Carol Gough Interviews Nigel Tonkin

[Daz 0]

Carol: How did you commence in the hobby? Where did your first birds come from? What bloodlines are your English birds?

 

Nigel: I started in the hobby initially because of ill health. I was serving in the RAAF, working a second job and doing other part time work, consequently my body could not take it and I had a nervous breakdown. I guess a few hours sleep per day was not enough and the battery went flat. I was basically told, after a lengthy stay in hospital, to change my lifestyle and attempt to find a relaxing hobby.

 

It was around this time I was asked by Bruce Patterson, a fellow RAAF member and a keen bird fancier, if I would look after his birds (canaries, budgerigars and I believe parrots and finches) whilst he was in Queensland doing a course. We were both serving in Wagga Wagga N.S.W. at the time. It was disastrous for me and I guess Bruce, as vandals broke in and let a number of his birds out, mostly canaries as I recall. In a way he was lucky as my wife rang me at work to say there were some canaries flying around the house so I hot footed it home and patched up a number of aviaries saving a lot more birds from escaping.

 

I guess the seeds were sown then, as I was so impressed with his budgerigars ? the colours, the size ? they were so different to what I had assumed budgerigars to be. This impression led me to a point where I needed to know how to breed these different colours thus the book 'Cult of the Budgerigar' by Watmough was purchased. I read and re read this book until the pages were near worn out, in particular the chapters on 'Colour Production' and then 'How to breed winners' and ' In-breeding'. I still find I go back to this wonderful book today just as a refresher, especially the latter two topics. (I am very impressed with the Gerald Binks book 'The Challenge', a book that should be 'up to date' for years to come. 'The All About' series by Roy Stringer and Fred Wright are also very useful).

 

I questioned fanciers. The late Albert Humphries of Wagga Wagga and Bruce Patterson must have got sick of me asking about things that I thought were important but were probably trivial or second nature to them. I also knew of fanciers in Kyabram, Victoria -my parent-in-laws resided there. Ray Coldwell and Bert Saunders were of particular help to me.

 

After about 12 months of 'researching', I purchased 3 pairs of birds from Ray and 2 pairs from Bert and returned to Wagga Wagga. I paid $5.00 each for them. I was naive enough to show 2 of these birds at Griffith in N.S.W., one, a Grey Green Cock bird won its class and eventually was runner up to the winning Cock Bird in the Show. I guess this suggested I was in the right paddock, so to speak, as far as purchasing goes. I have not shown a purchased bird since.

 

I left the RAAF, moved to Mount Gambier, joined their Society, paired up these few birds in the back room / office of our newly purchased house and made contact with Ray Coldwell to purchase some more birds. His asking price, I believe, was then $20.00, I thought and probably suggested to him that I only wanted to purchase budgerigars not some gold with them. How things have changed and how horribly wrong I was to question the gentleman that kick started me. He must have forgiven me as he gave me all of the books he had on budgerigars, which were many. I was able to repay him in some small way some years later by giving him a good pair when he decided to upgrade.

 

Geoff Smith from Adelaide, South Australia was my next stop ? there was a difference between the Victorian and the South Australian purchases, the Victorian birds were probably more stylish, where the South Australian birds were advanced in the head and spot region. The blend of these birds worked tremendously, although you would not feed them today as the advancement since importation has been that great. I was lucky enough to get Reserve Champion Cock, Reserve Champion Hen, Champion Novice, Champion Novice Opposite Sex, Reserve Novice Cock, Third Best Novice Cock and Third Best Novice Hen at the Budgerigar Society of South Australia (BSSA) Young Stock Show, there were 1100 entries. Kelwyn Kakoschke won Grand Champion and Champion Opposite Sex, this was in March of 1984, in May of the same year a record entry of 1300 birds were benched at the BSSA Annual Show with young and adult combined. Kelwyn again took the honours, a young cock bird of mine made Third Champion Cock in show plus I again achieved Champion Novice and Champion Novice Opposite Sex. This was frightening as I was promoted from Novice to Open and basically I was an apprentice at the hobby given that I paired my first birds in September of 1981.

