JeffL

You arent but I am Hey I just realised that Karen took down my picture. So much for my 15 minutes of fame. :thumbs_up:

Gina the Cinnamon Sky hen is a very nice bird. Long with a bit of width. I asked Cec what she was bred from and he couldnt remember. That happens to our Senior cits. Mind you nobody claimed the Pensioner discount I was offering for those who had a Seniors Card. :thumbs_up:

Karen as you know I didnt think that Pied cock you purchased was going to sell. I got frustrated. In the end I should have just shut up and bought him myself! I hope he goes well for you.

I dont usually buy birds when I am Auctioneer as I find it difficult to make good choices and do my job at the same time. But yesterday...... I couldnt help myself. Sorry Karen. Cec said to Jan that she had to pull her out and that was enough for me! I purchased Lot 19. 33 (both pictured) and Lot 29. I had to sell a few to buy a few. Lot 4, 65 and 73 (all pictured are mine). John Payne bought the 2010 Lute cock Lot 65 for $100. ($100 below the reserve) A bit of a bargain. Its hard to focus when squeezing the $$$ out of people! Thanks heaps for the photos Karen.

Lovely pair. Cock looks Violet and hen a Violet sky. So if the aim of the exercise is to breed violet pieds then well done. I love the cock. He is a quality violet and a good budgie to boot. The hen has length and good feather other than on her head. I think a good pairing because if they are from a good breeder the hen may breed better than herself. I think she will add length to the cock. To me the cock is worth a mimimum of $200 and the hen being a violet sky a mimimum of $100. So, good value. The hen looks young and if the cock is 2 or 3 years old then you have done well. Even better if he is younger. I hope they do well for you. All the best.

I have bought a few birds this year. When I get the birds they are nearly always knocked about a little. I give them Spark and Probotic in the water for 2 days. I use a water font and water in an open dish. I put seed in a bowl and spread on the floor. To overcome any pecking order issues. I then put the birds on Doxy for 2 weeks with megamix in the water. All the while offering my softfood along with Epowder and Fvite in finger draws. I then give them KD for 2 days. Then Duflo and Ioford for a few days with probotic in the water. After a few more days, say, 3 weeks all up I let them into the flights. Its cold and wet this time of year so I watch them closely. All good so far.

Gina, 20 years ago when I was Editor of the WABC Magazine, I reprinted a substantial article on your explanation here. I got smashed from pillar to post as people were of the firm opinion that the Lacewing was a separate variety and had no relation to the ino as you have correctly described. I bred a Lacewing hen from two Albinos at about the same time. It wasnt a badly marked ino. The inos, at least the cock, had been masking cinnamon. Interesting.Here is a very good reference for this discussion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ino_budgeriga...tation#Genetics

Clints birds are popular. Any word on Bob Smiths?

Matt do you have any of the top prices? From an unnamed source Ault's 07 cock - $3100 Fellows 2nd placed Cin Op - $3000 Capper Pied cock $1550Capper Spangle Hen $1000Capper Pied hen $900Gearing Lute $1800HG Cin sister to his ANBC winner $100HG Grey hen was $300 - the brother sold for $400Most of the Gazzard birds sold for $850 each

My view on the old bird thing. In my mind the breeders of this ilk have kept them for breeding as they are obviously visually good birds. They would probably not sell young birds of the same quality. Me, I have had some great success with 3 year old cock birds I have purchased. Even 4 year old ones. Three year old hens are a different story. I dont see it as a great risk. 4 chicks from a quality 3 year old cock from a strong bloodline is enough for me to go on with. After saying that I bought 4 red ringers today!

i didnt go but bidded on the phone. Sold 10 bought 4. Not sure what I got for them but happy with the prices I paid. Wanted to get some Opalines for my Clearbodies. Some Chidel blood which has already made an impact on my Clearbodies. So happy with that.

My Greywing that ran 2nd at the Nationals had a nest mate brother who was superior to himself. I was in a hurry one morning and left a bucket of water in the birdroom. We all know what happens next.... the young bird got out of the breeding cage, actually rarely happens to me, and drowned in the bucket. Its always the best one......

Its always been this way in the time I have collected birds Jeff. They dont mind there being seed in the box as long as its either left behind at Aus Air Express at time of collection or its returned in a bag with a form attached soon after. The trust me to return the seed to them in the bag but they also recognise my face down there too and trust me Thanks for that. I have a bird coming this week so that might come in handy.

