nubbly5

Shame really! Maybe we should just start a "what we girls think about men thread" and leave the fellas (who actually started this thread before we hijacked it) to their dating opportunities. Matt maybe a "What I'm looking for in a partner" post from you?.................... And don't say a lady with budgies capable of winning the Nationals!

I know, hijacking the singles thread........ and turning it into a womens chat about men thread but....... I don't know what I did right in my life to deserve finding someone like Grant. He really has NO interest in the budgies but has built our aviary, feeds the birds when I'm away (gonna be 3 out of the 4 weeks in August!) and even comes to our shows and stewards. He built all the amazing holding cages for the 2008 Nats in Busso and worked his RING off as security without getting any sleep at all for about 4 days. So you can see we really are a partnership anyway - him with the facilities and me with the birds. Thankyou God!

If the product is not labeled then no-one can give you a guarantee that it's what you need. I DO know that you apply ivomec to guinea pigs topically and if the ivomec you have is the same concentration as the pour-on it should work okay but I'd hate to stake my life on it considering lack of label and unknown source.

Nice pairs Liv. Looking forward to the results. And yes the break is nice........ hmmm, soon over for us too :|

Grey one is gorgeous. My pick too splat!

Hi and welcome. I think Joan is actually a Ray and Ray is actually a Joan. In other words the blue spangle is definitely a hen and it looks like the white (an albino) is a male. Male albinos, lutinos and a couple of other varieties never get a blue cere but their cere stays a pinky purple colour. It looks like the albino is a cock bird but it's a tiny bit hard to tell from the pics.

Gee Taboo I was really hoping someone could do some undercover work for me It's alright a very tolerant person helped me out with a few bids!

Don't you just hate that. No chance of them surviving in this cold weather either. Hope they still hatch okay for you.

That blue on the left is really something - gorgeous babies Splat. And that green cock is a ripper - if you ever want to sell him can you ring me first?!

I have 24 cabinets and fill them all at the same time so that if eggs or chickies need swapping around then everyone is at about the same stage. okay got my final pairs sorted now as well. LACEWINGS That lacewing pair I forgot to get a picture of..... Yellow Opaline Lacewing x Yellow Lacewing This boy is a full brother to the bird that got 3rd at 2009 Nats. He has astonishingly beautiful deep yellow colour. I have chose a normal winged hen for him to try and steer away from opaline as he has that 'orrible thumb print that opaline lacewings often get. This is one of my last tier lacewing pairs but they are both still strong birds so should be reasonable for producing more visuals. FALLOWS Green Normal Fallow x Opaline Dark Green/Fallow The best pairing I could find...... sigh. This is a brother to sister pairing with the boy that can 6th at 2009 Nats to his dark green opaline split sister. This cock didn't breed for me last year but his condition this year is lovely so here's hoping the extra year maturity has helped him. Normal Grey/Cinnamon/Fallow (urk) x Normal Green Fallow Why oh why do people insist on putting cinnamon into Fallows. The I have to spend generations trying to get the damn thing out again sigh. Due to very limited numbers I has chosen to use this boy but with an '06 hen. She is in great condition and worth trying so if things don't work out at least it was with the /cinnamon..... If they do breed well here's hoping that there are not too many cinnamon fallows (which look just about identical to lacewings just to make things really confusing!). DAMMIT forgot to snap a picture of my last fallow pair. A light green/fallow brother to the Opaline Dark Green hen above to an unrelated green fallow hen. Will get last picture soon. LAST BUT NOT LEAST - VISUAL PAIRING Last but not least I'm going to try Holy Cr*p this year to a young hen and see how they go. They are both in really nice condition and Holy Cr*p is chatting up everyone in the flight so it's worth a try in my opinion. I LOOOOOOOVE both of these birds but for completely different reasons. Holy Cr*p is HUGE and has a really swanky stance but has a bit of a wobbly backline and when he pulls his face in is a bit narrow over the top of the cere. He has direction feather but I want it longer. The hen has that wonderful long directional feather is also a big bird but doesn't quite have the same swank as Holy Cr*p. I've actually been wanting to use these two together since they left the nest so I'm a bit excited that I might get the chance! I also have 2 other hens that I'll try and use over this season but not sure whom with at this stage. The grey green bred some beautiful babies last year including the normal grey that I'm putting back into my lacewing line. The grey I purchased from our local written auction (a Carl Alder bird) she is heavily flecked (the reason Carl quit her I assume) but is just too nice not to use only just a slightly shortish mask and that flecking of course will make me a bit careful on who I choose for her.

