Daryl

Thanks for the good wishes guys and thanks for the optimism Ren, but truthfully my birds are a long way from making any Nationals team. Maybe in 5 years I might start getting close to getting a bird in. I'd be extremely happy (and surprised) just to get a top 10 finish at the preselection at the moment.

That is an amazing transformation of colour, you wouldn't even know it was the same bird! Goes to show that where we're concerned with fixing variety specifics you have to wait for at least one moult before assessing. I've also found this with Lacewings in that they leave the nest looking almost like Lutinos/Albinos and moult into nice brown wing markings.

Thanks Kaz and splat, it's always good to at least be competitive, after all the hard work we put in. Winning is just a bit of luck that goes with it. I sat with a friend and we watched the Novice judging together. Further across we could see the Intermediate and Open birds being judged and even from a distance they were far superior. I wished I had a dollar for everytime one of us looked at those birds and said, "We have got such a long way to go yet". Splat, re: our points system I think it's based around ensuring that you gain elevation upon proving you are competitive in your current section. However I think it is biased against breeders of the rarer varieties as it's uncommon to have 4 exhibitors and 7 birds in the Blackeye, Clearwing etc classes. If you specialised in these classes and bred quality you could potentially be a National winner and be stuck in Novice! We don't award any points at our National preselection but I'd like to see that change in line with what you do in Vic. Also, aside from the Nats preselection there is no UBC or Adult Bird Shield to offer the chance for points. I do like that you don't have to win Best Of Section to take home points though.

Here's some pics I took of the open birds:Alan Kent old Light Green cock. Bob Smith young Grey Green cock. This is the one I mentioned earlier but I only got one picture of him and this is it. He is a very powerful bird, more so than comes across in this photo. The second bird in the class, a Grey Green cock by Henry George. A Bob Smith Spangle Dark Green, young I think. An Open Grey cock, can't remember the breeder A Henry George Lacewing Yellow cock. I though this was the best Lacewing on the day but I have no idea what it won other than it's class. I only included this as I like Lacewing Yellows That's all I took but it shows a few of what were there today. Finally, here's a picture of my Sky cock as a baby which I just stumbled across in Photobucket:

As always, love that Cinnamon hen!

Agreed, I like the way you've taken the feather features of the father and improved upon these but at the same time added some width. Very nice.

GB, Here's a picture I took in the carpark of the Sky cock as I was loading him into the car. I tried photographing him at the show but he insisted of giving me an action shot! It's only the second time I've been able to show him as he was bred right at the end of '08. Here's the first Spangle cock. Taken at the show, the picture doesn't do him justice, I think he's better than he looks here but this was all I could get of him as he was very wary of the camera and wouldn't settle for me: Here's the second Spangle cock also taken at the show. Strangely I think this picture makes him look better than he actually is as. I still think he's better than the bird above but he's not as good as he looks here: Splat, the points here (from memory) are 1 point is awarded for winning a class containing 7 or more birds by at least 4 exhibitors. No bird can gain more than a point at any one show. I think you need 8 points to move from Novice to Intermediate. We don't award a Diploma at the Annual Show's here but it's something I wish we'd consider as I know how sought after it is in Vic.

Thanks guys. I don't think Daz was there as I didn't see him. I only got back into budgies in 2007 but didn't show until my 2008 birds came along. So my first show was Pine Rivers 2009. We have a "different" system in Qld wherein elevation is the responsibility of the individual club and points accumulated are tallied by individual clubs. I only have points at Pine Rivers and Ipswich (my home club) so I'll continue to show at those two clubs in a hope to gain points. It'll probably take a few more years yet.

Well the show is over with total entries somewhere around 700. The impression was that entries were down a little due to the shift in ring issue date for 2010. Henry George managed to walk away with most of the major prizes with a couple of young Cinnamon Greys (cock and hen). Look out for them later in the year Also, Bob Smith had an outstanding Grey Green which won it's colour award but missed progressing any further due to condition. Be very surprised if it doesn't make the National team. Most of my birds were competitive in a Novice section about 300 strong. I entered 6 young birds and 2 old birds. First the young birds: Sky hen - 4 in class - 1st. Grey hen - unplaced (can't remember how many were in the class) 2 Spangle cocks - 13 in class - 1st and 2nd. Judge had an interesting time as my second bird was clearly better than the winner but had pale spangle markings and no visible spots whereas my 1st bird had the bullseye spots etc. 2 Spangle hens - 12 (?) in class - 4th and 6ish. The bird which won Best Novice Young hen won this class and beat my Spangle for Best Novice Spangle. The Old Birds: Sky cock - 3 in class - 1st and won Best Novice Normal and Best Novice Old Cock which was a nice surprise! Cinnamon cock - 3 in class - 1st. There were some pretty nice birds scattered throughout the show in different varieties. As this was a Brasea Rare varieties show there were plenty of quality lesser varieties of which I currently breed none. I especially liked some of the Recessive Pieds on show.

