Neville

It looks like an opaline lacewing but I can't see if it has red eyes or not. If it is a lacewing the eyes will be red. Clear bodys usually have darker wing markings

Some hens are in condition most of the time but breeding condition peaks about every 42 days

It's probaby albino or lutino. Recessive pied and cinnamon chicks also have redish eyes that darken in a few weeks but the red is very dark and it might go un-noticed

I think YF 1 too, but sometimes a double factor yellow face 2 has very little yellow "bleeding"

You could breed a recessive grey from 2 blues if they were split for rec grey but this mutation is quite rare. The common grey is dominant so it can only be bred from another grey. Breeding 2 greys together will produce about 25% double factor grey but unless you introduce some dark factor the grey could still be light. The best way to produce darker greys is to pair the grey to a mauve (2 dark factors)

I think that BamBam is a YF2 sky blue clearflight pied. Your chicks would be all sky blue and half would be yellow face. There should be 25% clearflight pied, 25% dominant pied, 25% normal & 25% Clearflight pied dominant pied combination. The greywing is recessive so it will only appear in the chicks if the cock is split for greywing All the female chicks will be albino and half of them will be masking sf dominant pied. The male chicks will be half blue sf dominant pieds and half blue normals. The shade of blue will depend on the dark factor of the albino. They will be split for ino 100% light green normal. The dilute won't show unless Fred is split Females: 12.5% light green opaline, 12.5% dark green opaline, 12.5% light green opaline dominat pied, 12.5% dark green opaline dominant pied & 50% lutino (The inos will all be masking opaline and half also be masking dominant pied) (If they are split for blue sky blue, cobalt and albino are possible) Males: 25% each of dark green dominant pied, light green dominant pied, dark green normal & light green normal 50% sky blue & 50% cobalt Females: 50% opaline cobalt & 50% opaline sky blue Males: 50% cobalt normal & 50% sky blue normal (all split for opaline) Females: 25% cobalt normal, 25% GF cobalt normal, 25% albino, 25% creamino Males: 50% cobalt normal & 50% GF cobalt normal The greywing, recessive pied and opaline will only show is the other bird is split for any of them 50% of all the chicks should be SF violet, 25% DF violet & 25% will have no violet Females: 50% opaline, 50% opaline spangle Males: 50% normal, 50% spangle (all split for opaline) With all of these pairs expect surprises because without knowing what mutations are present in a split form accurate predictions are impossible

Two cock birds will often bond in the flight but if they are put in separate breeding cages with a hen each they will usually bond with the hen without any problem I think you have got the answers to your other questions.

If the pied is a dominant pied you could expect about 25% each of spangle, dominant pied, normal and dominant pied spangle combination. If the pied is a recessive pied you'd get half spangle and half normals. No recessive pieds unless the spangle is split for recessive pied All the chicks would be in the blue series

Your lacewing is opaline. Looking at the wings you can see the opaline wing pattern. If a lacewing is masking another mutation like spangle you wouldn't be able to see it, the mutation would covered in the same way as mutations can be hidden by lutinos and albinos

Congratulations. A great photo

Have a look at the pieds in this thread it may help - Especially the discussion part http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=21714

Second lot of pictures 1/ Cobalt opaline cinnamon dominant pied 2/ Grey opaline dominant pied 3/ Type 2 yellow face sky blue double factor dominant pied 4/ Looks like a grey spangle grey wing The bird in your next post I think is a grey opaline spangle dilute (could also have cinnamon)

They are not just variations they are completely different mutations. There are only 3 pied mutations that we are likely to find these days: Dominant pieds - formerly called the Australian banded pied Recessive pieds - also known as Danish pieds or harlequins Clearflight pieds - also known as Continental or Dutch pieds

Dominant pied and clearflight pied are two different mutations. They are similar in appearance but the most obvious difference is that the dominant pied has a clear band across it's front and the clearflight pied does not. It is possible to produce a bird with both mutations but most times when the two terms are used together it is an error. Your birds One - Cobalt opaline dominant pied Two - It could be a spangle dominant pied but often a bird with very few markings like this is a double factor dominant pied. Do you know what mutations it's parents were?. To be a double factor dominant pied both parents would be dominant pieds. To be a spangle dominant pied one parent would be spangle and the other dominant pied. (The blue on the back of it's head suggests spangle) Three - Type 2 yellow face opaline spangle sky blue. If it was also dominant pied the band would be white or yellow and the flight feathers would have no spangle marks on them. As you probably know with type 2 yellow face birds the yellow spreads after it's first moult causing the greenish look it now has.

A - Male B - Female? C - Male D - Male E – Female F – Female G - Female? H - Female

CONGRATULATIONS. For once I voted for a winner!

Cobalt is 1 dark factor. 2 dark factors would be mauve

Yellow face grey hen (the colour of the cheek patches show that she is grey). After her moult you should be able to tell if she's type 1 or type 2 yellow face Violet opaline spangle hen - could also be cinnamon

The chicks are type 2 yellow face, if they were type 1 the yellow would be restricted to the face on the ino and the blue would be sky blue instead of the aqua colour on the opaline. The hen looks like a type 2 yellow face sky blue that has turned green, she was probaby about the colour of the blueish chick when she was young

Have you ever bred from him? If so did he produce any pieds? Or did you just assume he was a Dutch pied because his father was one?

I breed mostly pet type birds and expect to have about 35 pairs next season. Among them are 4 pairs of show type but I don't show them. Most mutations are represented and I combine them to produce a lot of variety. Opaline spangles are always in high demand so there are plenty of them. Normals are a minority

This does happen in about one time in a hundred and when it does most times there is another mutation involved

She looks more like a dark green cinnamon spangle than a grey green. (That's without looking at the evidence that Dave found in old posts)

I'll say a double factor dominant pied too