New Correspondents For Budgerigar World
Budgerigar World has always prided itself in being in touch with the hobby World wide and to reinforce this still further, during the past three months or so I have been working towards strengthening our network of correspondents. The results of these efforts can be seen in this edition of Budgerigar World and while still retaining many of the old familiar names amongst our correspondents many new people and countries have been added.
Among the new countries now represented are Argentina and relative newcomer to the fancy Kathleen Thompson. Bermuda is to be covered by Bryan Parkin and Israel by Meir Krut. A familiar name in the early days of BW was Japanese fancier Akira Ozaki who now joins our ranks. Nearer to home, Norman Young is to represent Northern Ireland. In Norway, the new correspondent is Evert Jor, for Peru we have Victor Zar Ginocchio and Bruno Cebulj will be representing the fancy in Slovenia. Finally amongst the new names is Brett Doran who will be pitching for Western Australia.
We still have a few gaps in our contingent of correspondents and I would be keen to hear from fanciers who would be prepared to give us reports from time to time on budgerigar activities in their countries. In particular I would like to hear from fanciers in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Eire, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Wales.
How’s It Going?
How’s the breeding season going for you? Certainly from a personal prospective we are content with the number – as for the quality, only time will tell. In this magazine Ray Steele makes some interesting points in his letter with regards to the ring issue date and the best time to pair our birds for maximum results. Few would argue that from a strictly breeding view point the spring time must be the best time to breed but when linked to other influences such as the show season it is a whole new ball game.
I also wonder whether the ring issue date is blamed for our poor breeding results when in fact it is us that is at fault. It is easy to find blame when things go wrong but should we be looking closer to home. It is our management that is at fault? We may be doing the same things that we used to do when numbers were easier, so is it that we have not kept pace with the requirements of our birds.
To quote an example, I recently visited Frank Silva. Despite what you may have heard his feeding regime is very natural. The birds are supplied with Trill plus Pain Canary, Japanese Millet, Tonic Seed and Red Millet Sprays. Plain filtered water is provided, to which no supplements are added. The softfood, which is liberally fed, consists of Trill, sweetcorn, carrot, salad cress, fennel and boiled eggs (Note no ‘Ginseng’ as rumoured). It is now 14th January and he has 70 breeding pairs. 57 pairs currently have full eggs and/or chicks and a further 12 pairs are laying. From early pairings, 3 pairs had to be split up as they failed and a further single pair has also recently failed. In 1998 Frank successfully reared 999 chicks, initiated from a November 1997 pairing date. Not bad for a wrong date, eh!
Mind The Eyes
Back in November I went to see Ken Trapnell who lives quite near to us. Having shaken hands and discussed the weather our conversation turned to the birds. On entering the birdroom, Ken said, "Before we go any further I have a small gift for you." He then proceeded to present me with a pair of safety glasses to be worn in the aviary. "I have bought all my friends a pair of these," he said. It turns out that Ken had been carrying out his chores in the aviary, just like he had been for many years, when a piece of seed flicked out from a top cage and lodged in his eye. This single grain of seed worked its way under his upper eye lid causing a great deal of discomfort and irritation. To cut a long story short, Ken ended up in the Casualty Department of the local hospital. So take note and take care.