Norm

No Macka I haven’t read Mannes Budgie bible, in fact I haven’t heard of it, is it on the web? I must do a search. I know he is considered one of the best breeders. In fact I was told the other day one of the birds I bought is from his line. I can’t remember where I read it but I read that you should as much as possible keep YF out of Greens otherwise it is masked & later can emerge & mess up your matings. I always mate to improve the birds I breed, as whatever you are doing, show or otherwise, I think that should be the aim of all of us. I guess the problem is that there are as many ideas as there are breeders, of what is the right thing to do. Mating to “difference” often brings out vigour, but in breeding quality birds for exhibition, I thought one of the ideas was to keep the “Heinz” variety out of lines. Anyway in Denise’s case I thought what she wanted to breed was some similar birds to the one she found. Feathers I thought you would know that you can put your bit in anytime, without waiting to be invited, I thought that was one of the aims of this forum…(Laughing out loud).

I’m sorry I disagree with Macka, that bird is a Yellow faced Blue bird, if you mate it with a Green the YF will be masked. Unless the Green bird is split for Blue you will not get any birds of the same mutation. I would mate it to a Blue series bird, then you should get about 50% YF & 50% Spangle…I wouldn’t mate it to another Spangle unless you like pure white DF Spangles. Seeing it’s Opaline you will get Opaline females with whatever you mate it with, if you mated it to an Opaline hen you will get more birds that are like him, if that’s what you are after.

Sorry I made a mistake I meant to say she was a Lacewing not a Fallow. Lacewings have the Mauve cheek patches.

Sorry to hear of your losses Paul. I started breeding Budgies when I was about 8 year old & at first used to get really upset, then at some real young age I realised that if I wanted to keep living things & especially breed I had to accept that they don’t always make it. Death is a part of life, it can’t be avoided & it’s never a happy advent, but it will happen, all we can do is accept it & hope it doesn’t happen that often. All we can do is our best.

I would be real careful putting Bourke’s in with Budgies, the Bourke’s are real placid birds & Budgies real aggressive, you could have fatalities. And I think it would be the Bourke’s that came off worse.

I think you will find that she is a Fallow, as she has the typical Mauve check patches.

It’s not the situation here, I’m the local club ring secretary & could have ordered them myself & now wish I had, but I thought this other club had them on hand, so I ordered 50 & only 30 turned up, when I rang them they said that’s all they had on hand & would have to order more, so I ordered another 100 as well. I ordered with them as they are registered with the nation Budgie council or something, in case I wanted to show. Our club is not a specialist Budgie club & is affiliated with Canary & cage birds, as most members are finch breeders. Most clubs around here wont hold spares, mostly you have to order in it usually takes at least two weeks. I spent lots of time yesterday, sifting through nest debris looking for rings that fell off…(Laughing out loud)…I found three. I don’t think I will be getting rings on the older chicks, as I tried to get a ring on a Lutino yesterday, just a day or so late & believe me I have got some hard rings on before, but these show [british] birds have thick legs, if I tried harder I would have crippled it. I now have two confirmed hen TCB’s.

I agree with Sailorwolf, I had only heard that new galvanised wire is toxic to birds, it’s the Zinc. Lots of my breeding cabinets have rusted wire, as I have had them in work for more than 12 years & often I use water from my creek that contains minerals. Some are pretty rusty, but I have never had any trouble as yet. It’s up to you to be as careful as you wish, but the amount of rust on your cage wouldn’t in my opinion be a worry.

How frustrating!! Feathers. Yes Aly & it was another guy from the Taree club that got him...maybe I can get a chick. Well the TCB to TCB pair are doing well, three chicks now when I checked yesterday, that means no egg has failed to hatch as yet, so that good. Another frustrating thing has happened, I ordered more rings from the club, weeks ago, as was getting low & now I have heard that something happened to the first lot in the mail & a new lot is coming in maybe 10 days…I have chicks everywhere needing rings this week, but saving the few I have left for the TCB's…so going to be a few chicks without rings…how maddening!!!

Beautiful bird I have some very much like him, I like the colour lots. Normally if the feathers have been pulled out completely they will grow back in about two or three weeks, but if the feathers have been broken off & still have the end left in, it will take till the next moult.

Well once the disease gets you there’s no hope for you, is there? Yes I went to the Hunter Valley Budgie show, I thought I will be restrained, maybe buy two good hens. Yes you guessed it…arrived home with seven birds, took all my energy to not buy even more. Kept telling myself I’ve got plenty of blood there to breed some good birds without buying some more. Prices weren’t high either; best buy was two for $25. Got another TCB cock…a nice Light Green Opaline cock…Cinnamon Light Green hen…Cinnamon Opaline hen…nice Cobalt cock…nice big Blue Spangle cock…& another hen …can’t remember what colour, maybe Opaline. Pictures as soon as I get myself sorted. Most of them supposed to be 50% Gazzard 50% Capper.