Nowhere near as gruesome as all that. It simply means to select for sale or give away the birds you consider of lesser quality (for show or breeding or colour) or those that are no longer required as part of the breeding/show team. ie. when space is at a premium you can't keep them all.

Thanks Julie and Shannon but I will need all the luck I can get. There were over 400 Novice birds last year and the mainstream Novice classes had over 12 birds per class. I'll be happy to run a place in any class. I've entered 4 Spangles, 2 Normal Blues, a Grey and a Cinnamon. But it's great seeing what sort of standard you need to achieve to make the leap to the next section.

The first show of the year and also one of the biggest shows for the year outside of the pre-selection Show. I've got 8 birds in and fingers crossed they don't do the "Bottom Of The Cage Tango" during judging. Should be a good day out as there will be a lot of quality birds on display. Link to the show here: Pine Rivers Show

Looks fantastic, very nice

Kaz, sorry to hear about this situation. I have one concern though after reaading through this thread; I only hope the person or persons resposible don't read this forum because they will have been informed of the new security measures and that you haven't contacted the police. Might be a good idea to throw a few more surprises in there and not mention it in here.

That seems like a pretty efficiently run show judging from the timetable. How many birds would you expect to cater for to adhere to these times?

Another thing. How many owners of bird mills would select names for some of their birds? Most of us on here with a lot of birds manage to name at least a few which points to involvement on a personal level. Hardly sounds like a bird mill.

I better add something to this as the thread just reminded me of a promise I made in the great Guinea Pig pellet debate thread! In that thread I explained how I would take a small group of my budgies and for 3 months replace their dry seed with small bird pellets and promised to report back here the findings, good, bad or indifferent. The birds were all under 6 months and had been eating pellets as part of their diet since being weaned with the exception of a 5 year old cock also in the group. All of my birds had been consuming bird pellets as a supplement to their dry and sprouted seed diet so by time I switched out their seed the change of diet should have been fairly straightforward. Most bird pellets are marketed as a complete diet so I had no concerns that the birds diet would be deficient in any way. Anyway what I found was that for the first few days that, although they were eating plenty of the pellets I also got the impression they were hanging out for the sprouted seed which arrived each morning. At this point I stopped giving them the sprouted seed as well and placed them on a diet solely of pellets. This continued for the next 2 weeks at which point I ceased the trial and put them back on the same varied diet that the rest of my birds had been receiving. So, why did I stop the pellet feeding trial? Here's my explanation: Even though they had been eating plenty of pellets I observed that most (not all) of the birds still had a "hungry look" about them. They weren't hovering around the feed bowl but they just looked like they needed a good feed. Strangely the 5 year old cock wasn't one of these. None of the birds appeared sick and none needed any medications. But after 3 weeks into the trial I decided to stop and revert to their original diet. Within days they were looking "normal" again. Had I continued with the trial they may have settled and looked more content but I wasn't happy with the way they were going so I pulled the pin. I have heard of budgie breeders who feed no seed but just pellets. Maybe one of you reading does this. In the end I decided it was not for me at this time. I'm still feeding the pellets as part of a varied diet. All the birds eat them, even the ones that went through the trial. In fact they eat plenty of them! But for now I'll stick to providing both seed and pellets, not just one. That's what the birds told me they want Krosp, they will take a while to decide they like your pellets. To speed up the process you could try adding some to their favourite soft food. Mine particularly like the pellets added to grated carrot. Eventually they should begin to eat some. I wouldn't stress about trying to get them solely on the pellets. I think you'll find it mentioned on this forum quite often, variety is what the diet is all about.

Laurel is another name for Dark Green and is possibly more popular in different parts of the country. It is sometimes used here in Sth QLD but I never heard it used in Vic when I lived there. I prefer Dark Green.

I've always understood the term Harlequin to be one often used by pet breeders of Recessive Pieds to describe the variety. It's almost never used in exhibition circles.

In regards to plastic nest boxes, whenever they are discussed the issue of heat always seems to come up. Kaz, seeing as you now have one, is it possible measure the temp in the plastic one and one of your wooden ones, placed in a similar situation? This would then give us an answer based on fact and not speculation. I guess you'd have to wait until you have a hen on eggs in the new box as without a thermal source (ie the hen) both nests would just be at ambient air temperature. Aside from being easier to clean I suspect they could also be less susceptible to red mite.

Congratulations on the arrival of Harrison and also it's good to put a face to the "splat" name at last. More of us should be brave enough to follow your lead. Eleven grandchildren is pretty impressive. I don't think any of my birds even have that many yet :rofl:

Thanks Kaz, but I got an email back from the designer myself and he gave me the new web site. Here it is: http://sites.google.com/site/thebudgerigarprogram/home

Is anyone aware of an active link for downloading/purchasing The Budgerigar Program ? The geocities host no longer exists and the road runner link is broken.

now You can put this guy on the plane to QLD whenever you like He's looking a million bucks.

Only just found this thread and I'm sorry to read of your losses and situation. However. it's also pretty poor form that we have to put up with idiots passing on known problem or sick birds to other breeders. Some people have no morals when it comes to a fast buck.