Its a trick used for show cage training. The balls make it difficult to perch or find grounding so the birds learn to stay on the perches instead. Plenty of debate over its use and practicality from the show breeders i've talked - everyone likes to think their way is the best lol. Aside from that - some superb birds nubbly. Especially chuffed with some of your cocks. Seems like everytime I move up in quality I see someone with birds that I have a look I wish I had lol. Nevermind, im going to make do with the birds I've got now and have a superb breeding season, just you wait I think you will have a great season too going by those pairs. Fingers crossed for fertility How do you administer the doxy? Is it liquid/powder? Added to the water? In the water! As a powder.... "Psittavet" from Vetafarm. But you need a vet script.

Well the birds have started on their 45 day Doxy treatment this last weekend. Did a BIG cull and started thinking about pairs for this breeding season. Haven't thought about the big scrub and disinfect yet though........ (not looking forward to that!). So I still have WAY too many varieties and keep thinking about quitting one and came awfully close to getting rid of the fallows but looked at the stock I have left and thought I'd have a concerted go at them again..... sigh. Their future depends on SOME breeding results this year compared with nothing at all last year I'm making an effort to establish (still) a line of normal/normals after the large set back of finding out that the family I had been nurturing for 3 years was indeed split for both cinnamon and opaline (nubbly has a quiet vomit). I'm also planning to put one o my strongest families back into my lacewing line and also pairing for numbers of visual lacewings and trying to keep opaline to a minimum. Luckily last years results gave me quite a lot of lacewings to work with so I'm in a happy place with them at the moment. So here are some of the pairs I have selected so far: NORMALS Normal Dark Green x Normal Light Green Well the cock has 50% chance of being split for cinnamon and opaline but that's as good as I've got now bar one cock, so this is in an effort to carry on breeding normals. The father of this cock was 10th at 2009 Nats. Mother bred a couple of super sized normals to an average dom pied so hoping it's in the mothers side. I'd like to add more feather (from dad) to chicks that this hen throws. If I can achieve that then the results should be nice. Normal Light Green x Normal Grey Green This is the father of the cock above and I have paired him to the sister of Holy Cr*p. She has great style but is a bit narrow. The cock is a terrific bird with good shoulder, great spots and feather. I'd like more length and size overall and I'm hoping those oversized genes that makes Holy Cr*p so big (and his sisters not small either) get some benefit from the cock's style and that the combo nicks together how I hope. Normal Skyblue x Normal Dark Green Now this cock bird is so far as I can tell actually a normal/normal. He was bred from my line of fallows that I am fairly sure does not have any cinnamon or opaline. Now I thought my original normal/normal cock wasn't split either so obviously things can go astray but heres hoping. For being bred from 2 split fallows he is quite a strong bird. He just needs a bit more feather so the hen I have chosen for him (the mother of the dark green above) should help there. She also has better shoulder and blow than him so seems a good match. Normal Dark Green x YF Skyblue Brother to the dark green cock above (so also a son of the dark green hen and the 10th place light green cock) and a nice but flecked yf hen. The cock has a lovely clean cap so not doubling up there and both are strong birds with good feather. Normal Light Green x Normal Light Green This boy is the brother to the 10th place Light Green boy above (and therefore uncle to the dark greens). The hen is one that I used with my 3rd place Nats Lacewing last year. She needs more feather on top but has super shoulder (needs to go on a bit of a diet though!). He just needs a bit more strength so hopefully she can add that. Normal Dark Green x Normal Skyblue Another one of those dark green brothers. A slightly lesser but still useful bird, I have paired him to a strong but untidy skyblue hen. He is a lovely neat bird but with still good feather so again fingers crossed. LACEWINGS Normal Grey x Opaline Yellow Lacewing At first I put this fellow with a normal marked lacewing hen but she just didn't do him the justice he deserved so in the spirit of pairing best to best I ignored the opaline and gave him this hen. She is the daughter of the boy that came 3rd at the 2009 Nats. What can I say... they are both lovely complete, well feathered birds and I'm hoping to get some strong splits from this pairing. Yellow Lacewing x Yellow Lacewing 3rd place lacewing with the best normal winged hen. She doesn't look super in the box here but she is very nice. She also has strong colour and good markings and is