on at 15:00 hours and off at the same time as summertime. There’s no need for any other change unless you are about managing your stock and it is needed.

We cannot speculate about the southern hemisphere. Perhaps we can be advised please?

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.