nubbly5

Hey Shannon, Are the birds in pair 6 bush budgies? (sorry if that's a rude question and they are supposed to be, you know, like, top birds......... ) Love the lacewing hen in pair 1 - such a lovely long bird.

Do we have any in Aus or NZ? I do know they are a sex linked variety so the breeding compared to violet, dark factor and grey is quite different but I just wondered how different a slate would be to the bird you have here - I'm pretty sure the cheek patches are still violet though so that e be a giveaway.

okay 10 more pairs selected today. That brings the total to 15 and then 9 more to fill my cabinets for the first round. It got harder this time, as the first ones were ones I've had in mind for a while now. These I really had to think about Pair 6 - Cinnamon Olive Spangle Cock x Cinnamon Dark Green Hen - I need dark factor cinnamons to improve my Blackeyed Selfs plus I want more dark factor birds full stop. These are not top quality but not too bad for dark factors. Pair 7 - Dark Green Opaline Spangle Cock x Double Factor Yellow Hen - well this was a story of going to buy birds from someone who was selling out completely and asking, after I had purchased what I wanted, "Is there anything else I should buy?". Apparently this hen has produced some magnificent babies in the past some of which ended up at the Nationals so for $30 (she is an '06 bird) who can not give it a try even though as I mentioned before, I'm not actually into spangles and generally just treat them like a normal outcross. The cock bird's grandfather was 1st place at nationals so fingies crossed on this one. Pair 8 - Yellow Lacewing Cock x Yellow Lacewing Hen - this is a repeat mating of the one that bred this years 3rd place getter and the cock was 4th place in 2008. Pair 9 - Yellow Lacewing Cock x Cinnamon Grey Green Hen - this years 3rd place getter to one of my most solid hens. I have a normal green sister to this hen that is as good as her but she is out on loan. If she comes back in time I'll put him to her instead. Otherwise I'll be happy enough breeding half brothers and sisters by changing over between the hens for the 2nd round. Pair 10 - Normal Grey Green/Lacewing Cock x Yellow Face White Lacewing Hen - paired on visual appeal plus parentage of which this cocks is very solid (brother to the 4th place getter (Pair 8 and uncle to the 3rd place getter above). Plus as YF is of no benefit in Lacewing (suffusion is penalised) I am hoping to breed yellows again with this pairing. Pair 11 - White Lacewing Cock x Yellow Lacewing Hen - This is one *** (the firey pits of I'm talking about here - f-ing auto censor) of a cock bird that has never really fired for me. One more go for him or else!!! Paired with a visually appealling hen IF they breed I think the outcome will be excellent. Pair 12 - Normal Grey Green Cock x Cinnamon Grey Hen - The hen here is THE BEST bird I have in my aviary and I'm very proud to have bred her, however, like a lot of big buffy hens her breeding is hit and miss. This cock bird is an excellent breeder and father as well as having bred a handful of lovely babies for me last year one of which was 13th in the Nats this year (blue). Pair 13 - Olive Clearwing Cock x Olive Clearwing Hen - I purchased this clearwing cock at auction when he was in nest feather and I'm stoked at how he turned out - he did have great promise but that's not always realized. He does however have stronger markings than I'd like so I'm putting him with a nice clean winged hen to try and increase size with him while cleaning up the wings with her. Pair 14 - Violet Clearwing Cock x Violet Clearwing Hen - this massive cock bird I purchased as part of a package lot. He is huge but is very strongly marked so as above size with markings crossed with small with wing clarity. Pair 15 - Olive Clearwing Cock x Violet Clearwing Hen - I am striving to keep a family of very clear winged birds and this is what I'm aiming for with this pairing. The cock bird was 11th at 2008 Nationals and the hen is sister to the bird that came 11th at this years Nats. Still more to come.

Just for you....Nubbly I found the ripsnorter in the aviary amidst his moult....looking a little crappy.....broken bloodfeather on his head etc etc... Before... and after.....NOW 5 months old ( a bit more growing to do so maybe he has a surprise or two in store yet or maybe not ) Look at the direction feather!!! He had it from day one and still has a good dose now.

By The Way what do slates look like in relation to this bird? are they similar or completely different?

Thanks Renee & GB Yep, I left them until last coz they are harder work getting pairs I am happy with and Fallows I really don't have a great selection of but bred some lovely splits last year so might have more of a chance with some of those. Probably the wrong way to go as by rights I should be using the best normals I have into the fallows and I've already paired up at least one of them

I feel I have a long way to go I think you judge yourself and your birds a bit harshly...... that baby I judged was an absolute ripsnorter and if your others are ANYTHING like that you don't have as far as you think - trust me.

Thanks Guys. This is the part of budgie-ing that I really really enjoy - all that expectation. Kaz - judging by the birds you are picking out to buy and the babies you show here (and the magnificent one I saw in the flesh) your birds will be a force to be reckoned with very very very soon!!!!! I'd better be breeding some good ones this year I think.

