This article assumes you possess an affinity for breeding livestock and that you wish to enter a hobby which is competitive, socially beneficial and of international appeal, which, if you eventually become a judge, can take you to countries abroad where the hospitality is second to none. The Early YearsTo date, I have been in the hobby for 51 years, beginning as a boy of 12 years, immediately after the second World War in 1945. I therefore, grew up with the pre-war pioneers of the hobby who began The Budgerigar Club in 1925. These breeders came mostly from the Midlands and Northern parts of the UK. Many of them had relatives, or friends, who had kept canaries. Pigeon fanciers, rabbit breeders and exhibitors, chicken growers - all were people who made the UK the greatest small livestock breeders in the world, up to that point in time. The budgerigar aficionados were a breakaway group who could see the possibilities of raising this small Australian Grass Parakeet, brought into the country in 1840 by the naturalist, John Gould, to an exhibition standard, and therein lay the appeal of competition and breeding.

Some of the great names of the past were household names to me. I put such experienced fanciers on a pedestal in my young min, which I now advise fanciers never to do. There are only human beings who have developed one skill in one small field and have had a lot of luck in the process. If any of us were to step out of the front door into "normal" life, nobody would know us, so it has to be kept in proportion and you feet planted heavily on the ground, while you enjoy every aspect the hobby has to offer.

 

Who were those great pre-war fanciers? There were William (Bill) Watmough, Chairman of The Budgerigar Society and perhaps the greatest and best Chairman the Society ever had. He and his wife Elsie, had a magnificent stud in Bradford, Yorkshire, with their own attendants; Alf Garnett among them. The Lintonholme Stud, as it was known, was a popular place to visit and buy new stock.

 

Harry Bryan was already the fancier with the drive and ambition to become the top man of his period. Andy Wilson, FZS., and Ralph Frayne, were men of aptitude and integrity, who ably led the hobby. An early Secretary was Will Addey. Top breeders included Percy Norman of lutino fame, who, when ill, and his birds were not winning, sadly took his own life. Margery Kirkby-Mason and her partner Len Dabner, had a fine stud of lutinos and opalines. Amusingly, they met at a show when the young Margery had a problem with the lock on her carrying case. The young Len liked the look of her; she was a very attractive lady for all of her life, so he took off his braces and secured the box in that way. A modern version of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh, when braces were not the rage, but cloaks were in! In both cases, the ruse worked.

 

There were two men with the same name, but spelt differently. There was Joe Collyer of Surrey, who bred some of the finest greys. grey greens and opalines ever seen. Arthur Collier was a breeder and judge who was highly respected. Frank Wair, also a judge, was a keen cinnamon breeder as was Vera Scott. Johnny Landsburgh was a Scottish breeder of lutinos, who always used to promote his birds by filling in the selling price column with figures of many hundreds of pounds, on the basis of, "if they were mad enough to buy them, he was mad enough to take their money.".

 

The area of Cambridge and Hertfordshire, began to become an area to visit. As well as Frank Wait, there was a young suave fancier who was a milliner by trade, studied budgerigars for hours every day and from every angle. The idea grew in his mind, that if it were possible to put head quality such as the Norwich Canary possessed, on to the budgerigars of the day, then you'd really have something worth looking at, which would put a great competitive edge into the hobby at the same time. The young man was Ken Farmer from Luton, who this author regards as the founder of the modern exhibition budgerigar that we possess today. Suddenly, or so it seemed to the rest of us in 1950, a different budgerigar appeared, usually in the light green form. The rest of the fancy was left for dead for a long period of time, while a top group of fanciers took charge, as they vied to obtain some of the F92, Ken Farmer blood. Harry Bryan scouted the country at the same time, looking for a hen with some head-feather width. eventually, he spotted one in a small exhibition stud and pressed and pressed until he got it. it was an opaline cinnamon grey. Soon we were all at it, and putting heads on our birds became the essential requirement if we were to survive and have out birds be in demand in the future.

