Last year Kaz contacted Mr Gerald Binks, a renown budgerigar breeder and author, seeking to gain some further insight on a series of a topics. He was kind enough to handwrite responses to some questions, in quite extensive depth.

 

I have taken these handwritten letters and typed them up here for everyone to read and learn from. Mr Binks provides a great deal of useful information as well as some thought provoking questions.

 

On behalf of everyone here, I would like to express our gratitude to Mr Gerald Binks, not only for the information he provides but also for the time he has put into providing this information. Also a big thank you to Kaz, who sourced this information from an expert in the field.

 

There are multiple articles. Please read and offer comment. (If there are grammatical errors or typing errors, they are my fault, and they occurred in the digitising process, and for this I offer my apologies)

 

Ambition Achieved……A Tale of the 90’s

 

When Jo Mannes visited the late Jim Moffat

By Gerald Binks

 

In 1990, Jim Moffat and myself visited the well known German breeder of superb quality budgerigars, Jo Mannes. That visit and a subsequent visit in 1994 are well recorded in Budgerigar World in earlier editions. What was actually purchased was not detailed however since both of us were not willing to publicise matters until this new blood had been absorbed into our respective studs, back in Scotland and England. It is a tale of fortunes and misfortunes such as beset all breeders who hope every new bird will breed as good as itself, or better. Ours was no exception, but more of that later.

In late 1996 jo Mannes was asked to judge at The South of Scotland Budgerigar Society Open Show. Jo accepted, but requested that a long standing ambition of his was to visit the world famous stud of light greens owned by Jim moffat of M313 fame and of course his father before him. Jo felt it was a pilgrimage he had wanted to achieve soon after he himself had started to win himself in Germany, as his stud gradually increased in feather quality as well as in overall punch and power.

 

So September saw the judging over and courtesy of the Scottish Society Jo found himself at “Sarala” in West Kilbride overlooking the sea and the Isle of Arran. Between the house and the sea lay the new Moffat aviary and several hundred light greens with a few quality sky blues and grey greens. Normals are always present in strength.

 

It soon became obvious to Jim Moffat that Jo knew quality when he saw it. The former has bred four really outstanding light greens this year. Three are hens and one a cock. All are highly impressive and it didn’t take long before Jo had found them all. The next move was an offer to buy, but understandably Jim had to refuse. The birds were more important to him on their perches than just a sale, so no deal was struck.

 

Jo Mannes has a certain charisma and charm about him, or so the ladies tell me. He can be very, very persuasive and he has learnt the craft of breeding outstanding birds in a very short time by hard study, skilled purchasing from the right fanciers at the right time and with an understanding of feather ahead of his time. Such were these birds at the M313 stud, but Jim Moffat was also skilled in his own right when it comes to buying a bird or selling one. For example he has a philosophy when purchasing. “If you are indifferent about a bird you want to buy, you can usually get it at YOUR price”. Hardly surprising then, that when two such fanciers met there was no purchase agreement this time. That said it would be fair to say these four birds were the cream of the year and had the parents been more prolific, then a M313 bird would have gone back to Germany willingly, if only to reciprocate the Mannes help received in 1990 and ’94 by Jim himself.

 

Returning to the earlier years when M313 and I went to Karlsruhe. On both occasions, 10 birds returned across the channel. Our fortunes were mixed, but the outcome eventually well worth the great problems of getting the birds into their respective studs. Air freight, customs and quarantines all combine to add to the overall cost and stress. On my first visit I bought four birds and Jim…. six. I bought the best looking ones, but older birds, while Jim had young ones or one year old birds. 1990 was a year I remember well. One of mine died in quarantine, another had a heart attack, one didn’t lay and one, which was really a bird I liked, but could beat, was re-sold to Australia at the same purchase price. In Jim’s case all six bred, and included among his was a spangle light green that in Jim’s opinion is the best outcross he has ever purchased. It bred outstanding chicks with many of the first and second generation winning and getting in the cards at The Budgerigar Society Club Show.

 

Working on the basis of “if at first you don’t succeed” etc, I was determined to attack my personal situation of earlier disasters. Nobody could have foreseen a bird dying in quarantine and another getting a heart attack. So a second visit was planned and back came another 10 birds. This time the situation was reversed. I did extremely well, particularly with a spangle grey green cock that has bred extensively, and the quality again emerging in the second generation as Jo had forecast. Another AZ01439 cinnamon cobalt also did brilliantly producing some wonderful cinnamons and greys. Jim, this time did not fare so well, not with quite the heart stopping experiences I had, but rather, his group having been set the precedent of his wonderful Mannes spangle in 1990, which was hard to emulate.

 

The Moffat stud has bred well in 1996. The owners enthusiasm is restored and the Mannes visit after a 200 mile trip, very well received and flattering with both fanciers enjoying their mutual interests. This is what the hobby is all about. In the last twenty years especially, the hobby has become truly international as far as judging and aviary visiting is concerned.

 

Both areas give fanciers of all levels great pleasure, first begun as I recall by Alf Ormerod on his first visit to South Africa over 30 years ago. The Mannes visit to Moffat ensures this practice will continue.

Interesting reading thanks :rofl: