by Terry and Clare Pilkington
Our advice to newcomers to the hobby who are intending to breed
budgerigars for exhibition purposes is to apply a system of
radical upgrading until all the correct ingredients exist across
their studs until a few of their best birds possess a few of
their ingredients in a more concentrated form. This manifests
itself by the fact that they are starting to do well on the show
bench. This procedure has to be the pattern of progress before
embarking on a close inbreeding programme and will take a
minimum of four years to achieve. Certain key birds will form
the basis of an inbreeding programme. By this time, also, he/she
will have acquired the knowledge and experience required to take
their birds one step nearer to the ultimate championship goal.
Two Studs
Let us explain our background and the way we proceed in this
wonderful hobby of ours. From the outset, we visited as many
aviaries as possible until we had established the two studs
which possessed the type of birds we particularly liked.
Beginners and novices should concentrate their efforts on two,
but at the most three, quality aviaries at first. Try and buy
the best brothers and sisters that are available which are
related to the best birds in those chosen studs. If you can
afford two or three pairs from each, so much the better.
With these two groups at home, try to breed with them as
separate families for the first two years. You need a bit of
luck, such as we had, and with that you should have plenty of
birds from each family after say three seasons. You will also be
able to spot which features are now dominant in those families
and at the same time, the weaknesses will be revealed. Sell off
any birds which fall below a standard which you set and be
ruthless about it.
So far you have only been reproducing families which are
extensions of the original stock. Do remember that, as you can
afford it, you can still go back each year and buy some more,
perhaps superior, related bloodstock to put into the two
families to help each line along, but it is important you
establish very clearly that they are related birds to those you
purchased originally.
Crossing Together
This point in your progress reached, and the two families
established, now is the time to consider crossing them together
with particular emphasis on the best birds in each group. The
aim is to produce your own identifiable family that will be the
envy of the show bench so that fanciers can recognize your stamp
of bird immediately. Here is where good luck and quality
management combine to take you down that road. You may now be in
the Novice Section and the early signs that you bought wisely
may already have started to appear because you will have won
with birds possessing your own ring.
Tempatation may now beckon. Always keep the best birds you
breed. Do not be tempted by a fancy priced offer for any of your
top team birds. They are your insurance and shop window for the
future and you cannot replace them by buying other outcross
birds because they are unrelated to your stock and possess
masses of hidden faults.
Inbreeding and Line-breeding
Assuming you are lucky and the two lines blend to form your own
marvelous line, you are on your way and the wins start to come
regularly. As the years progress and you start to think of
outcrosses, always remember your original sources. You will have
a vastly greater chance of your 'outcross' blending in to your
stud from those aviaries, than you will from any strange
bloodline from another winning exhibitor.
By keeping your joint family together you will be inbreeding and
line breeding. You will be pairing relatives that are close and
distant. This is the only way to build up a stud of birds with
all the same characteristics and type and if they are winning on
the show bench, so much the better.
We have four important points to make. There is no natural law,
or physiological law, against close inbreeding, the results of
which, whether they be good or bad, still follow the laws of
genetics. For this reason start with good sound vigorous stock
of the right show type.
Secondly, inbreeding contributes nothing new to a line. It
results in a line becoming pure for the qualities, good-or-bad,
that it possesses. It is Homozygous, as it is termed. If the
qualities that are there are desirable then there is no point in
breeding the stock together even more closely.
Outcrossing
Thirdly, outbreeding, or outcrossing as it is more popularly
known, tends to hide defects, but it does not eliminate them.
Inbreeding reveals the defects as the line becomes more
homozygous, but it is not the cause of the defects.
Lastly selection in an inbred line of the most desirable
individuals enables the breeder to eliminate defects. Inbreeding
brings about an element of certainty into the development of
your stud.
The golden rules of inbreeding can be expressed simply with two
words - selection and elimination; selection of the correct
mates as shown by pedigree and visual appearance and the
elimination of any bird that falls below your standard for
whatever reason. Close inbreeding must not be undertaken unless
the fancier is certain that the birds he is using are themselves
in possession of the qualities that are required to be firmly
fixed.
There is another analogy. When you mix the ingredients of a cake
together to bake the perfect cake, all the qualities and
quantities have to be present. If they are correct the 'cake'
will be a good one and the proof is in the eating. In birds it
is the same, so it could be said 'the proof of the breeding is
in the winning'.
We are satisfied that this is the only way to produce family of
birds that have similar characteristics and the more winners you
have in the background the better will be your chances of
reproducing a continual winning line.
A Solid Foundation
One of the most rewarding aspects of breeding quality birds is
to breed a top Show winner that breeds birds as good or better
than itself, or Prepotent as it is called. One such bird was a
1982 Cinnamon Grey Green cock which won many times. He produced
17 chicks in his first season, many winners among them. Needless
to say he was re-mated to the same hen the following year. This
ensured we bred a nucleus stock of quality birds in quantity and
we thus possessed a solid foundation on which to build our
present stock.
New fanciers are always in a big hurry to breed winners and they
look to establishing a winning family in two seasons. At least
five years is required in our view. To conclude, you may be
reading this article with your birds already in the breeding
pens. This does not mean you cannot turn your mind to the
seasons ahead and purchase from two or three seasons
accordingly. If you do, you will find yourself into 'winning
ways' far more quickly than by other haphazard techniques. Why
not give it a try?
