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.

Edited February 8, 201114 yr by PJI

Great thread Phill, that should help a lot of beginners and even Intermediates.

I have being doing that for awhile and it is great info.

I have been studying mine and with the normal line I need length of mask and shoulder.

I notice a lot of them lack in those two things, mainly the mask.

Edited February 8, 201114 yr by splat

Thanks Phill........great info

Nice one, thanks for that.

can i add to this by saying with a hen

in my opinion and what i have seen through my own breeding results

these cob hens with the direction unless they have a long mask and good feather are of no use at all as the genetic carries over into the chicks regardless of weather the cock has a long mask to make up for it

 

a rule i try to stick to is

 

1) don't use cock headed hens to freely as the tend to produce chicks that are nipped in head as apposed to good quality as they visually at their best and retain lesser quality's in their genetics (unless of course you have good knowledge of a strong background in her breeding ) in that case would be nothing but an improvement to your stock only most cock headed hens are fry in pan(once off ) and if someones letting it go then its for a reason

 

2)never buy a small hen if it has a short mask as its two bad fetchers your doubling up on in the one bird

 

3)all cob hens must have good frontage direction around cere and a back scull with the right feather and not lean on the perch but sit /stand tall

 

4)always use a cock with direction more so than height as other wise your going to end up with a clutch full of chicks with height on head and no improvement in direction across the cere at least if they improve in the directional feather its instilled their quiet substantially in all the chicks giving the second generation a real chance at improving in the height and direction the feather lays

 

last but not least try not to breed with cocks that pull back their blow (like its got brill cream in it ) this is a trate that once established its hard to eradicate

Well at first look at the thread I was thinking "Super Glue" - that's quite cheap........

 

But seriously - a good thread PJI and quite correct too. I also like GB's comments but would suggest that you don't need to be careful of birds that pull back their blow. If they actually blow at all that's a bonus. If they never blow their head feathers then I wouldn't touch them. Head feather blow is a trait I found very easy to breed into my stud and seems (from what I've experienced) to be quite heritable where as directional feather (or at least LONG directional feather) is nowhere near as heritable and much more easily lost when you work on other features.