The Budgerigar Council of Victoria Inc (A10055P)

Budgie News Artcles

Breeding for the Percentages By Alistair Home A few years ago I wrote about the chances of the ordinary breeder who could not afford to buy the imported birds in numbers. At that time there were a lot of people saying that the high prices would drive fanciers away. They pointed to the low entries in shows and predicted that it would get worse. I argued that the opposite was the case and that the import of birds was going to create a level playing field because before very long we would all have access to the birds we needed. What would really count,I said, was the skill of the breeder combined with that bit of luck that is always needed. Once everyone started to breed birds of a better quality 1 felt sure that entries in shows would start to climb. Iwant to quickly describe again the breeding plan that I think an ordinary breeder can follow to give themselves a chance to compete with the high fliers.I then want to go on to say something about how the percentages can be used to speed things up. My idea is that the way forward is to attempt to improve your entire stock so that there is a steady increase in quality year by year across the whole flock. The lucky ones are able to buy numbers of breeding pairs so that their starting level is higher, but most of the rest of us can only afford one pair or maybe even only one or two unmatched birds of superior quality and we have to use those birds to lift our general level. Starting out - establishing the flock The first step is to breed as many young as possible from your new stock, mating them with the best quality partners you have available. A quality pair should be bred together and the second year should be the year for breeding numbers across your stock. The only birds to be sold off at this stage are the outright failures. Most of the young should be kept even if they are not as good as the original quality purchases. The next stage is to breed related birds together - half brother to half sister, cousin to cousin, uncle to niece, aunt to nephew. From the offspring of these matings you should be very selective, keeping only those young which show a significant improvement on their parents. These birds form your breeding stock for the future. Each year from now on your aim should be to sustain a forward-moving breeding program by selecting the best young birds to join your breeding team for the following year. Upgrading Each year you should analyse the weaknesses in your stock. You may decide to purchase birds carrying specific features that you need if there is no bird in your stock carrying what you want. There is little point in simply buying a "good" bird - it must introduce desired features based on careful examination of your birds. The purchase becomes an outcross, mated to several of your best birds. Meantime you continue to select the best from among your mainline to continue your general breeding program. The next year the young from the outcross matings are bred together and the best young from these matings are then bred across your stock. This process goes on continually - bringing the whole flock forward and introducing an outcross perhaps every second year. Percentages using your lucky break How can the percentages help? In general across the broad range of matings I think you can hope to produce a small percentage of birds which are an improvement over their I parents - maybe about 10%. Probably about 40% of the young will be of similar quality to their parents, carrying a range of features; some better, some no better, some worse. About 40% will be a bit poorer, but still showing some good features and about 10% will be far worse than their parents. Every year the superior 10% will win places in your breeding team, you will select from among the next 40% to try to maintain a balance across your stock as you replace old stock with young and you will dispose of the balance of the birds. This is a very slow, painstaking process. It means that even if you breed from thirty or more pairs you can only expect about 15 or 20 young which show a significant improvement. A poor breeding season and a slice of bad luck can mean that not even that number of better birds may make it onto the perch. On the other hand sometimes you can have a slice of good luck; occasionally a pair will click and produce a whole group of chicks that are better than your average level. Sometimes a new outcross clicks in this way, sometimes it can be a pair from your mainline which seem particularly compatible. As soon as you identify a superior nest of chicks you should take steps to increase the numbers from that pair. You will probably notice the quality only a few days before the hen begins to lay her second round. As she begins to lay you should transfer her eggs to foster pairs even if they are quite good pairs in their own right. I would aim to transfer the first three eggs to one pair, the next three to another and then I would let the hen continue to lay and go on to rear the resultant clutch. With reasonable good fortune you might get ten chicks on the second round. I let the hen rear her next clutch so that I have a chance of taking a third round of eggs. This large number of chicks of a higher average level become the basis of the general breeding program for the future. If the average level has been high there is a chance that there will be one or two outstanding chicks and the only ones I would let go would be the one or two at the tail of the clutch. When such a breeding result occurs you will make much more than the general 10% improvement for that year and your whole stock will move up to a new level. The bad news is that big jumps forward do not occur all that often and the usual thing is that we creep along slowly year by year. If the chance comes your way grab it with both hands!