 

While all this was going on, the Budgerigar Society, as it had then become, had swelled to 20,000 members, owing to the demand for budgerigars from the public. There were 4 million budgerigars as household pets in the UK, as distinct from the 1.5 million today. The BS Membership has remained in the 5,000-6,000 region since that post-war boom.

 

The Middle YearsPerhaps I should start this period with the late fifties and early sixties, when letting children "find their own way without chastisement" came in, from which we have all suffered since. Yes, I'm from the old-fashioned brigade and proud of it! Most of us were more interested in the budgerigar front. Meetings were led by men of integrity, many of them professional people who knew how to conduct and control meetings from their corporate experience. They were well attended with regional societies having 200 people attending at the main AGMs. The administrative area aside, there was a buzz around the country that Joe Colllyer had bred a nest of grey greens and greys which were well ahead of their time. Three were grey greens. A novice breeder, who was a fruit grower from Kent, had also appeared at the same time. This was Maurice Finey, who could be found every Sunday morning, when Harry Bryan opened his bedroom curtains, sitting in his car waiting to buy more birds. Money was, apparently, not a problem. These two breeders lived some 200 miles apart. Of course, both of these breeders knew about the Collyer birds, and both were after them. Joe Collyer, for this own reasons, didn't want to sell to Bryan, so the latter sent Will Addey down to buy, and the bird changed hands when Addey returned, much to Collyer's annoyance. The bird, however, changed hands at 250, a big sum in 1960.

Maurice Finey went for another brother, as did Kirkby-Mason and Dabner, who bought the normal grey. Finey paid 225 for his bird, and by running it to a lot of hens, bred 39 chicks from it in its first full season. Seven of those all grey green chicks, were shown at the

London & Southern Counties Budgerigar Society

Area Championship in 1961, and gained first to fifth, plus seventh place. the bird "out of the cards" turned out to be the best one -even then, the judges had problems! Ironically, Bryan's bird didn't breed, but a small thing like that didn't break Harry's stride towards winning 25 "Best in Show" awards at the BS World Championships, a record perhaps, never to be surpassed. For a considerable number of years, Bryan, Finey, joined in due course by Angela Moss and Alf Ormerod, among others, dominated the scene in the 60's and 70's.

 

In 1974, this author wrote a new book called Best in Show which sold over 30,000 copies over several years. Its original price was 3.25, just over 5 dollars. Second hand copies are still to be found by booksellers, usually priced at over ? ($30). It was always in demand.

 

Internationally, the hobby then moved forward at a great pace. America, Canada. South America, South Africa, Japan and Europe, all began their own societies, with their own ideas of the Ideal Exhibition Budgerigar. Naturally, all those ideas, often the result of committee decisions, based on the best qualities know to exist from their experience, brought about all sorts of Ideals. We are still, to some extent, handicapped by this international problem.

 

Moving into the PresentIn 1982, this author then resigned from his employment at British Petroleum Co Ltd., to found the Budgerigar World magazine, which is sold to over 34 countries and organized from Bala, North Wales. This is a 40 page colour magazine, published monthly in both English and German.

In 1983, the Directors of Budgerigar World decided to enter the exhibition scene. Shows in the UK were staged in a well-meant, but certainly, at top level, in appalling show halls and, since by then, the UK was visited by many people from abroad, we felt a more professional approach should be undertaken. Within six months, the Directors had accumulated a fine team of, mainly fanciers from south-east England, to handle the actual manning of the show, which our county does so well. The presentation of the show was the responsibility of the two Directors at that time, John Blance and myself.