actually related to the grey cockbird above (cousins or second cousins I think). I will chase one round from this pair and then repair the cock to a strong normal hen for his next rounds (unless the chicks are immediately spectacular). Normal Light Green/Lacewing x Normal Lacewing These guys are half brother and sister from the cock above. The mother of the cock is the hen in the 5th pair of normals and the mother of the lacewing hen is her sister. Getting complicated isn't it. I think I can safely say that my birds are forming one big stud line. Yellow Lacewing x Yellow Lacewing Breeding for visuals here really just picked this '06 boy the best hen I could for him. Both normal wings and she is a respectable hen with a nice mask and a reasonable bit of feather. This bird bred nicely last year and hopefully will again this year which will most likely be his last year. Normal Skyblue/Lacewing x Normal Green Well I really like this boy but he is really really selective about his girlfriends (he like boyfriends much more) so for the last few months he has been in a flight with only the hens I liked enough to put in with him. Of course he chose the least inspiring of the whole lot but she is still one I was happy enough to put with him so. At least his extreme feather and blow will hopefully add to her width but lack of anything on top. Maybe if we are lucky we might score some lacewing hens from this pairing. Dammit missed one lacewing pair....... coming soon Opaline Yellow Lacewing x Yellow Lacewing. PAIRINGS FOR VISUAL QUALITIES (or some other crazy hairbrained ideas I get sometimes) Skyblue Spangle x Cinnamon Opaline Dilute Dominant Pied Strange combination you say....... well okay maybe I agree with you but Titan here (the skyblue spangle) is a lovely bird, just lacking in mask length (surprising considering his breeding) and the hen is a lovely girl that I thought i could use in my clearwings until I discovered that she was not only opaline but also cinnamon to boot >>:|. Still they are both beauties and should combine well knowing their backgrounds AND somewhere down the track I'd LOVE to see some blue dom pieds........ Dilute Dominant Pied x Normal Grey Again I bought this bird for use in my clearwings but alas he is opaline so I'm not going down the track of trying to weed opaline out of them but putting him in but he is a super cock and I have paired him with the mother of Holy Sh*t and Holy Cr*p so we'll just have to see what happens. Again I'd LOVE some blue dom pieds........ CLEARWINGS Normal Cobalt x Violet Clearwing A really nice cock, brother to Titan but who dropped his some flights and didn't regrow them . I've put him with a nice violet clearwing hen to breed some splits and maybe even add some violet factor into some other birds. Olive Clearwing x Dark Green Clearwing Trying to maintain and hopefully slightly improve my clear winged family. The cock is one that came 1tth in the 2008 Nat but he is small although has exceptional wing clarity. The hen has lovely style with still good wing clarity. Dark Green Clearwing x Violet Clearwing This fellow is massive but is long flighted. I've paired him to a very neat winged violet hen who again has good wing clarity. He is not bad but has come from a very dark winged father so I'm trying to achieve 2 things here - get rid of the long flights/tail and keep some wing clarity. Olive Clearwing x Olive Clearwing This gorgeous cockbird I bought from Linn Pitticks (RIP) clearance auction as a UBC. He bred magnificently for me last year and fulfilled the promise he showed when I bought him as a baby boy (his daughter is the dark green clearwing in the second clearwing pairing). This year I'm hoping to use him over 2 different hens. First this little girl with exceptional wing clarity to again try and bolster my clearwinged family. Althoug his wings are not the cleanest he has bred some really nice young stock with some good wing clarity in there amongst them. I'll change him over to a bigger but slightly more heavily marked hen later in the season. Dilute x Violet Clearwing I have no idea what this cock bird is split for or even if he is cinnamon himself (might be) but I'll find out after this pairing I hope. The hen is another daughter of Linn Pittick's cock above and is quite stylish and not too heavily marked. Fingers crossed. BLACKEYED SELFS This guy is awsome for a blackeyed self. He is huge and has reasonable feather. He is also a terrible flirt and couldn't help nut chat up his intended girl friend so he didn't really show himself off to the camera well (too busy showing off to the girl!!!!). I've paired him to a hen with great colour. Well that's all for now folks. 1 more lacewing pair to come. Plus some fallow pairings and maybe one more BES pairing. Stay tuned.

Also tell us what you are aiming for. Pretty pets, specific varieties or show birds.

Oh interesting to see who I've been paired with But seriously, I wish you the very best breeding season and look forward to regular chickly updates!

bugger!

