melbournebudgies

Yes

Violet is single factor and double factor like yellowface. If you get single factor it is a carrier and you will just see a violet hue around the neck area, if it's double factor then you get a visual violet

Looks like it could be, does the body colour look slightly washed out?

Henry looks like he may be a violet carrier too

I am only running 8 breeding cages at the moment, we are hoiping to move house in the first half of next year and then I will be setting u a purpose built breeding room with a larger number so for the moment I am just focusing on breeding some nice stock from my own birds to hold over for next season

Henry is an skyblue opalne spangle and Liz is a cobalt (maybe violet but hard to tell in the photo) normal

Your last ones a hen and an opaline

In that case you will get normal and spangle chicks, half with yellow face

Can I ask then whether you feel it woud be of benefit to breeders to include some of the larger pet type stock (such as the pied bloke shown above) in breeding to try and bring back some of the features that have been lost? I recognise that this risks a loss of size but maybe that is a sacrifice worth taking to breed better birds in the long run? I had thought of outcrossing a few show birds every year to good pet types and then holding onto the best chicks from those clutches.

Any chicks you get from that pair will be a strange and wondrous mystery. As the hen is an albino you don't know what mutations she may be masking (unless you know her parentage), unless she is masking recessive pied you won't get any like the cock. I presume he is a YF2? If he's yellowface you should get about half yellowface chicks

It's a seedcatcher Neat so it's on the outside of the cage not inside with the birds

If he's flying he should be fine, they are pretty clever. I had one that couldn't fly at all so he waited until the hen was sitting on a low perch and then climbed up her tail to mate

It's only gonna get worse for people in Gippsland with flooding expected

I don't cover the sides (unless necessary for protection from the weather). It can help if they can hear the other birds, they feel more comfortable and are more likely to breed well for you

He should be fine in the aviary, the hen I have climbs branches which go down to the ground and gets around everywhere in the aviary just fine

I agree SW, back in the days when I was working as a vet nurse I was lucky enough to be asked to assist in a ceaserean. The b1tch was a british bulldog and sadly it turned out that the pups had died quite a few days earlier. The vet reckons she may have been in labour for days but the breeder hadn't picked up on it as they are a breed that always looks like they are 'struggling', they were very lucky not to loose the b1tch as well. I also always 'wonder' at the show type kelpies who are so far different from the working type kelpie which is actually used for the purpose the breed was created, as different as pet and show type budgies! This thread has made me think very seriously about what it is that I want to develop in my lines and I think trying to bring back some of that tight feather will be right up there, even if it means I don't win over as many judgies

At seven weeks you need to kick them out of the box, mine start flying around at about 5 weeks. Yours are just being lazy

I have a hen with splayed legs in my aviary, she's a cute little thing and gets herself around just fine

He's a gorgeous boy, I got him at a bird sale a while back and I just love him, they are the parents of the little violet chick in the for sale section, he has a much rounder head than you see on a regular pet type. I had trouble getting a good shot of the hen, she refused to sit still and when she did she crouched and fluffed herself up I suppose I can't blame her, it's about 10 degrees outside today

I think you would find Trish that the older style simply doesn't exist anymore. Itr would involve selective breeding for the traits which formed the tandard back then and maybe even breeding back to some large pet types to get there. The reality is that what we call pet types now aren't that far removed from what was considered a show bird back then. I have this pair which I consider pet type but as pet types go they are fairly large and well proportioned and they'd be the sort of birds you'd want to include I think.

I just about wet myself laughing when Chicken Little started with the tv station warning 'Channel 7 advises that this movie is classified PG, it contains supernatural themes' Apparently the story about the sky falling that we've all being telling our small children for years is not advisable I must say I find it a little disturbing when a kids cartoon gets the same classification as some the other PG movies I've seen floating around

Sorry don't know about that one

Twice in the last week I've had to get peas out of my two year olds nose My oldest never stuck anything up his nose

Here's a good one: CAGE

It's been hailing off and on here all day, we've had a break for a little while now (just some mild sprinkles but it's still col,d and windy) so I decided to brave it to go and take out the freash food and check on everyone. All are okay, the galahs and corellas were keen for a snuggle so I spent a bit of time in their respective aviaries chatting to them and giving cuddles and they all seem well. All of the aviary floors are quite wet but the top areas where they are sheltering are still nice and dry to so that's the main thing.