Linda_S

Green Series... Opaline Dilute Hen 09 (purchased for use with greywing cock) best I could get for a closs up, this one doesn't like the camera much Olive Green Opaline Greywing Spangle/recessive pied 09 photobucket is stuffing up so I'll add the rest later....

Thanks for the advice and the offer. Breeding the rarer varieties does appeal to me but BES seem to be a bit complicated..... I purchased her thinking she was a dilute therefore useful for my greywing boy and figured if she turned out DEC like the guy said then I could use her with a Recessive Pied. As she may be carrying cinnamon I'd rather not use her to my greywing. I think that the BES are a very pretty mutation and probably something I may have considered dabbling in in the future so I'll look into them a bit more and think about it......... Thanks again

I agree with Kaz. Is it just me or do a lot of breeders seem to be breeding more females these days????

Not really sure what to do with this hen now, I don't think I want to get into breeding BES'..... they seem a bit too much effort. Are they useful as an outcross at all to any other varities?

If your green boy has a spot he might be split for recessive pied so if you pair him with a recessive pied hen you'll get recessive pieds, if any of his siblings were blue you may get blue or green series birds, if not you'll just get green series. If you pair him with a blue series recessive pied your chicks will be split for blue and will be able to produce blue young. Also if some of his siblings were cinnamon then he could be split for cinnamon. However if he was bred in an aviary his brothers and sisters may have different dads so........ With your blue opaline spangle you could find him a yellow face hen in the blue series so then you could get some yellow face blue opaline spangles...... Exactly what you get wolud depend on exactly what you paired him with but since you like yellow faces I think it'd be a good way to go.

What colours/mutations do you like? If you tell us what you like we might be able to help you a little better, what one person considers interesting may not be so interesting to others..... Check out the members budgies in the colour/mutations section to give you an idea of what there is.

My birds seem to like getting their fruit and veg whole....... whole carrots, cobs of corn, beetroot, broccoli. I don't mind makes it easier for me.

Thanks for the tip, the breeders name is Joe Elias. As I said before he mostly keeps his recessives to themselves and only outcrosses to normals. I'm not saying I'm not going to outcross but I suppose there must be something to the way he does things. I don't remember seeing to many spangles amongst his collection. He seems to have mostly Normals and Pieds (Recessive and Dominant). It's funny I think his is the first collection of birds I've seen where there didn't seem to be a single opaline in sight, I'm going there again tonight so I'll take a closer look. He did mention that he thinks that bringing in other mutations such as Opalines has ruined the Recessive pieds markings over the years. The hen I was planning on putting with the Recessive Cock is an Opaline Grey though so.... I figured I can always weed out any Opalines produced down the track if need be. Considering this one for pairing with him maybe to get some Recessive Splits, not really sure yet she was just my 1st thought.

I was thinking that, lazy show birds. Pet types would be busy flapping in the nest box to exercise their wings.

I was planning on breeding them each to a non-recessive (prefferably normals) and to each other when she's ready. The breeder said he mostly pairs recessives to recessives and has only started putting his recessives to normals this year to get some splits. The cock has only just come out of the breeding cage and I seen his chicks in the kindy cage they seemed like they had a lot of potential.

I got them from one of the best breeders of Recessive pieds in NSW, the cock is big and he's fairly long (his tail touches the bottom of the show cage). He's slouchy and he doesn't have as good a blow as one of the other cocks I was considering but I was told by the breeder that he was the better bird and that he's produced some very nice young. The hen was bred from the breeders best lines and I think she's pretty special especially considering she was only hatched in August and has a bit of developing to do. I'm very happy with them

Will do, got a bit of a wait for them though....... I can't wait until they start flying, they seem a bit slow to fledge to me but......

I picked up a new pair of recessives. An Olive Green Cock 07 and a 4 month old Cobalt hen. I won't be able to use her for a while but I can wait.

Thanks, the latest pics Eldest (Diva) The middle child.... the Little Guy.... bad hair day

Thanks, my partner said he's going to make me a breeding room and another two aviaries so I should have plenty of room for new additions :flowers:

More baby pics comming tonight. The two eldest at the moment are making their way in and out of the nest box but the youngest isn't doing so well and it seems that the parents are sort of just forgetting to feed him. While I was home I kept on moving him to the feeding bowl so the parents couldn't ignore him, this has worked well and my partner is going to continue moving him back and forth for me so hopefully he'll be fine as he doesn't have long to go until he should be fledging.

I have around 39 birds now and roughly 15 cocks to 24 hens I think off the top of my head. I think I might try and give everyone at least one round before I get rid of them just incase they throw better and then if they're good parents I'll probably keep them as fosters.