 

After seeing Kelwyns birds, in particular in his aviaries, I had to make a decision. It was an easy decision, I needed to upgrade ? I sold between 50 and 70 of my birds to purchase one of his, plus I worked heaps of overtime to get a second. These birds blended in with the best of the birds I kept and gave me further success. I later purchased some birds from John Scoble, again I sold numbers and worked every bit of overtime I could, to get a couple of pairs, sight unseen. What a pleasant surprise it was when I opened the box after arrival by air. These birds were that far in front of what I had, it was ridiculous. I paired these birds together and won my first National with a Grey Green Hen in Hobart, that was in 1988. Strangely, when the Kakoschke and Scoble birds were paired together, they did not blend, but they worked okay if they were bred with their own families or were put to the progeny of the remnants of my original birds. John Tanner lent me 4 birds that were of excellent quality and they matched well with the Scoble family.

 

My "English" bloodlines were mainly Doug Sadler, Mick Joines and Tom Williams background, but not necessarily all were purchased directly from these gentlemen. I also purchased birds with Leo Endres, Reinhart Molkentin and Jo Mannes backgrounds. The birds with the Mannes background were purchased from various breeders throughout the UK I will cover some of these purchases for you later on. I was fortunate to be able to obtain an Opaline Light Green Cock from Frank Silva, "the fancier of the future" I believe I called him when I first met him. In fact I wrote in his visitors book in May of 1994 "What a super start ? look out everyone else". This man is so methodical, so gifted with animals that one could sense in his first years that he would be a successful exhibitor of budgerigars. He has proven me correct. I was also able to 'squeeze' a quality Dominant Pied Sky Blue Cock out of Jeff Attwood plus 'squeeze' a very good Grey cock out of Bernard Kellett. The latter two birds were UBC's or barheads. Another useful purchase was a Cinnamon Grey Cock from Fred Wright with an Attwood background. Fred offered this bird for purchase and it was initially declined. Toward the end of purchasing for various members of a syndicate, we were short of the sort of birds we were looking for and as Fred had been very helpful we decided to at least visit once more. This time the Cinnamon Grey Cock was purchased for Leon Akritidis and boy has this bird made an impact. Leon went overseas for a period of time and I paired his birds at my residence and used the birds as I pleased. This one again shone out with its progeny ? it did not matter to what it was paired something of quality emerged.

 

I hope I have not offended any of my UK friends by not mentioning their names, but a lot of birds were purchased for other fanciers and a lot have had success with those purchases.

 

I never ever did get rid of all of my 'Australian' stock as the Scoble birds and the Scoble / Tanner cross and the blend of both to 'my line' had many of the features one was looking for or were at least a good starting point.

 

I have purchased a couple of birds since importation, none visually attractive but genetically suitable. I find it difficult to purchase that good one, although I am extremely lucky in that I can go to a number of fanciers who have purchased birds from me over the years, grab something back that takes my fancy and split the nest, hopefully helping both parties out. Ross Loats, Leon Akritidis, Ross Grant, The Bridgeman Family, David Estreich, Rob McKie, Stephen Mow and the Podger & Ritchie partnership just to name a few. In the main, this is a two-way arrangement. Most of these guys have done well at the National level and the remainder have done very well at major shows.

 

 

Carol: What is the feeding programme you use during the breeding / non-breeding season?

 

