[BACKGROUND]
I
live in
I
have been involved with, and bred animals since as far back as I can remember,
My Father bred all different birds, and I helped him clean and feed, so I could
handle the chicks, I loved it, and still do.
I
bred and showed Rottweiler dogs for a few years, but the love for a hobby, was
with the Budgies.
I
started breeding Exhibition Budgerigars in 1987, and can remember my first show
in 1988 as a novice.
I
had never showed Budgerigars before, and I took a lot of interest in the
procedure, and watched with great anticipation as one of my better birds, an
Albino Hen was being judged.
The
Judge was the late Roy Deslandes, and he was known as a good judge, and a
Gentleman in the hobby.
Roy
Deslandes gave my Albino hen every chance, and I even watched as he placed two
judging sticks in the cage, in the end my bird never made it to the top bench,
but in my opinion my bird was better than the Champion Novice, so after the
show, I approached Roy, and introduced my self, and told him about my Albino
hen, he said he liked her a lot, and I mentioned to him that I thought my bird
was better than the Champion Novice bird.
Roy
agreed with me, and said it was a better bird, but it would not perch, so he
had to give it to the other bird, I then told Roy I was going to bring a tube
of super glue along with me to the next show, and he started to laugh, we
got on very well.
In
1990 one of my birds made the top ten, at the North East Budgerigar Society of
South Australia Breeders Show, with an Opaline Greygreen, she won third
Champion Hen, and I started a line from her.
I
enjoy the hobby greatly, but in 1993 left the hobby for a few years, mostly
because of moving house, and work commitments.
In
the time I left the birds, I bred Tropical fish, (Discus) and Catfish, the
Discus went in leap & bounds, before I knew it I had over 1,500 babies to
get rid of, and I sold them at a good price, and decided to sell the lot,
including the adults, and all my tanks, I never got the same out of breeding
the fish, as I did the Budgies.
A
neighbour had budgies, and they were little tiny nearly wild size birds,
different colours, and variety’s all mixed up, this brought back memories from
my youth, and I could not help my self, I was asked to have a look at them, and
I was there nearly every day.
The
bug had bit me again, I restarted the hobby in 1995, but this time was determined
not to buy off everyone, and just buy good birds, I was only to buy birds from
breeders that had done well on the show bench, and were still winning.
I
have developed a few good lines over the past ten years, with the birds I
purchased, and also started with my Albino’s again.
My
Albino’s have been hanging around the top 3 Albino’s in most of the shows I
have entered them in, but haven’t made the grade in the National’s, the best my
Albino’s have made in the National’s so far is 11th at the Australian
National Budgerigar Championship Show in Coffs Harbour NSW, 2004, so I will
still be working with them, to try and bring them to National winning style.
My
best achievement so far was to get 2nd in the Blue class at the
Australian National Budgerigar Championship show in
So
far the breeding season has been productive with some nice chicks coming out of
the Nest boxes, and they have started to show their potential, as some of them
took out the top four awards at the combined Nest feather show between the
Budgerigar Society of South Australia, and the North East Budgerigar Society of
South Australia, about 300 plus birds at the show, I hope they develop well
from here.