nubbly5

Fantastic job Julie! He is a stunning bird and you should be really proud of all the hard work you've put in.

Possible to have a dilute with wing markings modified by clearwing if you have both clearwing and dilute in the breeding. I've bred a few myself out of my clearwings. They look for all the world like clearwing dilutes (but of course you can't actually have the two genes visable at the same time). After much discussion and gnashing of teeth it was explained to me that it is actually a dilute (genetically) but has wing modifiers of a clearwing making the wings very very marking free (depending on how good your clearwings are in the first place though). BUT WAIT. Just been looking at the bird again. Is that a single smudgy brownish wing marking I see in the top photo? Can we get some close ups of wings and ANY markings that might be on them as well as tail? I like splat think that the violet grey is acutally a mauve. So patchy a colouring is typical of mauve but not grey and the cheek patches are not a typical grey either.

Look for outcross birds with BRIGHT yellow pigment. Does not necessarily need to be dark factor but you will see some birds have a much brighter yellow pigment than others. Pick the bright yellows. Dark factor birds do not necessarily equate to good bright yellow in the green series. I even use cinnamons which have been said to reduce body colour does not seem to have any real affect on yellow pigment so long as you choose birds with a really bright base colouring anyway. Wing markings..... really heavily marked opalines will produce heavily marked lacewings usually without the stupid thumbprint mark on the wings BUT you will be penalised by flecking most likely. Stick with normals where you can but good luck trying to find cocks without an opaline gene in there........ Dark factor normals, top class cinnamons whatever..... so long as you are picking good yellow pigment. For whites, stick to grey factor birds to reduce the possibility of suffusion of body colour into the bird.

Some SUPER youngsters there GB. Looks like the work is paying off! Some of the brow of those birds is just fantastic. Interesting to have seen the progression of your stud over the last few years. Keep up the great work.

That book by Watmough and the BEAUTIFUL colour plates in it was what really got my interest in budgies started when mum was breeding budgies. That clearwing violet in particular. Just gorgeous. The Guide to Colour and Mutation in Parrots is a pretty good book if you really want to try and get your head around some of the genetics. Worth a read (a few reads actually as it's pretty in depth).

I'll go the bet with you Jets. What do I get when I win (everyone else who's said it's a hen should get something too!)

Definitely a pain RIP. I'm ALWAYS going to honour my high school science teacher and his calling them Mendel Squares so no matter HOW many times you make this point it won't make an inch of difference okay! Just like trying to explain to some notable budgie breeders that YF is recessive to green and not masked by it, right And anyway Punnetts just make me think of vegetables and lots of sh*t (for when I'm planting my vegie patch) so I don't give a flying f*uck who designed bl**dy punnetts, it was mendel who was the smart bugger who figured out the who system so mendel squares it is for me - right wrong or otherwise. Now I'm just off to stick sneaky "Mendel Squares" in every post I make........ see if you can find them all RIP

Definitely a pain RIP. I'm ALWAYS going to honour my high school science teacher and his calling them Mendel Squares so no matter HOW many times you make this point it won't make an inch of difference okay! Just like trying to explain to some notable budgie breeders that YF is recessive to green and not masked by it, right

It's all to do with past history and where people have ASSUMED that YF gene lobs onto it's very own allele rather than at the same place that both the green and the blue gene do. This is the key to understanding the YF genetics. Just like the Greywing, Clearwing, Dilute where Greywing is dominant to clearwing is dominant to dilute, (but you don't call any of them dominant varieties yet we understand the dominance heirachy) the green, YF, blue series works exactly the same way as green is dominant to YF is dominant to blue. Just remeber that a bird can only carry 2 of those 3 genes just like greywing,clearwing dilute. So as Daryl says the YF is dominant to the blue but recessive to the green. So a green can be split for yf. A green can be split for blue too but a green can't carry BOTH a blue AND a YF gene NOR can it be a green/blue carrying YF. GB a green bird CANNOT carry BOTH blue and YF genes. GB in the example I've given you have one bird with 1 green and 1 yf gene to donate and another bird with only 2 blue genes to donate so when you mate these birds together the ONLY combination you get is either green/blue or YF split blue. In THIS pairing you don't have YF from the other bird to donate to the gene pair. Just do a Mendle square and you'll work it out. Now if you had a Gr/YF x YF/b sure you will have the chance of breeding more Green split YF.