Nigel: The feeding programme that I have used in past years has been totally modified this past season (1998). I have a very close friendship with Frank Silva and his lovely family and we keep in regular contact. I could not believe the numbers of chicks he was producing and chicks of quality. He gave me the 'recipe' that he uses for a soft food. Being somewhat busy, I could not keep up the routine of making the mix so I went searching for a 'manufactured' equivalent. In the 'sample bags' given out at the N.S.W. hosted nationals in May of 1998, there was a product called Budgie Starter which was available from Bruce Chapman of Petcare Direct Pty. Ltd. a sponsor of the Australian National Championship Show. This product is manufactured in Adelaide by Passwell Pty. Ltd.. The following in an extract from the information sheet on this product. "In the wild, budgies feed their chicks a high protein diet of seeds, fruits and insects and although caged budgies may be genetically removed from their wild ancestors, they do retain much of the wild bird digestive physiology. The addition of insects to the diet not only increases the quantity of protein but also improves the quality. This means that breeding budgies need a supplement that contains a higher level of better quality protein than the normal seed diet". Budgie Starter is in granular powder form and has a minimum crude protein content of 22%. It is a product that is recommended to use without additives but I do add 3 hard-boiled eggs to 3 cups of the granular powder and further to that I add 3 cups of sprouted seed that has been rinsed and left to drain for approximately 5 minutes. All of this is mixed together and fed to the birds ? whatever is mixed is used. I find that most of the birds consume the majority of what is on offer. This mix is fed each morning and sprouted seed is fed each evening. All breeding cages and aviaries have separate containers of Plain Canary, Jap Millet, White French Millet, Red Panicum, Bandicoot Oats (Garlic oil or Combi oil [a blend of 8 seed oils] is added to this-these two products are available from Mineral Energy in Victoria) and Grey Striped Sunflower. The birds are also given an even mix of Canary, White French and Jap Millet to which Cod Liver Oil and Wheatgerm is added. Finger drawers supply A. 2 types of hard grit, one from Broken Hill and the other from Adelaide, Budgie Bill from Broken Hill grades and sells these grits. B. wild seeds from Pepper's Millet Spray Supplies of N.S.W., © Linseed and Rape seed ? the latter is not consumed readily and is likely to disappear from the scene soon. Cuttlefish, calcium bells (Iodine and charcoal) are also used. Silver-beet is fed each morning, gum branches / leaves are presented weekly to fortnightly and lucerne (fresh) again weekly to fortnightly. 1/8th of a lemon is fed to each breeding cage per week and a lemon to each aviary over the same time span. I add Pentavite to the water daily and Vitamin B12 three times / week. I had been using other products previously. Over the last two year of its use I had a number of birds with deformed legs and wings-I could not guarantee that the birds were getting too much or not enough of anything, but my vet thought the signs were that there was too much of a particular substance. I had 20 odd birds afflicted the first year and 35 odd the second, up until that stage there had been no perceived problems. This season I have bred 130 chicks more than normal and to this point there have been no problems. The only difference to the diet in the 'off' season is there is a reduction in the bandicoot oats and the sprouted seed and the water is presented free of vitamins.

 

Carol: How do you prepare your birds for the breeding season?

 

Nigel: My preparation for the breeding season is on going. I am always mentally pairing birds throughout the year. The breeding season proper probably starts a lot later for me than a number of exhibitors ? I rely on nature a fair amount. When I see the 'local' birds building their nests, it is usually pretty close to pairing up time for me, assuming that the budgerigars are in good breeding condition themselves. Some years it might be late July, other years it might be as late as the end of August. Not all are paired at once, as they come into condition, they are paired, thus some pairings are as late as November / December. A number of pairs only have one round taken from them. Pairing this late creates a slight problem when aiming to exhibit. I miss most of the 'early' shows, although the 'spill over' from December are rung in January with the new issue of rings and there is always a possibility of producing one or two for the Shows for the following season. I guess I have diverted from your question, so back to the preparation. I usually put a large block of hardwood with thick bark in each aviary around late June early July, I also separate the Cocks from the Hens at this time. I keep the mature young birds separated from the adult birds. From mid June to early July through to the completion of the breeding season vitamins are added to the water plus the bandicoot oats and the sprouted seed volume is increased

 

Carol: When pairing up, do you go by pedigree or visual appearances? How closely do you mate your birds and what relative matings have been your most successful?

 

Nigel: I go by both I guess, initially visually then genetically. In the main, most of my birds have a common genetic background (Williams, Endres & Molkentin). Mannes bred birds purchased from Ernie Sigston probably have had the most recent positive impact in my aviaries or should I say the sons and daughters and grand sons and grand daughters of a particular Cinnamon Grey Cock have. A Grey Green Cock, purchased by the Bridgeman family at the same time as the Cinnamon Grey, and related, produced some quality for me last year. Unfortunately he has not produced since and neither have many of his offspring, but I guess there is always next year and AI to try, if necessary. Another great purchase was a small, non-visual Spangle Yellow Face Grey Hen from Rodney Harris that had super parents, she was paired to the Cinnamon Grey Cock and the Jackpot was hit, she also saw the Kellet Grey Cock, another jackpot. These birds progeny have blended so well with the Endres / Molkentin / Williams birds that had already blended with Sadler / Joines and my original line. The Silva and the Attwood progeny were also receptive to these birds. Both Jim Hutton and Brian Byles were each generous in releasing a quality Mannes bred hen to me ? these did not produce large numbers but their progeny has been very useful nevertheless.

