Eire Budgerigar Society

March 7th, 2009.

The first thing that we would advise, is to join a good society, visit shows, offer to steward at them, visit other fanciers, study the 'ideal' and learn what makes a good exhibition budgerigar.   Go to the biggest and best shows that you can and make a note of which exhibitors are constantly winning in Breeder classes at the highest level, with a team of birds, not one or two.   What you should be trying to do, is develop an 'eye' for a good exhibition bird, so that when you are ready to purchase initial or better exhibition stock, you know where to go for them and what to look for.  When you are ready to purchase, don't expect to buy the best birds in your chosen fanciers birdrooms.   Very useful brothers and sisters can be obtained for less money.   These birds have exactly the same genetic makeup of the better looking brothers and sisters and will do you more good than a 'stormer' from a lesser quality birdroom, that has been bred from average parents and is the only good bird in the nest.   For this reason, always ask to see the parents if possible.   Remember ,  it is always better to buy a lesser looking bird from good stock, than a better looking bird from mediocre stock.

We would advise to buy 1 good young cock and 2 or as many hens as you can, from each of 3 quality studs which have features that compliment each other.   By that we mean (1) choose a stud that excells in head quality   (2) choose another stud that has big shouldered birds   (3) choose another stud that has good feather quality and length in the right places.   Then breed these as true lines, until such time as you cross the lines and all the features of the 3 lines will then come into one line, which you can then call your own.   This will take a few years, but unless you have a lot of spare cash, there is no short cut to building a quality stud of exhibition budgerigars.   If any of the cocks you buy, are lacking in any feature, try to replace it with the hens you purchase from the same stud.

It is important to concentrate on the features that make a good budgerigar, not the colour or type.    Forget colour preference completely, initially, and concentrate on building a stud of good quality budgerigars.   On the show bench, it is quality that wins, not colour or type.

With each of your 3 lines and keeping them seperate, pair the cock to the 2 or several of the best of the hens purchased from the same stud.   Keep all the youngsters until they are at least 7 months old before assessing their quality.    Only the best of the youngsters must be kept for future breeding and the rest discarded. 

With each of your lines, you now have a number of half brothers and half sisters to mate together.   These are important matings, as the youngsters from these matings, should display most of the good qualities of the cock bird.

The next step is to take the best grand-daughters back to the original cock bird.   These are excellent matings, because there are some extra good points established in these grand-daughters, which should improve the family even further.   Once you have established a uniform appearance amongst the family, it will be easy to maintain the quality in the line, by breeding related birds of the family together i.e.  first and second cousin ; uncle to niece, etc.   Remember,   brother to sister matings are too close and not to be recommended.   Eventually, you will end up with a family of birds that all resemble each other.   You have then established a true line.   When each of your lines become very closely related, which usually takes approximately 7 years, you are then in a position to start crossing each of your 3 true lines into one line which you can then call your own !    Do this by working on the same basis as before. 

Pairing guide lines .......... 

When pairing, head quality is vital and for the most part made up of feather density, length and direction.   Try to pair your birds to maximise on these points.   Pair birds with good 'lift' (good feather length on the head), with birds that have the 'buffalo' look (good facial directional feather).   It can sometimes be easier to purchase a bird with good head qualities that is 'flecked'.   Flecked birds have their place in all good studs, but don't use a flecked bird unless it has the features you need to improve your stock.   Remember, never pair two flecked headed birds together and pairing a flecked headed bird to a clean headed bird, will produce both flecked and clean headed chicks.   The chicks that appear clean, will be carrying the flecking, so can pass it on to their offspring.   Therefore, if you use a flecked bird, keep the follow on pairings completely clean for a couple of generations.   Many flecked headed birds tend to be opalines and we would pair them to clean headed normals or 'inos' (but not to the 'inos' if cinnamon is involved, because of probable wing markings in the chicks).   Flecking should be noted on your records, along with possible splits.

Try to compliment the partners when pairing.   If you have a good headed cock bird, but he's a bit small, pair him to a hen that is long and broad shouldered.   Consider also, the parents of the birds you are  pairing together, because they will be carrying their parents features.  Remember,  if the bird(s) you are pairing are not 'buff' feathered, but come from a very buff parent, it will be split for buff feather and an ideal mate would have intermediate feathering.   Select your pairs in this way.

At the end of every breeding season, ask yourself honestly the following :

1.     Are the chicks bred, an improvement on the parents, or inferior to the parents.

2.     Have any of the chicks inherited any hidden faults ( short mask ? ; poor backline? etc).

If you have a pair that has produced poor quality chicks, or maybe have inherited bad faults, we would suggest that you discard the chicks and the parents.   Select chicks from the pairs that have produced good youngsters and discard any adults that are producing inferior stock.   Also discard any adults (unless they are really good !) that have shown unwanted habits, such as feather plucking, egg eating, or even worse - attacking youngsters etc.   Remember,   please do NOT pass on birds to other fanciers that have bad habits without telling them. 

Not everyone believes in line breeding or inbreeding, but for us its the best way of establishing a winning stud.   If you check the systems used by all the world's top breeders, you will find that all are in-breeders and line breeders.

Thank you for reading our article !  (emerald budgerigars - 2009)