Pine shavings too many moths for me with bran but then I don't do the mozzie zapper thing.

Try telling my budgies that they are herbivores. They cannablise they own deads and each chicken from chicken carcasses. They ARE neophobes though (scared of new things) and probably won't eat mealworms unless they experienced them as youngsters. Maybe crushed into softfood would be the way to go.

okay, last question. Does he have iris rings? If so then definitely a DF spangle.

Really hard to tell from the fuzzy picture but he has all the makings of a yellow df spangle from what I can see but he could also be lutino - are his eyes black or red? Black, then DF Spangle. Red, the lutino.

Kaz, I for one was very sad for the old pensioner that was bidding at the SWBC auction. He spent much more than he expected and although he had someone to help him, I think it was hard for them both..... On another note I saw the best bird I've put up for auction ever, go to this gentleman, and although I would never begrudge his purchase, I was a little disappointed that the particular bird (which I was told was the best in the auction by several different people) went to this fellow. I know he will not get the benefit from this bird who had a lot to offer an up and coming breeder or even a more advanced breeder. I don't know the answer here but maybe some better direction from the fellow that was "helping" him might have provided a better result for everyone. Mind you, having been cornered by said gentleman more than once I can attest to how hard actually helping him (not just buy but buy prudently) would be.

Hey Taz and Fordmob, Let's face it, you spend your weekends playing with little birdies and your worried about people calling you fanciers? Cheers PT HAHAHAHAHAHA! It's "the hobby" for me though. Although I never quite understand why it has to be THE hobby when I have many other hobbies that are not pretentious enough to assume that they are THE hobby......

Yep, that's the one. It took me quite a while to understand that YF is not "MASKED" by green a green bird is split for YF (not for want of a better term that's ACTUALLY what it is). Unlike and Albino "MASKING" other varieties a green is dominant to a YF. So if the bird has one green gene and one YF gene then technically it's a green split YF. If we technically correct we would say YF split blue for a SF YF bird too. With the Albino the genes occur on a different allele so they act separately to other varieties. The trick is understanding that green, YF and blue ALL OCCUR ON THE SAME ALLELE. (Similar to the greywing, clearwing, dilute series). Because of this a bird can only have 2 of the 3 different genes on that allelic series. So it's either green split YF or green split blue. The traditional thinking has been that a green bird can mask yf (so the 2 varieties occur as a separate series) this has been proven to be incorrect and with test breeding you will find that a green split YF paired with a blue bird will never produce a blue bird as all the babies will either be G/b of YF/b (so either green split blue or YF split blue (SF YF)). G/yf x b/b - do the calculations 50% G/b 50% YF/b Trouble is that people don't keep up with the current science and keep believing that what was thought but not proven in the past..... and of course we know that they OBVIOUSLY know better don't we.

Yep Neville is correct. Had a brain fart and somehow thought the hen was spangle - I think the opaline body colouring in the wings led me astray and I didn't even look at the spots or cheek patch - doh! That's what happens when you are trying to do 500 things at once........ (Nubbly goes and gives herself a good stern talking to )

Sounds like a great ride! Jealous.......

All blue 25% chance cobalt 75% chance skyblue 25% chance non-spangle 50% chance spangle 25% chance DF spangle (white) If he is split opaline then.... 25% chance opaline cocks 25% chance normal (or non-opaline - could be spangle) split opaline 25% chance opaline hens 25% chance normal (or non-opaline) hens.

Quinoa I know is great and has many good amino acids not found in other seed/grains. I soak it overnight and add it to soft food. Other stuff........ dunno.

After breeding budgies for some time you get to be just that way Kaz. Soooooooooo many different things can happen to developing eggs/young chicks even older chicks - once they are out of the nest or better still, in the aviary, you know they have hatched out okay!

Yeah been reading about your drama's. You get that sometimes unfortunately but hopefully your season improves as the weather evens out. I've found that wildly fluctuating weather always seems to give bad breeding results for some reason - probably just that bit of added stress on the birds... We did not have a fantastic year last year so hoping my run this year is better.

Well, when you look into a nest of youngsters and go "Holy Cr*p", it just seemed like the right name

LOL :D :D and you didnt even check our pockets LOL And I'm sorry I just WASN'T going to check down either yours OR Kens pants!!!!