Steve Hutchings Budgie Site

ENJOYING BUDGERIGARS BY GEORGE JENKINS

Using your time to enjoy Budgerigars - and caring for them properly George Jenkins (Fred Wright)

 Now I am retired, it is a period of my life with Budgerigars when I can take my time, care for them properly and enjoy them. I do not want to keep so many that I spend all 'my time with the birds working and keeping them clean.

I try to be down in the birdroom for about 8.00am. For a couple of hours I like to attend to all the feeding and the watering. My birds receive fresh water every day and I make sure all the pairs and the birds in the flights have plenty of seed. I mix the softfood with the soaked but dry groats and by around l0.00am I am ready to return to the house knowing that the work with the birds is over for the day. 

I tend not to return to the birdroom until after lunch when I believe that I can enjoy the birds. The afternoon is for pleasure. It gives me the chance to check boxes, re-pair some pairs and check that chicks that had started to hatch earlier in the day have  successfully escaped from the shells. I am sure that being around the birdroom during the day enables me to save many young birds that in the days when I was working, would have been lost. Being, at home helps me to save so many youngsters.

 During the evening I like to spend about an hour with the birds. Perhaps during the breeding season it can be a little more than the hour. I always make sure that I check the nest-boxes again during the evening and I always offer more softfood to the pairs with chicks.

 I don't keep too many birds I like to breed just over the 100 every year but I only use 24 pairs. When I pair up I keep a few birds as spares but I like to have the flights almost empty for youngsters. So many fanciers seem to want to breed as many young birds as possible every year arid their flights are always full. I have never been able to see the purpose of keeping more Budgerigars that you can manage properly. I know how much work it is to keep the number of birds I have - and more birds would mean that I would be working with them all day, every day. I love the birds but I do have a life outside the birdroom! 

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