Normal Budgerigars Verses Variety BudgerigarsBy Mick Freakley (Freakley & Ainley)As a breeder of the mainstream colours since Jackie and I started in the hobby, i.e. Normal Grey, Grey Green, Light Green and Cinnamons etc, on the commencement of our partnership with Ian and Scott the studs became fully integrated, suddenly we had an influx of dominant pieds. Birds had been exchanged for many many years prior to our partnership, in this time Ian and Scott had created a small number of very good Dominant pieds, which were a result of crossing over Freakley & Ainley bloodlines, obviously these would be considered in our pairings now the stud was one. You may ask so what's the problem, non as far as quality budgerigars are concerned, but I have always fought shy of variety birds for one reason, Let us assume you have a variety bird that has won the challenge certificate at a Budgerigar Society open show, it will later in the day appear with all the other certificate winners to be considered for Best in Show, the ultimate award as far as serious exhibitors are concerned, this is where in my opinion the problem lies. Because the variety content has to be taken into account by the judges, I feel they are at a distinct disadvantage. Many times I have heard comments like the Pied only has spots on one side, or the spangle has poor wing markings, the recessive has the wrong proportion of marking on the wings etc etc, now you can see what I mean. A Grey Green is a Grey Green, if it has all the required spots, and is in condition, the only thing left for the judges to consider is the quality the bird possesses, and is it better than all the other exhibits on show, if so written on the cage label will be Best in Show, believe me as an exhibitor who has had that experience it makes all your efforts well worth while. As Ian and Scott feel the same way as we do on this subject, all of the Ainley pieds had a full compliment of spots, a decision was made that any pieds bred regardless of the quality which are short on spots would have to go, easier said than done, but if standards are to be maintained in any stud of birds, hard culling has to be the order of the day. I'm am not suggesting for one minute that if you have birds short on spot, or with poor wing markings you should dispose of them, I am just explaining how we deal with the situation. Many birds have won Major awards at our open shows, even at the Budgerigar Society World show with these faults, after all the perfect bird has not yet, and probably never will be bred, but I do believe there are limits as to what we as judges should allow to win at the highest level. The prime example is the spangle variety, probably the most successful variety on the show bench for the last ten years or so. But how many times have we seen a major winners with no spots at all, or just a few flecks, ok maybe the bulls eyespot may be difficult to achieve on a regular basis, but surely some spots need be visible. The old argument about what would happen if a Grey Green with no spots was shown is often put forward, the answer obvious, it would be placed way down the line, not even considered for a 1st place in the class let alone anything else. So why do the spangles get away with it? Surely this will only perpetuate the fault in this variety if breeders keep winning with non spotted birds, the BS standard calls for six evenly spaced spots, as it does with most other varieties, with the exception of albino, lutino and recessive pieds. The Judges are the ones who can to a degree help the situation, but you have to understand after taking into account the spot deficiencies or variety markings of a particular bird, if he/she still feels it is superior to any other in the line up, it will be given a first place, you may say the judges are to blame here, but if it comes down to a quality bird verses a pet type bird that has a complete compliment of spots etc the quality bird will always win. It is in my opinion the responsibility of the exhibitor to show only complete birds, this is where hard decisions have to be made, otherwise the problems will continue. Back to the Judges and in particular the BS Club show, the eyes of the budgerigar world are focused on this show, we have an obligation in my opinion to make sure the Supreme award winner is complete, after all the best birds in the country come together to compete at this show, if an incomplete bird receives the award, the signals sent out to the breeders are the wrong ones. I must stress I am not having a go at the spangles here, it is just they are a good example of what I am trying to say. It could equally apply to recessives, opalines, clearwings and many other varieties. Having used the spangle as an example, and stressing my reasons for preferring main stream varieties, we have recently introduced the spangle variety into our stud (I can here you laughing) not because we wanted particularly to breed spangles, but because a very good bird became available to us, which just happened to be a spangle, anyone who has tried to purchase a good outcross will tell you how difficult it is to find a bird of the quality and background required to improve an established stud. This bird will be used in a very controlled manner, obviously any spangles bred that meet our criteria for the show bench will be shown, but ideally we would like to eventually produce non spangles to use with the main stud, as with any out cross it will not go straight into the main line in numbers until we have a very good idea of it's hidden traits, this will only be fully known by examining it's offspring over a period of time, even if it takes two or more years to breed what is required, the use of outcrosses in an uncontrolled way could result in destroying in a very short time what has taken the breeder years to create. Only when we can be pretty sure of our outcrosses prodigy will they be considered for the main stud, and then only non-spangles will be used in numbers. A word of warning when introducing the spangle into your stud, because they appear to be so dominant, more spangles are likely to be bred than normal's, this may quickly lead to the stud becoming overrun with the variety if the better birds produced are spangles, obviously these are more likely to be retained than lesser quality normals, leading in following breeding seasons to many if not all pairings containing one or more spangle, and resulting in the problems a variety bird brings and with no way of correcting the situation. Copyright © Mick Freakley http://www.fa1-stud.co.uk/. All Rights Reserved This article may not be reproduced in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Mick Freakley. |
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