Hamish

heya! I would be weary pairing these two birds together because they are both opaline. You are weary of the flecking, and yes, he does have a clean cap, but the opalines do tend to have a lot more melanin which is what causes the black feather in the spots, and the flecking. As far as your pairings are concerned, from my point of view I think the biggest fault in the hen is the depth of her mask. She needs more depth there and I would be looking to improve her chicks in that aspect more than worrying about the tiny bit of ticking that she has. The cinnamon cock bird has nice blow and definitely has better width than the spangle. The opaline light green dominant pied cock bird has a nice blow, and it looks as though some of his spot might be pied out, which would explain his lack of mask on his left side. If this is so and he does infact have a deeper mask than the hen, then by all means pair them up... He has nice blow, she has a lovely backline, she has good spots, he lacks spots but they both have good length, they are a good pairing except for the opalesence that will come through in all the chicks ---- not necessarily in the form of flecking though mind you, because neither bird is badly marked at all. This opaline will improve the spots hopefully. If I were you I'd go to the grey green cinnamon. But your opaline pair will produce some nice opalines. A word of caution, when starting out with show birds, be wary of having too many opalines in your stud. Many of the birds will produce opaline chicks as normals because they will be split for opaline etc, so you will end up breeding a lot anyway. Before long you will end up breeding only opalines, and this might get a bit tedious and will possibly result in poorly marked birds. Just my thoughts, but something to think about anyway

This is the opaline spangle I was talking about, she is a nice looking bird. One of the ways you can tell if a chick is normal or opaline in the nest is by the colour of its down. White down means its an opaline chick, grey down means its normal. I would say the clutch you are talking about is going to be VERY interesting! Such a mixture of colours it will be very interesting to see what comes out!

Dave I like that you bought a lot of normals tonight, I was looking through your pairs thread and saw there was quiet a number of opaline birds so I think it was a great tactical and very wise move tonight to purchase some normals! They will help to get some good spangle markings back into the wings of those powerful opaline spangles you have. Good on ya, looking forward to seeing the photographs.

The opaline spangle is a lovely hen, I wish I had quality like that in my aviary, nice work

I'd imagine that bidding would start at around $30, normally it rises pretty quickly in auctions such as this to around the $100 mark where the lesser birds sell. Depending on who wants them sometimes it goes crazy as I'm sure your aware In my experience with the auctions, regardless of the reserve or not people are normally willing to pay $50 for a bird. What do others think? Thats pretty much the going rate for the cheapest birds at auctions I have been to?

A massive auction! Some nice looking rares for sale thought, its good to see some cresteds being advertised.

I would keep the spangle sky blue hen and put her to a normal blue series cock bird with no opalesence and a big top end. She is a really handy bird. The other hens I would probably sell off because they are all quiet small. The spangle down bottom right photograph has not bad feather above the eye, but as a spangle, she is no good. Her markings are lacking and she is a bit too small to consider working with in my opinion. Both of the cocks lack a bit of shoulder, if I were you I would invest in a cock bird with a lot of blow and some nice width across his face and chest. This will bring some size into the stud, and if you put him to that spangle sky hen of yours I would say you'd come out with some crackers! Good luck

As a recessive pied split bird, I would definitely think about keeping this cock bird. He has a great deep mask, is not bad above the beak. He doesn't have the blow that you would like to see, but you are hard pressed to find recessive pied splits that have got outstanding blow. He has great length. From here you can see that he doesn't really have as much backskull as you would like to see in a bird you would introduce back into a recessive line, but as a start, I would suggest that he is quiet a handy bird to keep. grey opaline /fallow o6 bird .club rung cock bird --- As a fallow split, he too is handy. However, he doesn't have the depth of mask or the spots we would like. Unless you are planning on specifically going into fallows I would sell this bird. grey opaline/rec pie cock 07 bird -- Again a nice bird, is the mother a recessive pied? Doesn't have the spots that the father has, but has a nicer blow. The my only concern here is that the bird is quiet narrow through the top end. He lacks shoulder to me. If he is recessive though, and you are heading into recessives, I would keep him also, my only reservation is that as an opaline cock as a foundation bird, you are going to have a lot of opalesence coming through in your stud. grey wing grey o8 bird club rung brought december 08 -- Smaller bird, but as a grey wing has some good qualities about him. He has an average mask, and lacks the blow you would like in a stud cock bird. He is quiet a fine feathered bird so you would want to put him to a solid buff hen (the type that normally doesn't breed that well ) this bird is small but proportianed well i think grey spangle hen o8 club rung dec buy 08 She is a well marked spangle hen that has a bit of power about her. Nice length, but again a fine feathered bird with not as much blow as you would like. As a young bird I would keep her and see how she comes up, for her markings and length alone I would suggest she is a good stock hen when paired to the right cock bird. I would suggest that if you are starting to aquire the foundations of a stud, select a direction you wish to head. You've got some lovely solid recessive splits, if you are heading into recessives then they are a good place to start. With your fallow splits and spangles I would think that picking one or two directions to start would be a more sensible option. These are just my thoughts, you have some lovely birds, I'd be interested to see some of the recessives that you've been breeding. Cheers

Heya, have you got a link for the guy that you bought these cages off? I am after some but haven't had much luck sourcing cheap ones Cheers!