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Sorry Chooky I was coming too, with Geoff but having car problems and now he's not going so I am staying home too. Maybe next year. I hope you have a good show tomorrow.

Sign of stress too. If the hen is in the nest and about to lay eggs the poop would much thicker and messier. Like big sloppy poops.

Thank you Gb but No we don't have selections tonight GB, just a club show. I won the last one with one of my blue ringers and another member a Champion won the unbroken cap class. I think our selections are 1st of March. I won't do much good tonight GB because I cut and pulled one tail on each bird and now most of them have lost the other tail so nearly all my birds are tailess. I just hope they all grow back by March. I just started spraying them for the March Shows, so they are not in good condition yet either. Will do about the dilutes

Great thread Phill, that should help a lot of beginners and even Intermediates. I have being doing that for awhile and it is great info. I have been studying mine and with the normal line I need length of mask and shoulder. I notice a lot of them lack in those two things, mainly the mask.

I have already culled some of them but there are still a few there. Some turned out good because of the cock but the dilute hen is a bit narrow in the head and she passed the on, but Geoff reckons most them are pretty good. Geoff gave me a dilute cock, he is from the same breeder as my hen, the cock is very nice but small. I am putting them together this year so I will get dilutes for sure. I will take photos of mum, future dad tomorrow and last years chicks for you. Busy today, making relish and then I have to go and sort the birds are for our meeting tonight. I have some really good split clearbodies.

But GB I am not talking about beginner now, I am talking about bringing some feature from a certain breeder to improve what I have. I think I can carry on the way I am for few years yet, well I hope anyway.

Thanks Phill, Gb and Jimmy, the young were hatched last Nov 2009 and I double ringed until I ran out of red rings around December, the cobalt spangle has a blue ring but silly me cut the blue rings off the white boys so I could show them at the young bird shield, so now they are adults. The first white boy came 7th with his suffusion, the other one didn't go. The suffusion lets them down anyway. The grey opaline spangle is their aunty, she is half sister to their fathers father, my yellow df spangle. I really don't think I bred any thing as good this year gone. BUT i am hoping to do better this breeding season

When I fist started I bought that sand paper for bottom of cage and it wasn't long before their feet were bleeding, chucked the lot away. Newspaper is safe not sand paper.

Mine like grapes too, seedless ones. They love grated carrot and grated beetroot too. I actually gave them some strawberries last week and the devoured them in secs.

I thought I would post a few photos of my spangle. Parents and some of their young. Dad, white Df spangle (brother to Kaz's) Mum Son another son and another son, it's a pity these 2 white boys have grey suffusion. I have to work on this

I find you need to have deep pockets to keep up in this hobby, mainly once you get to a certain stage like me. My birds are almost there now, and I need to improve on what I already have. Soon I will have to pay big bucks to bring something good in, BUT I do not have big bucks. Lost my job last week so things are even tougher. Birdroom has come to a standstill for a while I have applied for heaps of jobs to no avail, I am sure it is my age, really annoying.

If your cages are made from shelves and the kitty litter fall behind down the wall , well I am wondering what is stopping the seed from falling down there too because seed is smaller than the kitty litter, may be you can run some silicone long the back to seal it.

I use the budgerigar program and a hard copy which is my books I use 2 books. one sits out in the birdroom with all nest recorded. I have a nest number to each page. Then I take that that book and record in my main register book. This is the book I have in room with all nest and what's happening. This is my main hard register book, I write the birds and young in the front of the book and then Down the back a bit I write the pair number (parents)and each young bird I rung I hope this helps, it is really easy to do. When I want to find a bird's record, I go to the back of the book and find his ring no and I look for the pair number and I go to the front of the book and find that pair number. I have 3 years of record in one book. So I don't have to find a different book everytime and then when that book is full I staple them together with the covers so they are still together.

Yes MR1 is Malcom Randell, where did you see or buy the bird. He is a nice bloke, very helpful.

I am pretty sure that it belongs to Malcom Randell Riverina Club but he has moved to Gippsland I think but I think he is still a member of the Riverina. i started out with his birds and I am quite sure he is MR1. He started over 20 years ago or more, he is open use to be in The Champion class.

That's what I want to know, because here in Aus on the net all I can find in air purifiers/Ioniser, air purifier or just Ioniser. In UK they use airvacs especially for birdrooms AIRVAC (Avian Air Filtration System) The Airvac is a new air/dust filter that has been tested by leading fanciers in the UK. The tests found it to be approx 60% more efficient than other comparable filters in removing dust from the birdroom. The Airvac is now used in many budgerigar birdrooms and aviarys in the UK. Other places where it is now being used include poultry farms, pigeon lofts and in the homes of people with parrots. It is very versatile and can be mounted on ceilings and walls to suit any location. The Airvac is made from stainless steel and has a removable sliding filter holder for easy cleaning. It has two powerful fans which have an extraction rate of 260 cubic feet per minute, these fans draw the air and dust through the filters, retaining the dust in the filters and distributes the clean air back into the room through vents in the top. The Airvac is supplied with filters that are reuseable and 3 metre long cable with moulded plugs. The unit has a built in on/off switch and uses less electricity than a 60 watt bulb Recommended for use at 40 cubic metres or less per unit for best results.

Thanks Kaz, will search tomorrow.

But Kaz how do you join the corners, the smaller piece inside wouldn't work for corner, where do you get the joiners because I have tried and can only get those big bulky round type ones and they are like $10. each. Tell me how you join the corners and I will be out doing straight away, want to make a veranda for the from of my birdroom because of the heat that comes in the door and window and was going to use the aluminum and connectors but I think the steel would be cheaper from the recycle place,

Just wondering does any one on here have an airvac in their birdrooms and if so what kind and where did you get it from. Airvac is a dust collector, helps keep the feather dust at bay.

I find the hobby not that friendly also. BUT then there are some really nice breeders out there but they are few. I find with most breeders unless you have deep pockets just forget it. I have found myself not worrying about buying new birds in any more, have decided to work with my own and see how I go. Clearwing on here is very generous and most helpful to our club members, with out him I would be totally lost.

But if you you steel you need to weld, well that my problem anyway NO Welder so stay away from steel until I work out how to join it. We used steel for the aviaries but Greg used half the aluminum square type and flattened out the ends and attached with screws, worked well. The aluminum came from the recycle yard $5.00 for a piece 6 feet. You could buy the aluminum from produce store for example 6 metres of the 25 mm square tube here is $34.00. and at Bunnings 3metres is like $30.00, so much dearer. But Bunnings have the connector joints which are quite cheap. I think they are called conect it. Daz used them to construct his aviary. They vary from about 80 cents to a couple of dollars. I know money is a problem but this is just an idea.

................................... I was just telling Greg about it and he said send him a couple, so I will find him some, I might have a couple older ones too. I will ask Geoff what he has we might have a few between us, BUT then the problem with this is he will have a mixture of different bloodlines.... NOT good. He is better off getting birds if he can from 2 different breeders.

Oh my god, I was wondering if that would of happened. Poor bloke, I would love to help but I have already done my culls. BUT if he can wait until after the breeding season starts, I may have a couple of good babies that he might like. But the problem with being here I need to drive 3 hours to airport to deliver. i will see what I have in May because I will be going to Melbourne for the shield and the airport is kinda sort of on the way. too easy.

Beautiful church Kaz but boy those church bells are loud.

How is the chick Gb? did you foster it or is it still there, What I do when I am worried a hen want feed, is put an older chick in the nest to get her going (they chirp louder) but you need older chicks to do that.