I pair Father to Daughter, Mother to Son, Brother to Sister (rarely and not for some while), Cousins (close and distant), Uncles & Aunts to Nieces & Nephews. I have had reasonable success with all of the pairings but the best would be Cousin to Cousin thus far. The Brother to Sister mating has given mixed results, one mating many years back just produced absolute garbage with secondaries the length of primary flights, beaky ? just horrible. That family was declared out of bounds and disposed of.

 

Carol: Please describe your aviary ? construction materials, size, flights, nest box and breeding cage design, number of cages etc.

 

Nigel: My complex is hard to describe without diagrams so that would be the best way, in part, to approach this question. The complex has brick external walls, the breeding rooms have stone internal walls that are covered in white bathroom tiles, most of the complex has match lining ceilings with insulation. Skylights introduce plenty of light (I had heavy duty rubber 'shade cloth' manufactured to cover the sky-lights in the summer months), the main breeding room is air-conditioned (rarely used), there are 3 airpurifier / ionisers, 7 pedestal fans, 2 industrial wind driven 'whirlies', 2 radios a fridge and a phone. All aviaries can drain into grated pits that have underground pipes that connect to the sewerage. There is a pit prior to an 'S bend' that catches seed husks etc, this requires emptying about once every 6 weeks. There are 8 aviaries (4 now have 1mt of opening to the weather), 1 quarantine aviary, 3 nursery cages, 1 hospital cage, 66 wire breeding cages (600mm wide x 350mm high x 350mm deep), 66 plastic nest boxes with 45 mm thick redgum or pinus radiata concaves. It took me a number of years to get the complex to where it is today, I guess I will make further modifications when I see fit.

 

Plan of aviaries and breeding rooms

http://www.budgerigars.co.uk/images/tonkin_aviaries.gif

 

Carol: Do you use preventative medication during and pre breeding season and if so what and why?

 

Nigel: I usually treat all of the birds with Psittavet (Doxycycline hydrochloride 40mg/g) a Vetafarm product, twice a year, once prior to the breeding season and once midstream of the breeding season. This treatment is for 7 days at a time and appears to have reduced chick mortality considerably.

 

Carol: How many chicks and rounds do you allow your birds?

 

Nigel: Most birds that I pair have one round only but some will go 2 and the odd one might get three. I usually try and have 5 chicks per feeding pair.

 

Carol: What are your favourite varieties and for each may I have the biggest problem with this variety and how you go about improving this feature?

 

Nigel: I guess I have a love for the Spangle. Don't ask me why, but I do. I have had reasonable success on the show bench with the variety over a number of years. The hardest thing to retain / obtain on this variety is the wing markings and the correct throat spots. I guess we should take some advice from JO Mannes, who suggested to me to pair Spangle to Spangle and then pair the Double factors produced, back to quality Normals to improve the wing markings and no doubt the quality of the budgerigar overall. I don't think that the Opaline or the Cinnamon varieties are good for the purpose of the exhibition Spangle and the clarity of the required markings, but I do have a few of these that are reasonable budgerigars. I also like Normals plus, the Cinnamons, Opalines, Dominant Pied and the Recessive Pieds. On the Show bench, I just love seeing a good budgerigar regardless of the variety.

 

Carol: We always seem to have problems with Clearwings (markings on wings), Greywings (dilutes) and Black Eyed Selfs (Grey Yellows) on the show bench ? what can we do to overcome this problem?

 

Nigel: This is a story in its self. I will refer to a chapter 8 of the book Genetics for Budgerigar Breeders by T.G. Taylor, M.A., Ph. D. and C. Warner. The title of the Chapter is Multiple Allelomorphs. I will short cut the chapter for way of explanation. This chapter considers a series of multiple allelomorphs that are responsible for regulating the intensity of colour on the wings and body of budgerigars. Birds of the normal Green and Blue series have black wing markings and 'full strength' body colour. It is the particular distribution of melanin pigment which determines this normal pattern. Various changes can occur in the distribution of the pigment granules, changes that result in the formation of Greywings, Clearwings and Dilutes (Whites & Yellow)[and one could slot the 'Australian' Black Eyed Self into this group]. They are caused by different mutations of one and the same gene, they thus form a series of multiple allelomorphs. These allelomorphs or alleles for short, produce the same sort of effect, i.e., a reduction in the number of pigment granules, but to differing degrees. In the Greywing and Dilutes, the reduction in melanin is uniform throughout the wings and body, but in Clearwings, the melanin in the body feathers is only slightly reduced, while that in the wing feathers is reduced to an extent similar to that observed in Dilutes. The relationship between Greywing and Clearwing is interesting in that neither one is completely dominant to the other. When a pure-breeding Clearwing is mated to a pure-breeding Greywing, all of the young are known as Full-bodied Greywing, in which the body colour is that of a Clearwing, while the intensity of wing markings is that of a Greywing. Dilute is the most recessive gene of the multiple series. Dilutes of the Green series are known as "Yellows" and those of the Blue series, as "Whites".

