Dean_NZ

For an auction bird, that hen seems to have been worth far more in breeding than whatever you paid for her! How much did you pay by the way? Im amazed at how well she has produced for you and you are right in that she deserves a rest!! It's great to find such super hens, they are the foundation of every successful line and are priceless when you consider how many excellent offspring will inherent her good traits. Congratulations on such a successful purchase

No she is not fluffed up or looking distressed. She is eating well, and chirping to her mate quite often. I just remember that a pumping tail is a sign of something unusual. In this case i am assuming having an egg close to being laid is the 'unsual' thing, but one can't be too careful so i wanted to check with everyone just in case. I will moniter her closely. As far as calcium goes, she has cuttlefish available and chews through it faster than my other pair as well as calcium supplements added to the water. As breeding budgies drink more, i have halfed the suggested dose as i do not want to risk over-dosing. I'll let you know how she goes :laughter:

Hi guys, I have a second pair im pretty sure are about to lay. Light green normal male and dark green normal female. The female has been investigating the box and spends most of the day in there. The pair have been mating, more so in the last couple of days (that i have noticed anyway). A day or two ago i noticed the hen's vent appears swollen or larger than normal and today i noticed she is pumping her tail and her vent is quite swollen. Does this mean she is about to lay, or could it indicate problems with the egg or her health? I can recall the mother of the 5 chicks looking similarly swollen before she laid, but i cant remember if she pumped her tail or not and i know pumping is a sign of illness or distress, Thanks in advance! Fingers crossed everything goes well and i get eggs instead of a sick hen :laughter:

Lol i must be the only one here who doesn't like pieds. With all due respect to those who like them - I find they are quite messy visually. The inconsistant patterning and striping is too random for my liking. My favourite colour is violet, and im actually considering trying to cross my light green male with my cobalt violet YF1 hen in the future (or as soon as possible) as a violet dark green looks like a beautiful rich colour to me (i at least want to see it once out of curiosity). My favourite mutations is either spangle or melanistic spangle as far as common mutations go. Favourite rare mutation would have to be blackface grey. Favourite combination mutation and what i hope to one day specialise in is rainbow budgies (YF opaline clear wing blue).

Any updates or eta's on that article kaz? Would be most interested to read it

Wow that does suck

I hear that although the majority of the australian birds remain smaller (with exception to english imports), they retain brighter colours and more pure mutations (goldenface, opaline for example) in general. As my preference (and future goal) is for breeding violets and to a larger extent rainbows (yellow/goldenface opaline whitewings, perhaps cinnamon, perhaps dom pied - i would like to experiment to find 'my' perfect rainbow composite) i had thought about getting australian birds or going to australia

I would have agreed with you a month ago, but i have been reading about the yellowface inheritances as per the opinion of Pete Burgman (linked). If i understand correctly, YF type one requires b1 and b2 blue genes which singly (ie b1/b1 or b2/b2) produce no yellow. However b1/b2 produces a type 1 yellow face. So theoretically there is no 'double factor yellow face type one', and therefore chicks of two type 1 yellow faces would theoretically (according to my understanding of Pete burgmans document, which i may not have fully grasped yet) be 25% b1/b1 (white faces), 25% b2/b2 (white faces) and 50% b1/b2 (yellow faces). As i may not have yet grasped the full extent of petes writing, it does make sense to me in that two yellow faces should produce either all yellow faces or double factor yellow faces, but they dont. Usually they produce white faces, so pete's explanation is making sense to me at this point. More on that later! Its movie time!

I have to go upstairs and make popcorn before watching a movie with my wife so i won't have time to elaborate, but here is some info i found: (Source: Opalines)

Thanks! I just wish the two yellowface violet cobalts would pair up. Instead the YF violet cobalt male spends all day kissing the normal grey. neither of them are hitting on the girls and the YF violet cobalt hen is totally ready to go down. ARG! Guess thats the name of the game hey lol.

Hi all, haven't actually gotten around to taking pics of my flock yet. I have 17 birds at the moment, including 5 chicks. They include: Cocks: Yellowface type 1 violet cobalt (possibly split for opaline, or has some suffision around neck area) Normal Grey split blue (not sure of any dark factor) (Both are pictured below) Yellowface type two opaline skyblue split ino (father of the 5 chicks, slight flecking, hoping the chicks wont have it) Normal Light Green (Paired to dark green hen, about to lay) Recessive pied Cinnamon sky blue **Pet type Young Sky blue double factor violet spangle (at least single factor violet, but it is a gorgeous shade of bright yet light purple) **Pet type, purchased from pet shop today). Hens: Yellowface type 2 SF dominant pied grey split blue Normal cobalt (possibly SF violet, or deeply coloured cobalt). Has suffusion of body colour up neck. Opaline grey split for blue (mother of the five chicks) Normal dark green (paired to light green, about to lay) Opaline spangle cobalt (would like to pair it to the new violet spangle next year when he is older) **Pet type Yellowface type one SF violet cobalt (wish she would pair up with the YF violet cock, but she only seems to respond to the YF2 opaline skyblue which is currently raising chicks ) Here is a recent picture of the 5 chicks and their parents as mentioned above: Aside from the pet types, all the budgies are from showbreeders. They may not necessarily be the greatest of birds, but they have some good points and since i may be moving to australia or canada after finishing my degree in two years, im really more interested in gaining breeding and husbandry experience at the moment. Putting my theoretical genetics knowledge to test through breeding, trying out feeding programs and getting to know these wonderful birds better and better.

Thats exactly one thing i was trying to think of as an example!! Couldnt agree with you more! As you said, birds with heavy flecking being placed anywhere tells people these birds are okay to breed, and yet time and again we are told it's a bad show trait and should not be bred or given recognition. I have seen a local show breeder get into a position where his best birds were flecked and rather than be heavy with the cull, he kept them because of their other qualities and now half of his flock has some moderate to heavy flecking. *sigh* Looks like i have to go off to the show breeding topics and stir up some debate :star:

I doubt it :hap: Come on KAZ We'll never get anywhere if people don't support us at a ground level hehehe. I would love to see a splinter group of budgie shows that support colour or 'best mutation' - ie you are marked on how close your mutation is to the ideal. Too often i see muddy opalines, weakly marked spangles (or spangle markings that fade) etc etc and so forth. Why have we become so proud of new mutations within the fancy only to back shelf them for breeding by 'specialists' if they prove harder to breed than dominant genes? Tis a shame!

Hello to you nev nice to see a familiar face :hap: Thanks everyone for your posts! I would love to hear opinions on the current state of show budgies and the direction the fancy has taken. I've been reading a lot of posts in this forum during my search for information, especially interested in (correct me if im wrong) daz's thread showing his new aviary being built. Im always keen to learn ways to improve the living conditions and space available for my birds, so you can bet i'll be scouring the messages here!

Hi everyone, Dean from New Zealand here. I have purchased about 13 birds of varying quality in the last few months to begin getting some experience under my belt. I have had one pair go down with 6 eggs, all of which hatched but the last one was crushed by the oldest chicks the next morning as i had no other nests to swap it with and i couldnt hand raise any due to my working schedule. Glad to be here, hope to add to my growing knowledge as i continue to read and search out information online before deciding whether to breed for show or for colour (or perhaps both down the line). My preference is to seek out and breed stock of outstanding colouration - ie brightness, depth, quality of feather and fullness of tone etc. My secondary interest is showing budgies, but i have some personal dislikes with the current state of the show birds - believing them to be oversized and far from the graceful bird it once was. But then that is just my opinion and i am still learning Im eager to learn, open to advice and correction. Looking forward to meeting everyone and reading your posts. Thanks for your time!