Well I for one must admit to getting off to a shakey start to the breeding season. Having paired up the weekend after the Club Show, I had plenty of clear eggs and very few chicks and was unable to take advantage of the welcome early delivery of first closed rings of the new Millennium. Good luck to those of you who managed to squeeze a 2000 ring onto a chick on 23rd December 1999. I also understand that members of the American Budgerigar Society, who issue their rings on 1st November, also received their UK sourced rings early.
A couple of observations that I have made this year is that my method of pairing is to put the hen into a fully prepared breeding cage on the Wednesday and then put the selected cock bird in with her on the following Saturday or Sunday. While this works with adult pairs who know what it’s all about, I have found that first year pairs are out of phase with each other on the sexual learning curve. By the time the cock has discovered how to mate, a number of eggs have already been laid and these of course are clear. The result is that perhaps at best only the last one or two eggs are full. My theoretical solution to this problem is to either put both birds into the cage together or to deny the hen access to the box until the cock is added. I would be interested to hear other fancier’s views on this.
Too Complicated
I recall reading an article written by Trevor Clarkson about five years ago. In it he was asking the question of whether we make budgerigar breeding too complicated and is this the reason for so many fancier’s having ‘breeding season failure’. To cut a long story short, Trevor advocated a simpler and less intrusive form of management, which was working for him with impressive results. Here is what he recommended:
Trevor was the first to admit that an exact balance was difficult to achieve but you need to give your budgerigar sufficient attention to ensure they have all they need – without intruding so much on their activities that their breeding is affected.
The January Meeting
For many Clubs and Societies the January meeting will have been packed and will have seen volunteers eagerly step forward and fighting over becoming the secretary, treasurer or chairman etc. At the same meeting, members will have brought along lists of suggestions for guest speakers and offers to make the tea so that the same people only have to do it once in a while. Others will have volunteered to organise the raffle and to sell tickets. At this same meeting, the shop floor ‘know-it-all’ will have complimented the previous year’s committee on a job well done and asked to become involved and oh, yes – everyone pays his or her subs for the next twelve months.
Pinch me and I will wake up because in reality the January meeting will have seen the poorest attendance in the past year. Why? You may ask. Is it the cold weather or something else? It’s got nothing to do with the weather or the quality of the guest speaker, it’s simply the month of the AGM. For it is at the Annual General Meetings where the new committee is formed and if you’re not in attendance you can’t be proposed. Worse still, once you are on the committee you are ‘expected’ to donate raffle prizes, buy the advertising space in the Show Schedule and sponsor specials. This is as well as giving up many hours of free time when you should really be at home looking after your birds – and it’s a job for life from which there is no escape.
Seriously, I can accept that not everyone wants to be an organiser or part of a working group but it wouldn’t half help if a few more people gave a bit back to the hobby. I remember in my early years in the hobby that most places on a committee were contested for and ballots were common place but not any more. Also, there was a main committee and then sub-committees for the Open Show and Fund Raising etc on which different people served. Today there is seldom enough people to form a main committee let alone the luxury of sub-committees.
Those of you that are keeping the hobby alive at club level can feel proud of it but I am sure, even now after the AGM, a few volunteers to fill those gaps would be most welcome.