PJI

Budgerigars do need grit,anyone that tells you otherwise is an idiot.

This chap just made me 26 quality wire cage fronts 24 inches wide 14 inches high with 8 inch square spring loaded doors & a sliding access top right for nest boxes.He is located in Queensland Al Beutel ,,,,, aeandmt@bigpond.com,,,, 07 54661384 . Thanks for the info. what did they cost you each. ? From memory i think $26.00 each,but the springs where $2.50 each & each cage front had two springs so it worked out about $21.00 ,when you consider the work that goes into making them that is cheap. This chap just made me 26 quality wire cage fronts 24 inches wide 14 inches high with 8 inch square spring loaded doors & a sliding access top right for nest boxes.He is located in Queensland Al Beutel ,,,,, aeandmt@bigpond.com,,,, 07 54661384 . Thanks for the info. what did they cost you each. ? pm sent

This chap just made me 26 quality wire cage fronts 24 inches wide 14 inches high with 8 inch square spring loaded doors & a sliding access top right for nest boxes.He is located in Queensland Al Beutel ,,,,, aeandmt@bigpond.com,,,, 07 54661384 .

Hello Ralph ,i live aprox 80klm north of you,my birds are in a moult at the moment and in no condition to sell or breed with.I took some pictures of a few that i will be eventually selling, let me know if you are interested cheers Phill i live in goulburn nsw an hour from canberra and 2 hours from sydney where is the nearest club to join? thanks ralph Clubs to join would probably be,Canberra,St George,or Mcarthur.

Just do a search Generic for "DURABUILT" ,that particular aviary is 5.25 wide 3.75 deep & 1.98 high at the door.All up cost for the aviary was $3000,the slab was $1500 cheers Phill http://www.allsheds.net.au/uploads/PanelPlus.pdf

This was my original aviary design ,maybe one day. This is an, off the shelf aviary by durabuilt. I made two separate flights ,the breeding cabinets will be at the other end facing the flights.

Budgerigars are expensive,well the good ones are as they should be,the breeders have put many years of hard work into them & they deserve to be rewarded for there efforts.That said i believe there is a cheap way of putting a nice head on a budgerigar without spending a fortune.I am only discussing the head in this thread .it's up to the breeder to balance the pairing everywhere else "length of mask ,shoulder ,height above perch bla bla.okay here we go ,in regards to hens small typey hens with directional feathering are relatively cheap to buy "see example hen" she has directional feathering, now to enhance her current head feathering you would think that you would have to increase the length of the head feathers.So get a cock with extremely long cap feathering that has little or no direction "in other words feathering that just goes straight up and over the head ,but is long.These cocks are out there & they are cheap because know one wants them.Now you would think that if you put these two types together & you where lucky enough to get some reasonable numbers on the perch from them ,at least one you would think would adopt the directional feathering of the mother with the enhanced length of cap feathering from the father.I know this is not new information ,the Germans have been doing it for years,it's just my way of making a point that you don't have to spend a vast amount of money on birds,there are other ways,my opinion anyway cheers.

Mid week, every week mine get a plateful of sliced apples ,oranges & grapes.

There rippers Julie,you should be proud well done.

Sounds like you blokes have got to move further south down my neck of the woods.

Hello Humphrey,south from the central coast near Mittagong.I am guessing it's roughly two and a half hours,i have not finished with them yet i will let you know when i have cheers Phill

Usually after you ring the bird you record it in a breeding registry.The one i have which is readily available at most budgerigar supplie outlets ,it has six columns on the front page numbered from 1 through to 300,as i ring a bird from the particular pair IE:Pair 1 ,i just record that on the front page, If the first chick i have rung that year is ring number 1 ,well next to number 1, i right in" P1". Later on if i see a chick in the flight i like and catch it up ,i can look at its ring number and reference this to the front page and know who the parents where.