This is not true. A lot of people over east believe this but it is not true. In believing this MYTH too many birds are sent from over east with no seed in the box to sustain them. Birds can travel with seed in the box ( which they need for the trip ) . When they get here in W.A. we have a couple of options. 1. empty any seed out at the collection point ( Australian Air Express or whatever ) or 2. Do it at home and return it in a bag supplied by staff. I have done this many times. SO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>HOW DID THE AUCTION GO ??? We have some problems bringing parrots in from over east in that quarantine has to be able to formally identify certain parrots coming in. They have stated that they can only say for certain that they can identify weeros, budgies, or cockatiels and the common parrots.........galahs and corellas. Anything else involves a photo being taken through the cage wire and the photo being submitted for formal identification through qiarantine. You can take the bird home but must phone through in a few days to be sure your bird passed its ID process. Sometimes they even worry that show budgies being bigger than average budgies may not be budgies at all and may also be another kind of parrot :rofl: Stupid procedure but thats the way it is Karen this seems to be a change. Do we have to advise anyone beforehand that seed is in the box? I know I collected some birds from the National Auction a week ago and the people at Australia Air Express looked for seed. I said there wasnt any and they could see into the box. They said to me thanks for that. Having come from North Queensland they had been in the box for 17 hours. I thoght the ghen was going to die when I too her out in the car. But she was good when I got her home providing her with Spark/Probotics. Also they didnt give me a hard time. Previously, the AQIS guy always needed to be called whenver I bought birds in. He would always be grumpy that I hadnt made arrangements with him to come. That element seems to have chilled a little. Over the years it just depends who is in the jobs.

Received a copy of the Hills Auction Catalogue today. Top breeders with pictures of some super Lots. Plenty of birds to drool over. I dont know how to attach it here and it isnt up on the BSNSW website. Just thought I would get in first. Sure its an expensive Auction but it does attract some really good birds.

My two bobs worth: 1. We have moved the ring issue date, from Jan to Sept - Historically we have seen birds benched at Nationals hatched in November/December (6 - 7 months old) or Jan/Feb (15/16 months old). Guess which ones win? With the new ring issue date the birds are in the older age bracket and there is a more level playing field as they are all fully mature. However, I thought this would expose the birds that have flights and tails that wont regrow. My thoughts are we should penalise missing flights more heavily (and for that matter flecking) 2. Changed the perch sizes to 16mm - The size of the bird according to the Standard has increased from 225mm to 240mm. National winners are normally bigger than this. I know I know they dont have to be big to win and some people like the little ones. Just that everything else being equal the bigger bird will win. National winners are monsters and stand out in peoples aviary. Even the best of breeders. We had big budgies or perches meant for finches. The old perch size was alright for most people except some of those people arent breeding birds big enough to win. 3. 3 birds benched????????? The major thing for me with this is NSW may get 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I might get 4th. But I am not 4th am I. Maybe I never was as there might be 20 birds in NSW better than the 3rd bird now. I have seen the time and effort the Carers have put into benching birds. Its a great skill and a thankless task. Me, I just try and breed a bird that cant be ignored. (Just I keep getting the 1st Loser Trophy) 4. Changed the National show date by a month - This has been talked about for a very long time. The birds are just not natually in the peak of feather condition at the end of May. Its a struggle when birds are left home due to flights and tails missing. I dont see them ending up taking 4 birds. I think if that occurred wse may as well open the door for everyone to show. Well, that just isnt the unique Australian National Show. okay I have teased you a little bit......I could be totally wrong on this but from what I understand is 2 years of 3 birds being benched. Followed by a further trial of only two birds going for the ride. There is a possibilty that only one will score points. This is to be worked out. Further, and this could be a good thing the powers that be have set up a sub committtee to explore whether we should add further classes when only two birds are sent. My thoughts would be Violets, Dilutes, Olive/Dark Greens and Cobalts/Mauves. That will shake you all up LOL , Jeff , I reckon you would be a good fisherman, always giving a little bit of line before you strike!!Budgies used to be my peace on Earth. Now its fishing. Trully. Budgies are too hard.

okay I have teased you a little bit...... I could be totally wrong on this but from what I understand is 2 years of 3 birds being benched. Followed by a further trial of only two birds going for the ride. There is a possibilty that only one will score points. This is to be worked out. Further, and this could be a good thing the powers that be have set up a sub committtee to explore whether we should add further classes when only two birds are sent. My thoughts would be Violets, Dilutes, Olive/Dark Greens and Cobalts/Mauves. That will shake you all up

Hi Jeff, when was this voted on . I am not involved at all in any Council or voting. But what I understand is that it was on the ANBC Agenda and it was voted in on Monday at the ANBC meeting. The Agenda item regarding showing the 3rd bird..................... I will let someone else do that one. I will be up all night explaining it or at least trying to understand why they come up with what they came up with.