 

The show was staged at Sandown Park Race course, at Esher in Surrey, and for quality it has never been surpassed. The unanticipated problems were caused by two factors. The cost of the Exhibition Hall was substantial, to say the least, and there was no return on the restaurant, where a franchise was in place. Therefore, it required the hobby to come in an participate in quantity from all over England, but it was not realized that many fanciers from the quieter parts of the country, were afraid to drive in the south on the fast motorway systems. Therefore, many did not enter. The first show did however, get an entry of 4,500 birds, with a top prize of 1,100, won by Barry Wild. A second show was tried, but the full support required was not there. Subsequent moves to Blackpool and Stoke-on-Trent saw a slow decline, until the Budgerigar World Open Championship became "just another show", which was not what was intended in the first instance. It was therefore, ceased on aesthetic and financial grounds.

 

There was however, a positive side, which resulted from the Directors'influence. The Budgerigar Society realized it had to follow the examples etc and, to their credit, they improved their National Budgerigar Society World Championship by selecting another Race course, this time, Doncaster Race course, as the site for their show. They eventually, acquired the Budgerigar World staging and today, the BS have a really well-presented and credible show, of which they can be proud. Any visitors from abroad will find this show first-class, and a wonderful representation of the best of British Exhibition Budgerigars which, in depth of quality, is still the finest in the world, and, as a rider - the most difficult to win.

 

In November 1997, my new book, this time a detailed handbook containing some 150 colour photographs, a suggested International Ideal Budgerigar, 44 black/white photographs, and 44 chapters will be released onto the international scene. This book is obtainable direct from the author and is called The Challenge - Breeding Championship Budgerigars. It is not an extension of the author's previous book, but a totally fresh, and an altogether far more comprehensive book, with every detail mentioned. The author has deliberately involved leading fanciers from other countries in submitting their feeding and breeding programmes, being aware of the variations of seeds and foods specifically available in some countries. All these diets give excellent breeding results. Details of how to order the book are given at the bottom of this page.

 

There has been some movement towards encompassing the internationalism of the hobby, with the formation of the World Budgerigar Organization. This body meets annually, but its brief is purely advisory, unlike the World Budgerigar Association formed by Budgerigar World in 1985, which set out to reform the way in which the National Societies were organized, based on a corporate structure, with democratic representation by all countries. Regrettably, it was too soon for the hobby to accept and grasp in 1985, but has, in principle, been accepted today. Time will tell if this current system will last.

 

In the 90's, the Australian Government decided to institute a National Quarantine Station in Melbourne. All the stock came from the UK, organized at the UK quarantine, by the author. Some 4,500 birds were thus exported to a country which had been starved of quality birds and length of feather. After a few years, a problem arose with the importation of the Ostrich species from Canada. These had been tested for specific diseases and released to their new owners, but were subsequently found to be carrying another problem. All imports ceased, and in 1997 discussion were taking place to restart imports, if at all possible.

 

 

 

Looking to the Future

 

The future of the hobby depends on several changes of outlook by committees throughout the world. They have to reflect on the last 50 years, when their inward attitude, and internal organizing of rules and shows, has been excellent, and to now move into a preparedness to accept change and promote the hobby to a public unaware of its existence. Acceptance of running the hobby on commercial lines is essential, and this has to be coupled with a change of attitude by the hobbyist to paying significantly more for entrance fees to exhibitions, the cost of which, to show organizers, is very substantial, as the hiring of halls increases with the rise in the cost of living. Exhibitions are essential for the hobby, to not only survive, but to go forward. Their presentation has to be outstanding and, undoubtedly, this costs money, which has to come from the fanciers themselves, otherwise, a downward spiral could result in the termination of our interest on an international basis.

 

Regarding the birds themselves, the author has witnessed a radical change in quality, in his lifetime of breeding this beautiful parakeet. In that time, the seasonal question has always been "how can the exhibition budgerigar get any better - it's impossible." Time however, has dictated otherwise. It has got better, and it will continue to new heights of quality in the future.

 

 

 

 

Information from Gerald Binks

are there any articles or photos of how the birds have changed in style, over each generation?? 20's, 40's, 60's, 80's and today? Its interesting to see how breeds of dog have changed over a short time!!