Daz

The idea of Showing and Breeding Show Class birds is to advance the quality of your Flock or Stud. Stud is an interesting word. Generally it means a collection of like looking and closely related animals. Breeders that are constantly bringing in different outcrosses find it hard to call their collection a stud. With that in mind we pair our birds and occasionally bring in the outcrosses that will help strengthen our deficiencies in our "Stud" of birds. But there comes a time that the Stud has grown to a size that needs attention. We need to reduce the number of birds we have. We need to Cull them. Culling has often been associated with killing. This is not the true meaning or my understanding of the word. To me it means to remove from your aviary. My way is to sell or give away my birds. Yes I have given many birds away free to those that I think deserves them. Culling is a difficult thing as we really do want to keep all the birds from some reason or other. But you need to take emotion out of the equation and think logically, or at least try to. I cull in both variety and family. 1. I select the young cock birds that will not make the standard of show birds. Refer to the ANBC Current Standard. They will go straight away. Eg Recessive Pied with too much Wing Markings. 2. I catch up all this years Cock Birds in the green series and place them in my training cages. Their ring numbers and parentage is noted. The top 2 or 3 are kept. The others are placed in a holding cage. 3. I then catch up the young cocks in the blue series and go through the same selection process. I do this for the grey series and then into varieties eg the Opaline, Opaline AOSV, Cinnamons, Spangles, Double Factor Spangles, Yellowfaces, Dominant Pieds and finally my Recessive Pieds. I also do the splits separate to the normals. I have Normal Split recessives and Spangle Split Recessives. 4. I then do the same with the hens, but hens are different than the Cocks. Hens you must look past the variety or split and look at the bird. The Hen’s make up in breeding causes different changes on the chicks. eg I would keep and dirty winged recessive hen if she was a good bird rather than a dirty wing cock. A good Hen is hard to find or buy. 5. Next I do last years birds, those that kept from the last season. These I divide into those that have bred well and those that haven’t. Those that haven’t breed well are valuated on there performance. If a cock has been paired to 5 hens and hasn’t filled an egg, he would have to be a very good bird to stay. 6. Next I do the previous year and so on. 7. I then check the lists for those I have kept and count the numbers. This year I want to cull to the top 50. If I still have too many I then revaluate them and might cull a bit harder on some lines, eg opaline cinnamons might go if I have better Opaline and Cinnamons. If I have less than I wanted and can revaluate the birds in the holding cages. 8. Next I check the families to see if I have lost any one. If so the family is then revaluated to see if it is worth another season or if I let it go. I have lost families that haven’t been successful. I have now three many families (lines) in my aviary, Armstrong, Ganzer and Frampton. I have outcrosses from Hollingsworth who has a similar back ground to Armstrong, that being Tonkin. Young birds and those that didn’t do so well in the breeding cabinets are sold to pet stores or to the public that are looking for a pet bird. The birds that haven’t bred well are given to other breeders that want to try their luck. All I ask with this is a chick back if successful. Older birds that have done me well are sold during shows to other breeders. Lately I have grown a good name with my birds and they usually all sell at shows these days. I hope this helps you if you are thinking about reducing your aviary numbers.

I'll post how to do a proper cull this morning. Have to take my son to work soon. Thanks Neat, yes it's me. You can't really keep me away. ... I didn't relate that smell to my leaving. I just really needed a break.

The Cock Bird would be split ino as it is a sex linked gene and no hen can be split for a sex link gene.

Jimmy, I had some good help from a number of people, including this forum. I listened and asked questions. I wrote a post in the show breeders section about a plan I had. I think it is right. Over the next few months I will be culling nearly 100 of my birds. Starting this weekend. Most will be going for $15 each. I weant to be down to my top 50 birds before the next season.

What would call her? A young Recessive Pied.

Well Spat you might change your mind to some of these.... Any one want to try to name them... Most should be straight forward.

okay as promised I did some shots to night.. Aviary during the day Aviary at Night 8 Breeding cabinets 12 breeding cabinets with 4 being used to hold nest feathers. Junior Flight some of the nursary Some other chicks. I've put up some photos in the flock section...

... this is interesting. 2008 ring will finish on or after the 14th december 2008. 2009 rings will start on or after the 15th December 2008 and finish 31st August 2009. 2010 rings will start on or after the 1st September 2009 and finish 31st September 2010. 1st September is the start of spring which is the natural breeding time for the birds.

