First of all, I would say I am an advocate of using outside flights to their fullest advantage. Using such flight, is the way to bring birds into top breeding condition, and it certainly is a pleasure when a fancier breeds a couple of useful looking birds, and watches them develop in an outside flight, I'm sure breeders throughout the season will have the odd cock bird, and the odd hen, picked out and the best pairings for them selected, long before the breeding season starts. I believe, when it comes down to breeding birds, the only way that a person can possible keep a strain of budgerigars, is to have the impression of the standard in his mind, and to try to put this impression into a living creature that is standing on a perch. This is the challenge which give the incentive to most breeders, and each has to work on family lines and cull them ruthlessly, in accordance with the standard established in his own mind. Anything which is below that standard, must be sold.
In my case, the cocks and the hens are together in the flights for much of the year, in this part of the World, we generally have an outside summer flight, because the weather is so cold in the winter. Most fanciers actually breed their birds in the confines of their own homes. This last winter there was four feet of snow going out to the outer birdroom, and naturally I don't want to put on a coat and trudge into the snow every time I want to check on a couple of birds. So breeders out here are much the same - we all have our birds inside by late August or the beginning of September, and start to prepare them for their breeding cycle from this point on. It is however, so important to give them large flights to develop in. They need to keep their weight down and develop the muscle tone that is needed. This is so important in the case of the hens - they must have that nice muscle tone, before the breeding starts.
My breeding room is in the basement of our house, so in September, I bring the birds downstairs and cull them out. I leave the remaining ones in the inside flight, until breeding starts. This interior flight is 20 feet x 4 feet x 7 feet high (6.1 x 1.2 x 1.2 metres). I leave all the hens in this flight and put the cocks in stock flights - 2 feet x 2 feet x 8 feet in length (0.6 x 0.6 x 2.4 metres).
The pair bonds that have been made in the outside flights, are quickly broken, and I think this is best, before breeding starts.
As we approach the breeding season, we look for a high form of breeding condition. I generally pair up around 20 pairs. This is a nice number to have, to allow some degree of flexibility, os that one can transfer chicks when the necessity arises. Also, one can keep the number of chicks reared, down to three, or at the very most four, per nest, and in this way you get nice size in the chicks and you are not overworking the pairs.
There are many different aspects to be considered when it comes to actually pairing up the birds. What I generally do, is take the hens first of all and put them into show cages to study them, and to assess the merits of them properly. You can pick out many good birds in a flight, but it needs the show cages to assess them exactly. After this, I catch up the cock birds and go through the same procedure. I slowly figure out what I'm going to pair together. Naturally enough, the birds must be mated as they come into top condition. They cannot all be paired up at once. What I like to see, are good looking birds that have come from good quality parents. Good looking, 'flash-in-the-pan", birds are no use. They must have good solid backgrounds and be pleasing to look at. If I have a pair that have produced well for me, I will generally put that pair up again, although there is not guarantee they will produce as well as before.
Pairing up day is vitally important. Before I go down to the aviary, I tell my wife to turn away all phone calls or interruptions of any sort. I just want to be left alone, not disturbed for a meal, and in general nothing must interfere with my concentration. I just do not want to be bothered - it is such an important day and your efforts for the next year depend upon it.
When it comes to actually putting the birds in the breeding cages, I put the hens inf first with the boxes in position, but the entrances to them are blocked off. A day or so later, I put the cocks in with the hens and three days later, the nest holes are unblocked and breeding starts. In this way, the cocks can tread (mate) with the hens, without the hens going in the boxes and becoming what we call boxbound (Boxbound means simply a hen which stays in the nest box and which rarely comes out of this area to be mated). This can easily happen when the hens are very fit - they just get in there and refuse to come out.
I believe that to breed any type of livestock properly, a person has to have a working knowledge of genetics and nutrition, one has to take an interest in the various foods and diets that are suitable. There are many seed mixtures with different proportions of canary over millet, or whatever, and all fanciers must take an interest in this. Anyone who has a formula of his own - who is doing well with it, must sty with this system. So many fanciers will listen to this person and then listen to that person - they try this and suddenly try that. Their birds bodies are being continually upset, in some cases nearly poisoned, with excesses. I believe we have to be very sparing as far as additives are concerned.
I have two lines, one of Normal Cinnamons and another of Opaline Cinnamons, but I would like to breed a line of pure Normals. To do this, I will use some of my best and most powerful Opaline hens. I've had success with my lines before, using these Opalines, because they have the size, the spots, and the power the Normals need. If you breed Normals, you must have these massive Opaline hens.
In the past, I've bred some nice yellow-faces, though I'm not particularly interested in them, but I did have a yellow-faced Normal cock which I mated to my Opaline hens. In this way, I bred some very strong Yellowfaces and I've had a lot of nice comments about those chicks.
Regardless of what system a breeder uses, I believe the whole object, whether one line breeds or inbreeds, is that each pair of birds must be put together for a sound reason. One must be almost fanatical on this point, if he or she wishes to produce stock of quality. Haphazard matings are unacceptable, and if a person wants to breed birds of quality, he must pay specific attention to his pairings.
One point of interest, I might mention. You often hear people talk on ages of birds for mating. This all depends on the visual maturity of the birds we are going to use, not just their actual age. It does vary. Also, the length of time one can use birds for breeding. I know it's a little out of the ordinary, but I have a cock, nearly ten years old. Last year I mated him to a hen, and he produced seven chicks. I'm going to use him again this year. I know it's an exception, but he produces good chicks every year.
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