God I hope someone else gets back onto the forum......... um...... S_C (or have you found your bed too?!).

That's cheating isn't it?! Yep! Do I have to guess again? If so then S_C, I guess you!

What a strange little game! Nope it not Ratzy (last time I looked anyway). Ummmmm GB..

I LIKE this one - a lot! Very nice Splat, very very nice.

Some nice pick ups Dean! What a stroke of luck with the breeder selling out - shame to hear it though....... And you never know how certain birds that don't look like much can really nick well with your own stock and breed on well.

Anyone going who might do some undercover bird viewing and remote bidding for me????

Well it's not a CRITICAL problem as opaline is an allowable combination with lacewing (here in Oz at any rate) but yes you are right it CAN be an issue for the very reasons you mention. Opaline often causes fuzzy indisitinct wing markings in lacewings and in the worst cases cause the nasty thumb print to appear as a patch in the middle of an otherwise marked wing. But having said that...... if a damn good lacewing is opaline, it's still a damn good lacewing. At the moment I am in the process of slowly working away from opaline but not at the expense of bird quality. Anyway it's a pretty hard task. I bought a bird from a prominent breeder on the assurances that it was normal/normal only to have cin opaline hens pop out after 3 years of normal to normal breeding so evidently it was not normal/normal in the first place. But using strong normal hens as outcrosses would probably be the way to go. GB's chicks are all opaline as the pairing was opaline/lw x opaline, but she is very lucky in that the wing markings of these chicks are lovely and distinct as well as not showing any evidence of a thumb print. So she's starting off from a good basis. GB I know you are having some issues identifying opaline lacewings from normals so I thought I would show everyone what to look for as it can be confusing especially in diluted varieties. So here goes in both white and yellow! okay here are 2 white lacewing hens, the first in opaline the second in normal. You can see much more distinct shell markings on the neck and cheeks on the normal lacewing than the opaline lacewing. In this case the mantle of the opaline lacewing has heavy markings but you can see that they are different to the regaular shell markings of the normal. Also the wing markings would not be much of a help but viewed together you can see some difference. Whenever you might be in doubt of a bird being opaline or not the main tail feathers is the place to look every time! In opaline you will see a clear "colour flash" running up the centre of the tail. In the case of lacewings it's the same as their ground colour so white lacewings will have a white colour flash on the tail feathers and yellows will have yellow. It is more prominent at the base of the feather close to the body so spread out the tail coverts and have a look. In comparison the normal will have a reasonably even shade of cinnamon along it's full length. Again in these pics opaline on the left and normal on the right. Mantles are not always a great indicator with todays heavily marked opalines BUT you can clearly see the difference between the shell markings on the back of the head and the difference in the evenness of the mantle markings. So now all the above but in yellow. You can see that THIS opaline lacewing shows that nasty thumb print that Dean was talking about. The main this to look at is the regular shell markings in the normal and the lack of defined markings in the opaline around the head, cheeks and mantle. This opaline has a nice clear mantle. Note the colour flash down the centre of the main tail feathers in the opaline and the plain cinnamon of the normal.

Hey Finnie which company does your hubby work for (PM me if you prefer)! I work for a large pharmacutical/animal health company and can confirm that what Finnie says is correct - HOWEVER - ALL mectins are light sensitive and will break down much more rapidly of stored in a light environment. For longer life, keep in a dark cupboard or in a box. ALSO, degredation studies are done at specific temperatures (Room Temp - 25 degrees) for example and large variations in temps will affect breakdown of chems in different ways. For the best product life keep your chems in a cool/dark/dry environment unless differently stated on the packaging. The cattle product does not need to be mixed down. ooooops - didn't see RIP's post there! Ditto what she said!!!!!

Just scurried off to look coz I didn't think that Vic had been all that prominent in LW's in the Nats. The year my bird got 4th Vic came 5 & 9 (2008), the year my bird got a 3rd Vic got 7 & 9 (2009). Didn't look at what they got this year so maybe I'm talking out of my bum a bit BUT the birds you have GB are all related to both these boys so in theory your lacewings should have all the potential in the world to mix it with the top LW breeders in your state! And looking at those chicks tells me that you are well on the way! They ARE VERY nice chicks!

Pardon me for asking this but are you actually competing against the champion breeders in your club at this stage?! What grade are you in? Doesn't that mean you compete against other Novices and build up the quality of your birds over time?