Australia may have created a rod for its own back by promoting / accepting and in fact standardizing the combination of two mutations / varieties. The original mutation of Greywing did not have 'Body Colour: approaching full intensity' but 50% body colour was deemed as the norm. As is previously mentioned, by combining the Clearwing with the Greywing the end result was a bird with grey wings and close to a normal body colour. I am not one for the changing of The Standard from an original mutation, the mutation should become The Standard and we should aim to keep it as pure and perfect to its origins as possible.

 

How do we get uniformity in judging these 'difficult' varieties? We as judges, should have, at the National level, annual workshops discussing these varieties with results of the workshop being written up and sent to each zone for distribution to all judges and the fancy in general. It is difficult if one year a 'dirty winged' Clearwing wins at the Nationals under one team of judges and the following year a similar bird is presented to another team of judges and finishes near the end of the group. It confuses the dedicated breeders of the variety, sure some of the 'new style' yellows can "meet the Standard" of say the Black Eyed self, the Standard is only a guide of perfection and faults are permitted. This relates to all varieties. I have judged what some call Yellows in a Black Eyed Self class, and, in conjunction with other judges have passed them as Black Eyes with visible faults. I might add that in the same class I have disqualified birds that were not within a bulls roar of the variety. Any way the poor exhibitor fronts up at the next show with his 'winning blackeye' only to see it disqualified.

 

I again reiterate, I believe a 'Judges workshop' would be a positive step in creating uniformity in judging these varieties.

 

Carol: Where can you see the fancy heading especially with so many fanciers leaving the hobby?

 

Nigel: I am not sure what we can do to stop the decline. Are we, the high profile fanciers charging too much for our birds? Are the many auctions where in excess of $1,000.00 is being paid for individual birds the cause? Are we not sponsoring Juniors? Is the hobby now a business? Is greed the problem? I am not sure but it is a big worry.

 

Carol: What is the greatest asset of being in the fancy?

 

Nigel: I love the social side of the fancy. I prefer to judge than exhibit. The hobby is a great leveler. I enjoy the travel, be it intrastate, interstate or overseas. I have met some of the most wonderful people going around and some absolute sods.

 

Carol: What is the benefit of having the National show each year?

 

Nigel: The National show brings together a group of dedicated fanciers annually for a great social event, which has a competitive spirit. It gives the opportunity to compare some of the best birds of different varieties it the country. I have grave concerns though, that we are pricing the Nationals out of the reach of a number of fanciers. States / Zones appear to compete to out do the previous host State / Zone. I would like to see common sense prevail and get the ANBC to set some strict guidelines in an attempt to bring the costs back to an affordable level for most.

 

Carol: What can we do to get more consistency in judging and the birds?

 

Nigel: I guess I have previously answered this question in part. I believe that an annual workshop would go a long way to improving that consistency. Wherever I exhibit or judge, I give comments, positive and negative, on judges that are up and coming, to the State / Zone that they come from. I believe both positive and negative feed back to the Judging controlling body of that State / Zone on that judge is a benefit to all. In Adelaide, when judging with an up and coming judge I let them place the birds and ask for comments why they placed them that way ? I will give my opinion to them, one way or the other in an attempt to get that consistency. But then who is to say my opinion is correct?

 

Carol: Any other topic you would like to cover?

 

Nigel: I don't think you have any room left for another topic ? I do appreciate your interest in interviewing me and I trust that some of the information is of benefit to the readers.

My final comment is 'you only get out of the hobby what you put in, be observant, do not put off until tomorrow what needs doing today and be assured, you never stop learning'.

 

Information from Brisbane & Northern Suburbs Budgerigar Society inc.

Edited December 28, 2006 by daz