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Much has been written and many
reasons given as to why so many start and leave the hobby in the space of a few
years. Commercial isation, high prices of stock and equipment, birds that will
not breed, lack of wins at shows, unable to progress quickly enough in their new
found hobby are only some of the reasons put forward and debated at length.
While a lot of well meaning advice is given particularly through the excellent
medium of Budgerigar World, I believe
a lot of what is said is too grand and aimed too high for the raw Beginner.
It’s all very well to say you can scale down to a size to suit the
individual’s needs and means, but why should initial advice be given on such a
grand scale anyway. Whatever happened to
converting the garden shed into a bird room and making half a dozen or so
breeding cages. Good sound advice at this stage would be, if funds permit, line
the shed, the addition of an outside flight and laying on some electricity. When
I started breeding budgerigars, 32 years ago as a schoolboy, I could not afford
these luxuries and had to put up with dc-icing drinkers and tending the birds
needs before I went to school. However, I was successful in breeding
Budgerigars. In those early years I gained practical experience in breeding and
looking after Budgerigars with a minimum outlay, supported only by my paper
round and money earned by working on Saturdays at a pet shop and the sale of
young Budgerigars in the breeding season. The other important ingredient, apart
from un dying enthusiasm, was my mentor and friend right up until the time of
his death in 1987, Tom North a Champion breeder who lived at my home town in
Ilford Essex. In-between leaving school and
getting married, my birds had to go, but as soon as the opportunity came four
years later I was keen and ready to take up the hobby again and to this day I am
still breeding budgerigars, despite three moves, three bird rooms and the
contemplation of the fourth on a much grander scale. After getting married I
went back to Tom North and founded my stud on his birds and when he died in 1987
I bought the remainder of the stud and the line is still breeding well today,
particularly the Violets. A break for various reasons The point is that many
breeders may have a break in their hobby, for various reasons, marriage,
children, house move, or may be the novelty just wore off. But the bug can bite
again as we well know. Now if this rekindled interest holds bad memories of
large amounts of money wasted it probably will not be attempted again. However,
if after a modest outlay a deep rooted interest is keeping, breeding and
exhibiting birds was found to be the case, in a stable situation a come back to
the hobby may be made, with thoughts and designs to take it much further this
time. I know I did in 1971. Before I moved to Somerset in
1985 I went to Ernie Sigston for some new blood to inject some size into my
birds. In fact I have been back to Ernie for outcrosses five times in the past
11 years. In this period I read everything I could about Jo Mannes and his
mutation feather that he has bred on his birds. I saw this as the feather to put
on the bird of the future. By coincidence so did Ernie Sigston, who bought birds
from Jo and I in turn bought birds from Ernie with Mannes blood and feather. A question of price Now I will bring up the
question of price, what to pay and value for money. Having never been a man of
means I have always worked on the principal of selling perhaps 10 of my birds to
raise the money for an outcross. When it comes to the purchase of an outcross
you must have a clear picture of what you want. I wanted Mannes blood, feather
and size, but not necessarily on the same bird. I purchased two light green
cocks, one that was 75% Mannes blood and the other a huge bird that was a real
handful and measured 10 inches for £100 each and bless Ernie’s generosity, a
third Light Green cock that he gave me. Naturally, they were not
perfect, no bird is, but I had achieved what I had set out to do and the birds I
came away with were terrific value for money! Yes all three bred but there was a
setback. The Mannes blood cock produced 13 youngsters from four different hens.
Great. The problem was they were all cocks. I rang Ernie to ask if he could let
me have two or three hens of the appropriate bloodline. Well not only did he do
that he also gave me another two hens to help out, what more could one ask.
Fertility has been exceptional, producing both cocks and hens, opening up the
way for continued progress. Now going back to the original
point, if I had started with birds of this quality in the beginning, no matter
how successful or otherwise the breeding was, they would have had to have been
paid for directly from my pocket and not from the sale of birds. I would not
have been able to use them to the extent that I have now and get the best out of
them. The bird room and the equipment I have now may be a far cry from the
converted shed and half a dozen cages I started with at my parents house, but it
has all come with time and experience. I did not try to run before I would walk,
or build a palatial bird room with all the mod cons, before I was certain that
the hobby would be a life long pursuit. There is absolutely no substitute for
practical experience but it does not have to be gained at a huge expense, which
a lot of articles directed at Beginners seems to indicate these days. Clive Wakeman This article was first
published in Budgerigar World. August
1996 Clive has kindly given permission for me to reprint on the site. | HOME | MAIN INDEX PAGE | CLIVE'S PAGE | |