Having an aviary overrun with cinnamon I would also say the same about that variety too - also sex linked like opaline so the same applies when you get normals split for cinnamon - EVERYWHERE in my case :|

Although I will not be putting birds down to breed until the middle of August I always get a bit of excitement up as I head towards the time. Cull done, doxy program starting tomorrow for 45 days then all systems go. So my lunchtime today I spent choosing out some pairs that I've had in mind for a little while and here are the first 5. Pair 1 - Cinnamon Grey Green Spangle Cock x Cinnamon Grey Green Spangle Hen. Not that I'm into breeding DF spangles so much than I love the combination of these 2 birds features wise and I don't much like cinnamon spangles although I have a few so reasonable enough decision IMO to put these 2 together and breed a few DF's and make use of that cinnamon rather than making it a hindrance. Pair 2 - Cinnamon Grey Green Spangle Cock (father of cock in Pair 1) x Cinnamon Oplaine Grey Green Hen. This is a brother x sister pairing as the father was 100% Gazzard bird that I want to breed back to - lost him after only 3 babies all of which I have retained and all of which have bred nicely for me as you can see. Will be a bit of an experiment but I am pretty sure the results will be worth the effort. Pair 3 - Normal Light Green Cock x Normal Dark Green Hen - This cock came 10th at the Nats this year and he is normal/normal not split for cinnamon or opaline. Pairing him with this hen is an effort to achieve 2 things - continue a normal/normal line and produce some more solid quality dark factor birds. Pair 4 - Normal Light Green Cock x Dom Pied Opaline Dilute Hen - okay bit of a mixed bag here I know. This is the brother of the cock bird in Pair 3 but not quite as strong as him obviously. The hen is one I bought at auction and (contrary to how the photo looks) she is a very long very powerful hen from exceptionally strong breeding which has produced National reps all through the family many of them placing well at previous nationals. Now I had thought of putting her into my Clearwing lines as she is not cinnamon and so long as I only keep hens that didn't show dom pied I would have a very quick way of improving my clearwing line HOWEVER she is SUCH a strong hen from SUCH good lines that I can't help myself and want to use her in my normals keeping in mind that I'll have to keep a careful eye on where the dilute ends up!!! I might even swap the 2 brothers over for the 2nd round to breed half brothers & sisters to both pairings. Pair 5 - Grey Spangle Opaline Cock x Normal Grey Hen - This cock is son to 1st place Nats Normal Grey in 2005? The hen is a direct relation to the same bird. I would be a complete dumbarse not to put these two together considering the son of this cock paired to this hen last year produced arguably my best babies for the years breeding. More pairs coming soon!

That's solved it 100% uncategorically a grey. Might possibly be a violet grey or a dark factor grey but 100% a grey. The cheek patch and colouring is definitely a grey bird but Ihave had greys bred through df birds that come out looking that blueish tinge when compared to a normal no df grey bird. But I would imagine that a violet grey could end up looking similar and the baby photo might suggest he has violet in him. Breeding him will give you the answer to that - if after a number of babies, no violet then he is just a dark factor grey. Edit: I just nicked out to look at my dark factor greys and I have to say now that I reckon this guy MUST be violet grey coz although his cheek patches are definitely still in the realms of grey, they are a much deeper blue shade than my dark factor greys.

Yep come on Dean - where are those pics??????!

Not sure I agree that the hen looks like a dark factor grey although greys are pretty difficult to tell in the dark factor series. But like you say IF she is carrying a df then it is possible for the baby to be mauve.

Hey BS (sorry about that but I kinda giggled when I was typing ) I have a little glass dropper thing that I place through the feathers and onto the skin but I believe it works well enough if you just drop straight onto the feathers as it translocates fairly well tp the skin anyway.

Can of worms question there Cranberry and many people will have differing views on whats the best size/style nest box. I found that the standard pet shop boxes were way too shallow and I had chicks always coming out far to early. We biult our own boxes in the end and have adapted and changed them every now and then. We have settled on a design that works very well for us. It's based on a box within a box design with internal dimensions of something like 270mm high x 270 mm deep x 150mm wide with the exit hole placed reasonably high up so the babies have to be reasonably mature before they can climb out. Made from white malamine for easy cleaning. Inside that we use a mdf box made with 12mm base and 6mm sides with little pine runners. These are designed to be semi-throw-away and I use them for 2-3 seasons cleaning and disinfecting them prior to use again the next season. Thses I fill with pine shavings but you can use bran or other bedding material. The nest boxes have breather holes drilled top and bottom to prevent moisture buildup. These have been working an absolute treat and I don't have any more changes planned for the design.