Some budgies take a bit to get used to new foods, I'd keep offering it to them and see how you go. You could sprinkle some seed on top to encourage him to taste it or try millet spray......

Thanks again to everyone that has taken the time to offer their opinions/advice. Once again very helpful :flowers: The hens aren't pet shop buys, most of them are what I purchased when I first decided to get into breeding show birds and didn't know a lot about what to look for. I just purchased what I thought was the best of what was available from what was getting sold at my local branches show. There wasn't a lot of hens available and I went off the advice of the people there at the time. A lot of the birds I have now are from this initial purchase, if I could go back I probably wouldn't have got a lot of the birds I did but I had nowhere else to source birds at the time so....... The reason I was thinking about a cull was because I'd like to make room for some better birds now that there are more places for me to source them from. I haven't tried to breed with the Greywing yet and I know that there's a chance he may have been at the pet shop because he no longer fills eggs but he was such a nice bird that I figured I'd give him a shot. The pet shop I got him from does recieve breeders culls fairly frequently and there were other greywings cocks of similar quality at the shop when I got him so fingers xsd the breeder just had to many cocks and maybe a few younger replacements for him. If he doesn't breed though I'm probably not going to worry about greywings. Thanks again

I have you guys Also I am getting to know the secretary of my local branch (I have only been a member for 2 weeks) he's given me a bit of advice and I'm hoping to meet more people at the Christmas party. I also met Joe Elias today as he lives close to where I stay when I'm working so although I can't really get him to come over and have a look at my birds I can pop in for a chat and ask him questions as well as look at his beautiful birds Greywing Cock (pet shop buy) Mauve Opaline Hen 09 Yellow Face Sky Blue Hen Sky Blue Normal Hen

I thought you were only meant to show birds you bred yourself? I don't have any birds I've bred apart from the Albinos in my breeding journal that haven't fledged yet. I am taking a few birds to the for fun/unofficial show that my club is having at their Christmas Party.

Other Greys (aquired from local branch) Grey Spangle Cock Yellow Face Grey Cinnamon Hen Other Blue Series Birds Cobalt Dominant Pied Hen 09

These comments are all very helpful thank you all so much, it really helps me to assess my birds and birds in general. I might end up posting the rest of my flock after all, although I know there is only so much you can see from a picture your comments have helped me heaps with things that I didn't even know what they looked like ie shoulder, I've heard about birds having shoulders but didn't really know the difference between good/bad or so so.... Scooby is Shaggys brother from the same nest, I got them from Carl Adler. and the blowy opaline grey does drop her wings it's not just the picture. Thanks all

Thanks GB. The Opaline I got from Sydney I think perches like straight up and down not much of an angle to her stance.... if that makes sense. I'm not sure which /Albino Cock your talking about to pair with the retiring hen though? Since you mentioned half brothers and sister I'm guessing the Blue one? I was thinking of pairing them like this 1st round Shaggy - WA grey (I thought that since these birds are from the same breeder they might produce better birds if paired together) Scooby - Sydney Opaline 2nd round Shaggy - Local breeder hen Scooby - Wa Grey (same reasoning as before) I wasn't going to use long tail as I was considering culling him. Also I was going to let the Blue and the Albino have another round as I think their chicks are okay and don't show a blue sheen at this stage plus they'll give me more Albinos to pair with my grey/albino cocks next year. If they have more hens Now maybe I'm thinking I should use long tail as well... Long tail - WA hen Shaggy - Local breeder Scooby - Sydney opaline ?????? I have been a little worried about people telling me to cull a bird because they want it.... This isn't all my flock just my grey (normals & opaline), Albinos and /Albinos. I was planning on posting my flock in stages Greys, Blues, Greens... etc.... I think I have 36 birds all together 39 with the bubs. Thanks again GB

I am a member of a club but as I need to stay away from home during the week for work and my branch meetings are during the week it makes it difficult for me to socialise with my fellow branch members (don't worry I leave my boyfriend strict instuctions as to the birds and he's been very helpful even though he doesn't like show budgies and prefers the pair of bush budgies I brought for him a few weeks ago). Our Christmas party is this Sunday though and they're putting on a kind of unofficial show so I am planning on taking some of my birds so I can get an idea of where I stand and I'll be able to get to know a few members. I'm only planning on taking the birds I think of as my better birds though not all of them. I don't really like the idea of packing them all up and carting them around. Given the advice I've gotten from posting this topic I suppose I won't cull anyone just yet until I've at least tried them once to see what they produce. I was just hoping on being able to cut down on a few numbers, guess I'll have to pester my boyfriend to get a move on with building a few more aviaries instead Fine by me. Guess there's no need to post the rest of the flock in this topic then. Thanks to all for your advice.