Pairing time is the most crucial period of the year for all serious breeders and exhibitors. "What do I pair together?", often consumes a great deal of one's thinking time before the actual day of commencement. It is at this time, your rate of progress in the hobby is put to the test, especially if you are in any of the categories, other than champion. Of prime importance is the fact that you must know your birds. By this, I mean you must have a 'professional' eye for a bird and you must be able to memorise two generations back without reference to pedigrees. The real experts are able to look at any birds on the showbench, or in someone else's aviary, and if seen again in the future they can be recalled quite easily.
The number of 'pairs' one possesses, is also crucial. It is no use having an aviary, say, with 12 breeding cages, and keeping back perhaps 16 pairs for the season. Many inexperienced fanciers keep 'only the quality' and dispose of the remainder. Unfortunately, the result is that the season is a struggle all the way and the end total often mediocre, when one looks at the final total per pair over two rounds. The reason? Too quiet in the aviary! Budgerigars that are breeding need to have a noisy birdroom to produce optimum results. So my advice is "keep back some of those poor looking specimens to create a racket - you can always sell them at a later date". On the question of the proportion of the number of hens to cocks, I would say that the '12 cage breeding stud' should have 16 cocks and 25 hens retained, at the start of the season. You may have a trouble free season, (come to think of it, so far, we've never had one) and sail through with your 12 pairs, but the chances of this are slim. You are either going to lose the odd hen with egg binding, enteritis, 'thrush' or whatever, this is why ideally you need an excess of hens over the cocks. Having said all that, our proportions at the time of writing, are completely the reverse. The last season realised more cocks than hens, but in the end we shall endeavour to finish up with the 'ideal' situation.
The next point is, does colour have any bearing on matings? Apart from obvious specialist varieties such as Albinos, Lutinos, Clearwings, etc, the answer is normally no. You must, especially if you keep the most common green and blue series, which of course includes the greys and grey greens, ignore colour and pair the right birds together. It doesn't matter what colour emerges - if it's a good budgerigar, it will win. That is the object we must all strive for. Obviously there are times when colour has to be thought about. For instance, loss of colour in say Skyblues, caused by repeated Skyblue to Skyblue pairings over several years. In such a case one has to introduce greens into this colour to enrich matters. Nevertheless, as a general rule of thumb, shape before colour.
Another common matter which is discussed, is the pairing together of Opalines. I feel that unless one or other of a proposed pair of Opalines has a bad hereditary fault such as flecking, there is no logical reason for not going ahead. At least 50% of the Opalines at the major shows are the result of Opaline x Opaline matings, and many of the Opaline 'special' winners have the same origins.
When pairing your birds, do observe the basic rules regarding condition about which you read so often and I say this because often I am tempted to make a particular pairing involving the topmost birds simply because I can see it's bound to click on face value. However, I resist the temptation when one of the pair is out of condition these days and I usually have, with the top quality cocks, at least two or three hens in mind for each so that one should be in condition at the same time as the cock.
With a new outcross that you have purchased, it is often feasible to pair it to four or more hens in a season, not letting him feed at all. In fact with a top class bird it is the only answer. The eggs are transferred on completion of laying to 100% reliable fosters, and the cock paired up immediately to the next hen, if fit. An example of this was a œ200 plus cock which changed hands in the 1950's and produced thirty-nine chicks in the first season, which as can be imagined, soon put the owner on the showbench in a very big way. However, this sort of practice is not to be recommended to the beginner until a lot of experience has been attained with breeding techniques.
On selecting your pairs, try to avoid duplicating faults, and do not forget to assess each bird as an individual and not overlook, for example, lack of width or a hinged tail. Beware how you use a bird exhibiting long flighted characteristics, although I feel every stud should have one to use when necessary. Try to keep the masks of your birds as low as possible. Shallow masks on the showbench are quickly spotted by the judges and are pulled down as a result. Try to maintain and increase size - there is a vast gulf between Champion Open birds and Intermediates, when it comes to size, and you'll only keep it by using all your knowledge.
One of the points that we are concentrating on at present, is width of shoulder. This is a strong feature of the stud. The shoulders in many birds are inadequate to carry the size of head, which some birds possess. As a result you can have a superb "lion head", possessing all the desirable features from the spot line upwards, with a set of slightly narrow shoulders underneath. I say slightly, because it is only the experienced fanciers that are often aware of it. So you can visualise a little better what I mean, imagine a shoelace tied round the shoulder line of our "lion head", who for the purposes of this case, is not a fat chested bird. That resulting circle, if slipped over the head of a bird with the correct size of shoulder, would jam at the spot line. What we are doing is marrying the "lion heads" with the big carrots underneath, so that with the big shoulder, surmounted by the big head, we have no appearance of a neck at all. It is by no means easy to achieve, but don't we get some pleasure from doing it?
Having read this last paragraph, it should strike you that what we are doing is improving a point that needs to be corrected in our stud. You should be doing the same. Ask yourself, "what is wrong with my stud of birds and what is their main failure?" It could be spot size is down, in which case you'll need some massive spotted opaline hens as outcrosses. On the other hand, it may be that frontal lift and depth of mask is lacking (i.e. the birds are "yellow" feathered). In this case the purchase of a "buff" will be essential. Think about these matters deeply. Having said that, do remember to look at your birds overall.
While a subject of its own, the practices of inbreeding and line breeding, have to be resorted to, if eventually all your birds are aimed at having the same desirable features. The mating together of relations achieves this result and it is only when a "collection of birds", turns into a quantity of birds looking nearly the same, that the word "STUD" can truly be applied. If you want to reproduce birds that possess a certain quality about them, in-breeding and line breeding must be examined in depth. Inbreeding brings the faults to the surface very quickly, line breeding brings out the good and bad points, but not as quickly. The object of the exercise is to raise the standard of the stud uniformly.
Finally, I would like to save breeders a great deal of wasted effort. Many, many years ago, I used to think prior to pairing, "now that Light Green isn't too good, but his father was a superb cock, and that hen over there, she is from the same father, but she lacks badly in height over the eye. Oh well, let's ignore the bad faults and pair them - perhaps they will breed another light green like the original sire". Believe me - it doesn't work! You must put the visual qualities of your related birds first - in front of pedigree, not the other way round. This is vital, so don't waste time, like I did years ago.
Final thought - put your hens in the breeding cages first for three days on their own, with the nest boxes open. On the morning of the fourth day put in the selected cock birds and go off to work. I am biased, but I've yet to find a better technique. Happy mating!
"© The content of The Best of Budgerigar World Volume 1 is copyrighted and may not be used for any purpose without prior permission. However, Internet links are most welcome".