FOUNDATION STOCKAND BLOODLINES

It did not take long to realise that the birds I kept were not up to the standard for exhibition breeding and I decided at that stage that it was the exhibition side of the hobby that really interested me. Most of the birds were sold and I needed to obtain new stock. By this time I was taking advice from, and had become friends with, local club members, Dave Florey and Bob and Jacky Johnson. Dave allowed me to purchase a few pairs from him; he was a well-respected champion breeder. He had achieved much success at the local shows and carried a lot of birds. He kept mostly normals and his best birds were his grey greens and cinnamons. My first show was in 1972 and I was awarded Best Beginner Breeder with an opaline grey green cock. A trophy and two rosettes came with the award. I was invited by Bob and Jacky to see their birds. They lived in Berkshire and at that stage were top Novices. I instantly admired their birds and with the combination of their birds, help and advice, I was able to make improvements to my birds. We became really good friends, and as they progresses, so did I. In 1975 I joined the Budgerigar Society and by that time I was showing most weekends - often both days during the show season. I started to win Challenge Certificates. I stayed with the Johnson birds for a long time. I knew their birds well and was always able to pick up a bird or two that they would probably not have released to other fanciers. Soon I was taking top Novice awards at Championship shows and even Area shows. However, better quality birds were becoming even harder to obtain.

Making the next step forward

 I had started to look at the birds the top Champions were showing and really liked the birds shown by Eric Lane from Warwickshire. My favourite colours were the opalines and opaline cinnamons and the Lane stud was renowned for super birds in these varieties. A trip to see their birds was arranged and I came away with two opalines and a cinnamon opaline - all cocks. These were paired to my own hens and they all produced chicks. Eric had given me a hen that he said he could not breed successfully with. I paired this with the cinnamon opaline cock and they produced 14 chicks over three rounds. The youngsters were out of this world - and I gave Eric two hens in return for the kindness he had shown to me. We remained good friends for many years. The next breeding season meant that half the pairs included Lane blood. The Lane stock seemed to click and over the years more Lane birds were brought into the stud and slowly normals were included. These birds set me up to win many top Novice and Intermediate awards. I have always had great respect for Eric's knowledge about birds and his understanding of quality and feather was superb. I often now refer back to the advice he gave me many years ago. Things with budgerigars always move on and I was judging in Cologne, in Germany and stayed with Rolf Schuler. Rolf had been buying birds from me on his many trips to the UK and as I was leaving he gave me a spangle cock. He knew I had no spangles, and at the time, was not especially keen on them. It carried some of my own blood so I was particularly interested to use it in the breeding cage. I paired him to an opaline green hen and 18 chicks were produced. Eight were opaline spangles and the best four cocks were retained. This was the beginning of my current spangle family.

Bringing in those special birds

Further outcrosses were obtained from Tom Willis from Swindon, in Wiltshire. Tom's birds were never great in numbers but always of the very best quality. I purchased a normal grey cock from Gren & Pat Norris, from Spalding. Their stud is probably one of the best studs I have ever seen - wall-to-wall quality! This bird gave me the width and shoulder I needed. A few years later I was with two good friends out on a Budgie trip and we visited Bill & Christine Heale. This stud was another quality stud with birds you would give your right arm to own.

A LINE BRED STUD

After years of selective breeding, and culling birds , failing to come up to the required expectations, expected from certain families of birds, I feel I have created a good stud of exhibition budgerigars, they have been winning section awards, challenge certificates and top awards including best young bird and best in shows, at the highest level including the Budgerigar Society world show, in many variety and colours, since 1973,year after year striving through good and bad breeding seasons to maintain the very best quality in depth, this is done by ensuring enough birds from each family can be paired together and making objectives, were improvements are needed, close line breeding has been used, as far as cousins x cousins, half brother x half sister, to ensure the best visual quality's are reproduced to maintain depth, also the amount of birds held prior to pairing up , depends on the success of the previous breeding season, also if an outcross is needed this would have been obtained , enabling the new purchase to settle in.