I spoke to the breeder, he thinks there has been a mistake & wants me to email him the rings so he can check again. The chicks seem okay anyway, as I looked the next day & there were then two, so they are hatching well…you never know even if the are brother & sister, it may breed a champion…I was gone all day yesterday, at the Hunter Valley show, so will give update tomorrow after I have checked on them. The sister of the hen was best TCB at the show…so that's good news. At the show I bought another male TCB supposed to be Wally Capper stock. Looks a little frail, but was the only TCB for sale, so have some different blood as long as it breeds. Paid $50 missed out on a cock Lacewing, because couldn't find who to pay the money to & another guy beat me to it.

I agree with Kaz, just a mild case of feather plucking.

I would probably say she is a YF2 Recessive Pied Cobalt or even Mauve. My birds are mostly good fliers, but it's a little too far to be one of mine…(Laughing out loud). If not claimed she will make a nice new addition to your flock. Have the fires been close to you Buuzbee? Things are looking bad over there.

And probably what makes it harder even is that you always get variation in colours…so that you can get a Grey wing, which has lighter markings & a Dilute that has darker markings. I read also that this gene appears on the same allele that has mutated three times.

I’m pretty sure I have my first TCB hen in that batch of 4. So I’m happy & the pair of TCB’s hatched their first chick on time yesterday, but the hen has turned out to be one of those type of hens that I wish to cull out over time. She wont leave the nest & because I was real keen that nothing would go wrong with a potential TCB I wanted to inspect the chick to see it was being fed, but I gave up in it’s interest & the interest of the rest of the eggs, as she went mad & run around throwing the chick & eggs every where…so I backed off…so I hope the chick is okay. Then I got another surprise…the breeder I got my 4 TCB’s off sold me two cocks & a hen…then some weeks later he said I will sell you another cock, only because it is Normal wing pattern & not Opaline, as I don’t like Normal TCB’s. He said it was unrelated to all the other ones I bought [who were all closely related]. Well it took me a few months to get it’s pedigree from him, in the mean time I paired them up, hoping to get some TCB’s to pair with my splits from the others which I have paired with unrelated birds. I got the pedigrees the other day & yesterday was looking through them & what do you think I find [if they are correct] the hen & cock are brother & sister. Well it’s too late now, but at least I wont be able to pair them to the others, as they will all be too related. I’ll need to get tome TCB’s from another source. Going to a bird show Sunday with the guy that sold me the TCB’s never know my luck may pick up one there. Thanks for your good wishes guys. At least they are relatively rare Lisavenn…not as rare as some mutations.

I think they have an instinctual fear of any bird bigger than themselves, especially if it’s shaped like a hawk or owl. I notice that even if I put a new Cockatiel in my aviary with the Budgies, they are scared stiff for a few hours until they realise it’s not going to harm them. I think that they could easily have inbuilt instincts to protect them, as I have notice my cockatiels that have been bred in aviaries in a bird room complex that have never experienced rain, will go into instinctual bathing responses when they hear the sound of rain. Magpies are real aggressive birds to other birds in the neighbourhood, but wouldn’t eat adult birds, but would eat babies if given the chance. Budgies babies in nature are probably safe, because of being in hollow tree trunks, but the parents could easily be hassled by Magpies.

Another update…I was counting my chicks before they hatched, those two chicks turned out to be Normal Grey greens, they will be split for either TCB's or Lutinos. The third chick of the four chick batch, looks Opaline, which means it could be TCB, but I think with this mating it could also be a Normal Opaline, it's pins are very light Green which could be a TCB with suffusion of Green or a Light Green Normal Opaline. Seeing the father is an Opaline TCB it must be a hen…I live in hope it's my first TCB a couple of more days should tell. The fourth chick as said is Lutino. The other batch must have had 9 eggs not 8 as I said, as I have 7 chicks hatched. The two largest ones were fostered to the above batch with only 4 chicks. I was real happy that 7 hatched & will be real happy if I at last get a TCB. Surely I should get one TCB out of 7, but at least 2 are Lutinos & one of the larger chicks was a bit of a surprise, both parents must be split for Recessive Pied & Blue, as that's what one turned out to be. The others are all too young to tell. Today is the day my first egg from the two TCB birds should hatch. That's three nests 14 chicks in all & still not sure I have a TCB. That must be why they are a rare variety...(Laughing out loud).

All looking good Paul.

I was trying to get a YF grey dom pied Your chance of some YF Greys should be high Kaz...did you try the parents with a larger young one to see if they would feed it? I had the same problem, but after giving them a larger youngster they started feeding the small ones...hopefully just learning, not some genetical problem. I have some Dom Pieds that just look like your Mum.

Those babies are looking real good Nerwen.

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us & there are some nice birds.

An Opaline Texas Clear Body cock. An Opaline Texas Clear Body hen. A Texas Clear Body Normal cock. I'm not an expert on them, but I think the first one the Opaline Texas Clear BOdy cock, probably has the best colour...with out suffusion of Green through the body.

Not as good as yours Kaz, but the only Lacewing I have bred so far. An Opaline White Lacewing hen.

Did you buy its parents? Are there many Anthracites in Germany, as I don’t think we can get them in Australia? I also will look forward to pictures when they are fully feathered.