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By Jay Carrington Keeping and breeding budgies can be heartbreaking but it can also be very rewarding. From the young age of 9 I have had an interest in birds, the feathered kind particularly budgies. The first pair of birds I were given were a pair of budgies from a friend of the family also a keen budgie enthusiast. I then invested in a further pair of 2 budgies after saving up my weekly spending money, meaning I had to behave well to get these! The budgie pairs consisted of: Lutino hen and green cock Opaline sky blue hen and grey cock Blue and green dominant pied hen and a blue dominant pied male I then further invested in another pair of budgies from the local auctions which was to my deep regret. Once I released these into my aviary with my 3 pairs the next morning I was surprised to find they had died after only a day, then to my dismay my original 3 pairs also perished. This especially upset me has the lutino hen and green cock had successfully hatched eggs. As time went by the urge to breed budgies hit me again so I purchased 6 pairs of budgies. Within the space of 2 years I ended up with over 250 budgies in my large outdoor aviary and all was well, or so I thought. A neighbour reported me to the council for the noise level and despite them coming and listening, reassuring me there was no problem as they were not a nuisance, they could not hear them at all. I offered to show them the birds to which they took up my offer, they looked at them encouraged me to carry on with my hobby has all my birds where kept clean plus I think the chick they held stole their heart. However, unfortunately my mother had already sold all my birds for one hundred pounds and they were taken the next day leaving me with no birds but to what I am sure was my mothers delight an extra one hundred pounds in her pocket. Its not just the birds going which depressed me, its how hard I worked with them. Despite school they were well looked after and healthy and my wage as a paper boy paid for their upkeep. I started up again yet again when bit by the budgie bug. A local breeder had given up so he sold all his stock to me. I bred numerous birds that year but not has many has the previous lot had given me. I bred myself a beautiful blue and yellow dominant pied, this is no mistake it was blue and yellow. I woke up one morning, in my usual routine I went to tend my birds to find all my birds where gone and the chicks in the nest boxes. I contacted the police who informed me has the birds where in my garden they could not do anything about it much to my heartbreak. I then swore after this third failed attempt I would never keep budgies again. Whatever happened to third time lucky? I then started keeping a variety of birds which consisted of Rosellas, ring necks, Bourkes, celestials, cockatiels, canaries, weavers, zebra finches, Bengalese, diamond doves, lovebirds. These are just among numerous other species. When I was 18 I had 9 cockatiels, 4 canaries, 2 budgies, 1 dove, an African grey parrot, 1 love bird. By this time I met my new girlfriend who had never heard of most of these birds or seen what they looked liked. Shocked by the amount of animals I kept would be the right way to put it. Has we were moving home I sold all of my cockatiels bar 1 who is 16 years old, hand-tamed and talks! In our new home I decided I wanted canaries so I bought 6 pairs and a whole breeding set up. I also purchased 2 pairs of zebra finches and a further 2 doves. I then found a female lovebird for my male. Has one of my 2 budgies unfortunately died has he tried to carry out a great escape I gave my remaining budgie to the same person who bought my cockatiels knowing they were well looked after. Yet again I ended up moving home. Unfortunately the move was obviously of stress to the birds has within a week I lost 2 doves, 2 zebra finches and 3 canaries. With the loss of these I bought a further cockatiel and was given 1. Not all doom and gloom though, my bird hating missus (ok maybe not hating but hardly the enthusiast I wish she was) suddenly fell in love and not with me. My love birds had a chick called Dixon whom she has now stolen and nags me when he looks unhappy, she constantly wants him near her and has made me make his cage into a mini play den just for him, he falls asleep on her and I constantly find them together snuggled up! As the missus complains frequently about my singing canaries and 2 noisy Rosellas I decided it was time for these to go and to yet again start up on budgies which she actually likes! In fact, the minute I get a bird she likes she claims it! I purchased 2 pairs of budgies, with one of these came a quail who is now pestered by the dove! The budgies consist of: Opaline grey hen and a recessive sky blue pied. Opaline cinnamon cobalt blue hen and a normal grey cock. I've now got my own baby on the way in a scary 8 weeks and hopefully I shall be able to pass my love of birds onto my son. I am in the process of breeding my new birds now too. Right now I have my budgie hens constantly in the nest box, love bird eggs and a cockatiel twin egg! My passion stems from the fact I am never going to make history books but I love to bring new life into the world. The excitement of seeing the first feathers and guessing what colours the birds will be and I love to find new eggs and chicks chirping away in the nest boxes. Budgies have beautiful colours and always seemed loved up together, canaries singing is lovely to wake up to (that's if my dog doesn't wake me up barking at the postman!), cockatiels once tame are kind and gentle, particularly my 16 year old who 'adopts' eggs and fledglings who have not learned to eat seed yet and love birds are an array of bright colours and extremely cute. Nobody around here complains of noise at all, they just show a keen interest and I know for sure very soon I will have many more budgies yet again and hopefully for the first time showing budgies, maybe fourth time lucky! Thanks to Anna-Marie Stewart for encouraging me to write this and to a kind show breeder who has reimbursed my faith in some mankind and whose gift of 2 budgies I cannot wait to receive. Copyright 2009 © Jay Carrington http://jaycsbirds.weebly.com/ All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reproduced in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Jay Carrington. |
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