Hello,if you can be patient and hold off buying breeding cabinets for aprox 4 weeks you can have the ones i used this year.They are made of melamine eight in all ,i have one pair still breeding ,after they have finished i will give them a scrub and let you know,we live aprox 2 and half hours apart you will have to organize someone to collect them though.I have about 4 new wire cage fronts you can have as spares also "all free no charge" cheers Phill

I received this email this morning & it would be a shame for someone to leave the hobby under such devastating circumstances,contact the email if you can help cheers Phill Hi All A member from the Toowoomba Club has lost all his birds as result of the floods that we have just experienced. He is a novice breeder. If anyone is in a position to help this member with some birds to enable him to restart in the hobby, please contact me on 07 33968732 or billsed@tpg.com.au and I will pass it on the Toowoomba Club. Regards Bill Sedgwick Moderator’s Message contact details allowed in this topic by special permission

Phill...... Breeder in Southern Highlands NSW. Breed Budgies........Show Birds. - Normals, Spangles, Pieds, Opalines, Cinnamons. Other Types.......None.

"I think this hobby does resemble the horse industry to a large degree. You might laugh but I'll explain why....... There is a proportion of people who have enough resources to buy themselves every winner under the sun, then there are the small time owners who have enough to own part of a horse and if they are lucky enough might find a winner. In budgies the richer ones can buy whatever stock they want in and can maintain their winning status even if they cannot breed livestock to save themselves. Then there are others that have enough to buy a few birds and work with them dillegently to get their winners over a much longer period of time." ///////////////////////// This is similar to what happened when the imports from the uk took place nubbly,some of the big name breeders in Australia today, had deep enough pockets to import directly from the uk & are to this day, still benefiting from there investment .

One of the albino blue-winged baby kookaburras. Photo: Eagles Nest Wildlife Hospital What's believed to be the world's first albino blue-winged kookaburras are feathering a new nest in Queensland's far north.

The orange stuff is red pannicum seed.They get two dishes of each seed,canary,red pannicum,french white,jap millet,hulled oats.They also get three types of grit ,selgrit which is 100% calcium carbonate aprox 3ml in size,& abgrit which is also 100% calcium carbonate aproximately the same grade as sand,& finally a medium grade chicken grit.

Here he is Julie still got a lot of growing up to do.

The three cocks in the nursery cage are half brothers to the cinnamon grey green.I am hoping to give the cinnamon a run on the show bench shortly to see how he goes.

Having issues with photobucket Julie at the moment,when sorted i will post some pictures of him cheers Phill

Look i am not sure if this is much help to you ,but here goes.That dominant pied cock looks to me like it has a severe nip in the back of the neck ,not something that you would want to breed into your birds,but if you just want to breed some budgerigars to gain experience,fine.Both hens, to me look like they are probably past breeding condition.Most breeders i know,when not breeding spend the rest of the year getting there birds fit for breeding season.Giving them the best of everything ,corn,carrots,endives,beetroot B12 tracemin vitamins etc plus the best seed possible.When the birds are fit,it will will be obvious.The cocks will be bouncing off the perches tapping there beaks on everything & the hens will be chewing everything.When they start carrying on like that,separate the hens from the cocks for a couple of weeks ,then put them down to breed.What i do after the first egg is laid is,i get then hen off the egg and put her in the breeding cage & block off the hole ,when i witness mating taking place then i allow her back in.I also trim the vents of both hen & cock "between rounds also"by doing this it increases the chances of fertility.I have recently changed my feeding ,instead of feeding them mixed millets i now feed the millets in separate dishes.They get red pannicum,jap millet,canary,french white,hulled oats,& believe me the mess is now minimal & the cost saving is fantastic as they don't scratch through the mixed millet looking for the seed they want .Somedays they attack the french white & other days the hit red pannicum and so on,i wished i had done it years ago.I hope some of this info helps cheers Phill

"I have two breeding pair of budgies in a small avery, one of the males escaped leaving two femaes and one male". That is probably your answer right there ,Two females & one male .If that scanario was reversed it would not be a problem.

Best to face the wire on the Aviary east,if possible.As far as separating hens & cocks,most people i know keep them altogether throughout the year & separate them one month prior to breeding.

Just keep one thing in mind when buying birds,a birds value should be based on it's visual appearance only, no matter who bred it or who it's related to.