You are right. I am short sighted. I sure cant read those budgie rings :grbud: . On a serious note I dont believe for a second that 3 toes forward is solely hereditary. I agree with you other things do go wrong. I saw the 4th Pied tonight when picking my birds up. He is missing flights and probably another part in his downfall was his cap was full of blood quills and there were holes everywhere where his cap was moulting out. The decision to change the Nationals to the 3rd week in June, in 2013, I think will help as the birds are generally in better condition at that time of year...................Sorry "NEWSFLASH"

I dunno GB if the ring code is such a give-away. I have stewarded on numerous occassions and not once have I seen a judge look at a bird's ring. On the contrary if there is a question about the bird's owner then the judge asks that the Show Secretary check the records via the show cage number. I cant read the rings on my own birds without my reading glasses let alone see whose bird it is when I am judging I know all the National Judges and a more decent bunch of people I have never met. To be honest amongst the National Judges Panel are the keenest budgie breeders of them all. Actually to see Jim Fletcher win with a super bird is just wonderful. :hap: By the way Karen I love the emoticons on this Forum

Peter, I judged the Team Selections in Perth and picked the 4th Pied as a standout bird. There must have been some super Pieds in the class. The judges comments were that there were too manu feathers missing. Did you notice anything? I have no problem with the judges choices its just that it was a very good Pied. Wasn't it your gorgeous Dommie Pied, Jeff?Funny that the 3 birds DQ for 3 toes forward are all National Judges! I know my bird does it when he has a Judges head or photographer at the end of his beak. I suppose he was just not meant for the big stage.LOL But still on the same subject, I'd like to know what causes the 3 toes forward. Is it something that happens in the nest, or when ringing ... ? :hap: I personally haven't had one myself yet. I'm wondering whether it is a deformity caused by an accident or an indication that the bird is unsteady on the perch ... ?Renee, I believe it is hereditary. Like any feature. Some birds have big feet and some dont.Kaz did you get a picture of John Kobilanski's Pied that finsihed 4th? Can you either post it or email it too me. I would like another look.

Hi Heathrow, I find your comment interesting as I too dont believe that increasing the perch size will make the birds grip better. Personally I think a smaller perch would make them grip better, If you put a tree branch in your aviary the birds will all want to be on the end where the branch is at its smallest. As you say time will tell . Maybe hang onto the old perches just in case we revert back.Putting the 3 toes issue aside. What I have found with the larger perches is that the larger birds are not teetering on the perch as their toes wrap around the perches. Smaller and larger birds alike tend to stand at a better angle because of the larger perches. Wasn't it your gorgeous Dommie Pied, Jeff?Funny that the 3 birds DQ for 3 toes forward are all National Judges! :hap: I know my bird does it when he has a Judges head or photographer at the end of his beak. I suppose he was just not meant for the big stage.

Thanks Kaz. We held off breeding from him as we wanted him primed for the Nationals. He had a yellow face brother in the team that wasnt benched. He also has another yellow face brother and a nice Yellow Face sister as well. As he was bred from two yellow faces we hope he is a double factor and can breed some yellow faces for my my oldest son. :fingerscrossed:

Extensive Judges comments now displayed on a class by class basis on the Live Feed site. The DQ birds had 3 toes forward on a permanent basis. That is when the bird is given the opportunity to move from perch to perch they still display this feature. The photo of the winning grey alos shows this. I guess it wasnt a permanent feature. This tends to affect the larger birds. The new larger perches should fix this issue. We really dont want to be disaulifying birds. I will state my vested interest. We were 2nd in the Greys and had a Pied DQ last year. However, hopefully the issue will sort itself out. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall at the National Judges meeting today as the brds DQ belonged to National judges.

:ohmygod: Oops! I meant to say my son came 2nd in the Greywings!