Yeah GB I understand the dark factor and violet factor - the problem I have in this particular instance is that in the baby photo the bird has neither your typical violet cheek patches (indicating a mauve or cobalt) NOR has it got the typical slatey blue grey cheek patches (denoting the grey gene). Hoping Dean can send post a more recent natural light photo for us to look at and ponder over. I would agree with GB that it's LIKELY to be a grey violet but not impossible for it to be a mauve also given that the mother COULD be either no dark factor, single dark factor or even double dark factor (although she does look like having no dark factor). Another thing that points to violet grey is the evenness of the body colour - in the photo's posted by GB her mauve also shows the patchy colouring typical of this double dark factor colour.

okay to be a mauve the mother would have to have to be either single or double dark factor. Do you know what the hens parentage is? Sorry - that was baddly phrased! For the BABY to be a mauve the mther would have to be a single or double dark factor bird (as mauve is double dark factor). You know the cock is single dark factor so to get the double dark factor in one of their babies you would have to have one dark factor donated by the hen.

I butted out of this as mauve birds have a strong deep violet cheek patch but I've never seen a grey violet before. Does the violet factor in a grey bird affect the cheek patch to make it more "blueish"? Also all the mauves I have bred or seen have been a very patchy deep greyish colour never nice and even like this, but that does not mean much as there are not too many around and I've only bred a couple in the clearwings !!! GB when you say your birds are grey with violet inheritance does that mean they ARE grey violets or just that a parent was violet? Dean what is this birds parentage coz that might give us some clues as to what he can and can't be? edit: Doh - should have read a bit better hey? I just saw your first post explaining the parents (Gina smacks herself in the head). I would not have said mauve straight up based on cheek patches and even body colour but not sure really - and like Elly would love a more current picture in natural light.

Hey GB I breed Lacewings (my fav), Fallows, Clearwings, Blackeyed Selfs, then I run my "normals" which include Normals (I am running a line of normal/normals as they are rare as hens teeth over here and I need them for fallows), Cinnamons, Cinnamon Opaline, Opaline, Spangles and a couple of oddities that I purchsed at auction for bird quality - YF & dilute.

Uuuuummm - NO (to all 90 photo's I mean). Got through and culled down by just over 50 birds so I didn't quite get to the 150 mark that I was hoping but to get under 200 again was a good effort. AND it really was nice to talk to someone about birds - a whole birdie filled day YAY!!!! And pardon the pun but "It just flew by!" The whole exercise was very interesting as we got through my rare varieties and then to my "normal" cocks hens which include cinnamons, opalines, spangles and normals and we had quite a few in the cull box at the end that I was thinking were very substantial birds - kind of a nice way to know that my stud is going forwards. As far as selling them, I've earmarked 10 of the nicer ones for our club auction in September - there are actually a couple of very nice birds really (I was almost not going to part with them.......), I have 2 pair of clearwings earmarked for 2 different people and the rest of the better young ones I might post up here for sale.

Hey Kaz Lovely baby Uno! She and her Mum should pass on some lovely features to your stud! Also I'm just going to pick on what you said a little bit..... "split for blue" well she technically IS a blue but with the grey gene added - probably a little more correct and a little less confusing to say she is single factor grey. Just me being pedantic Oh and I looooove the upturned icecream container as a refuge idea - I'll have to use that one myself instead of trying to make little wooden shelters and having a real struggle cleaning them.

A boy and without seeing the back and tail I would agree with Nerwen and have a stab at greywing grey green (blue/grey cheek patches show him to be a grey green). Very nice looking youngster too!!!

Thanks Richo I'm at 240+ according to my database (took me all day to do a reccy and get it all right (hopefully) - stock take on all the birds, reconcile with database, print out new record sheets) and I'd like to get back closer to the 150 mark which is a comfortable number for me - so I don't actually halve numbers, just aim for a comfortable baseline. I like to keep a good number of breeders of each variety plus backups for those that just don't fire come breeding season. Plus I always hang onto young birds for at least 6 months (unless they are truely horrible or tiny) as even an average young bird can be a surprise package once they moult (especially lacewings I found). So this cull will be black rings and older. Unfortuantely after adding 2 new varieties both of which seem to breed like flies, I'm bursting at the seems. But that also means I need to be very careful with my "normal varieties" as I need them as outcrosses for my "rare" varieties. I'm really looking forward to the exercise but I hope my friend and I work okay together in the bird room - that, not having been tested before, could be a bit interesting - hopefully just fun though.

Ooh ooh. I'm a bit excited coz on Sunday I have invited a budgie friend (whose eye for budgies I really respect and whose company I really enjoy) around to do my annual cull. I'm spending tonight and some of tomorrow making sure all my computer records are straight so there are no hitches when I go to investigate what background a budgie might have when deciding to keep or not keep. As I don't breed again until September (going to put them down mid August this year for a couple of different reasons - usually put them down on the 1st September) I find winter boring and I get jealous of all the posts about pairing up and chicks coming along so I am getting quite excited about some budgying with a friend.

Probably light green dilute I would say. Olive you would expect stronger suffusion on rump.