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

GSB:

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

Sell 10 birds and buy one.

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

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

GSB:

Good question!

Fanciers are apt to say:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GSB:

Another good current question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Breeders beware!

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

GSB:

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

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

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

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

In both cases, he is dead right.

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

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

The great difficulty in budgerigar breeding is starting them.

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

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

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

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

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

GSB:

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

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

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

It’s not genetic! It’s your fault!

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

GSB:

I have a problem here.

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

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

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

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

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

GSB:

Do nothing for a year.

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

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

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

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

GSB:

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

It is a terrible dominant genetic fault.

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

GSB:

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

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

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

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

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

Existing lines are not used as outcrosses.

This is to catch them on the rise when they should be paired and when there is still good natural light to induce getting them started. So European rings are now issued on 1st October each year – the third time this has changed!

As the very experienced fanciers know, weather patterns have changed and it is the responsibility of all societies to take notice and act accordingly to help their members breed as many birds as possible.

Furthermore, they will sell more rings in the process. Two consecutive bad seasons and you are virtually “dead” in the hobby apart from highly being dis-sprited and so many leave the hobby for other interests as a result.

Those countries (in the Northern Hemisphere) that persist in retaining a ring issue date of 1st January, need seriously to re-visit and act accordingly. It is their responsibility to help their members and encourage every one of them to breed plenty of birds. The old excuse that “the breeder can breed any time he wants” does not apply, as most will pair just prior to the ring date involved in the dark days of winter when it is so hard to get the birds started.

Information supplied by Dieter Keller, Germany, Editor, “Wellensittich Magazine”

Note: A reminder – if needed. There was always the big October moult in years gone by. For the past 15-20 years, at least, that does not occur. Proof enough that our budgerigar world has changed where breeding is concerned.

So, where your personal budgerigar stud is concerned, ask yourself, when your birds are getting to look really ready to start breeding, is the Ring Issue date more important than grabbing that moment to begin your personal season? Personally, I grab the moment these days and “get a round in” from perhaps a third of the stud and get results on the perch early with whatever rings I have to hand. I then have a cushion under me if the birds paired later, to meet the following years’ ring issue date, fail in breeding condition to meet such a specific date. Many breeders work to whatever the established issue date happens to be – often with poor results or worse. Breeding fitness first is vital!

As experienced breeders will know, our birds need first class daily attention and a feeding technique that supports high fertility and hatchability. However, a few added words of advice. Many breeders have large outside flights but small inside flights for roosting and feeding. Sometimes these inner flights are too small and the birds are cramped. As a result they become stressed, but we do not realise it. Birds need roosting space for each individual because otherwise the more robust birds pressurise those who are less aggressive and shy. Overnight can be especially stressful and dead birds can be found the following morning for no apparent reason.

In flights and stock cages, budgerigars need to chew. Fruit tree and Silver Birch branches are ideal and I know Eucalyptus branches are popular in warmer countries. Seeding grasses can be selected as well, but be careful that your local farmer has not sprayed his crops if you are choosing grasses close by. I have also found that if you visit an aquarium shop, you will find mis-shapen pieces of wood which have holes everywhere (for fish tanks) which last forever. A number of these piled high give added interest and if you scatter softfood throughout, as I do, they provide endless active searching through nooks and crannies. These all keep the stock very active and this is so important when we try to breed with these large heavily built hens that are so common these days, who otherwise just sit there all day.

To summarise. Keep your birds active. You are the provider and it is your job to see to it as part of your avian husbandry. The results may then pay off so that you can pair your birds at anytime of your choosing with finer results all round.

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.