One that cheers might be good..

Me too or did I say that already ? I can't remember Kaz, generally I just breeze over what you type but I'll try to pay more attention in the future... To anyone reading this that doesn't know me I am joking!!! Kaz is a very good source or information and we are very lucky to have her here with us... ............ I think I am going to enjoy my return. I like the addition to the emotions. Who did those?

Jimmy, you are forgiven my son .... say 2 hail marys and place $20 in the poor box.

I didn't delete any of my photos, I think you mean Throwback's. It might pay for a Mod to clean up those posts. The ring date has been moved in Australia from 1st January to the 1st September so this will have an effect on some breeders. The birds will breed when they want to so tey don't care. If it was only 12 months ago... I could have changed my holidays to two weeks and helped you in May while I was over. Good to hear that you had no problems with the zapper. This is a type of zapper for thse that don't know..

Very Nice... I think it is very good taste.

Well the birds did like it, to the point that I had the best breeding year yet. I have added another light sensor that operates an outside Bug Zapper and inside light. I have also added another timer to control the light above the bench. The Bench light comes on at 5:45pm and goes off at 7:30pm. The Main Lights come on at 7:00am and off at 7:00pm. The new light and Bug Zapper comes on at dusk and runs for 2 hours. At this time of year that is approx 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The night light comes on at Dusk, approx 6:30pm and off at dawn. What this does is to give four light levels at night for the birds to go to sleep with. I was told that the ultraviolet light used in bug zappers causes infertility in the birds. I don't know if this is right or wrong but didn't want to find out so the zapper is in a position that the birds can't see it. Photos to come.

Love the idea of the plants outside the windows.... gives me an idea.

Thanks Elly .. Good to see the old crowd still going strong. I have taken the aviary a bit futher into the future with new electrical and sensors so will have to update the orginal thread.

I collect a lot of information and hear is some inforation from the Master Breeder I hope it helps. Estimated Vitamin Requirements for Budgerigars Again, let us pause for a moment and pull this information together into the form of a chart, which lists the daily Vitamin requirements per kg feed. Vitamin A - 12500 IU. Vitamin D3 - 1500 IU. Vitamin E - 300 IU. Vitamin K - 8.00 ppm. Vitamin B Complex: - 0.05 mg B12 - 1.0 mg. iotin - 3.0 mg. folic acid - 200 mg. niacin - 50 mg. pantothenic - 15 mg. pyridoxine - 18 mg riboflavin - 7.5 mg. thiamine - 2000 mg. choline - 10 mg. Vitamin C Charcoal Supplementing While it has been claimed that charcoal added to grit or soft food removes toxins from the digestive tract of Budgerigars, this has never been scientifically proven. What has been scientifically demonstrated is that charcoal added to the diet removes Vitamins A, B2, and K from the digestive system and therefore contributes to Vitamin deficiencies.

Thanks Kaz. I just realized that I put the same photo up a few times so changed it. It has been a long time since I did any serious Photos of my Birds so I'll have to get the camera out this weekend and do some..

Hi All. Thank you to those that have PM'd me with your welcomes. It is good to be back. For those new members that don't know. I am / was Daz that you still see some post around. I originally joined here on the 1st April 2005 and have over the last two years come and gone for a number of reasons. But this is a forum that keeps you coming back. I don't really know why but it must be for the great people that are here.... Kaz, Rainbow, Adam, just to say a few.. (Don't want to miss out on any one though) The break has done me good with concentrating on the birds. I still run up to 20 cages but usually only 17 are used for breeding. The others for nursery and show birds. Hear are few that I have breed this season..... http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a26/darrylw/1W011-7.jpg http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a26/darrylw/1W010-7.jpg

So what it is trying to say is that pairs that are left undistrurb, as in closed breeding, will be more successful than those in coloney breeding... I'd have to agree with that. There are less problems that way.

Just curious on how things were going

That's interesting as most breeders try to give an effect of coloney breeding with in the close breeding system. I have my cages facing the flights and have grills between the cages so the birds can see and hear each other. I have rung over 115 birds since I started breeding this season. (may to january)

I mix up a vegetable mix of carrot, beetroot, spinach and parsley with probotics and multi vitamins. I make enough for 3 to 4 days and leave it in the fridge. I use powdered whole egg in the mix but don’t mix it until I use it. If you have yours in the fridge, I’d make up enough for 2 to 3 days.