2008 Club Show Seminars
"Two completely new presentations given by two very experienced fanciers from Brazil and Australia" , was the statement in the schedule, etc seminars, and neither of these gentlemen failed to live up to our expectations:
John Herring attended and reported on the first of the two, when Jorge de Pina talked about ‘Breeding budgerigars the Jorge de Pina way’, and writes:-
Jorge de Pina could, I suppose, be said to have a ‘larger than average birdroom: a total of 100 feet in length, ……………………… The floor is tiled, and in order to cope with the very high temperatures in Brazil, not always conducive to the breeding of budgerigars, he has a very large, cooling, fan in use for much of the time.
This extensive birdroom caters for 130/150 breeding cages of all wire construction, which are arranged in front of 7 flights. Additionally he provides a Baby flight which serves as a halfway house between the security of the breeding cage and the rough and tumble of full flights.
There is, of course, much work involved in servicing these cages and he has the help of one full-time member of staff in the birdroom – at one time, there were three! So much work in any establishment demand the right equipment and he built in ten metres of working surface to allow the efficient completion of day-to-day tasks. this is aided by 10 metres of working surface. That length of 100 feet would be trying for many – and provide perhaps too much exercise, so he limits this by the use of three wheeled trolleys; these are one for water for various birdroom tasks, one for softfood, and one for the paperwork needed to keep records of such a vast stock up to date and correctly recorded.
The quality of drinking water in such a climate is particularly important, and Jorge employs an automatic watering system which delivers filtered water efficiently and with low maintenance. He cleans all pipework in the system yearly.
The softfood that Jorge uses is a ‘local’ mix, augmented by him and including sweetcorn, offered. If he wishes to administer any additives, he does so via the softfood, as he thinks this is a surer way of ensuring that it is ingested as desired.
This successful Brazilian fancier established his stud many years ago and used foundation stock and outcrosses from top studs throughout the world, as required, until a government departmental ban on the import of birds was imposed. He now has a stud which he uses as basically three different lines, uses inbreeding methods within those lines, and keeping them those lines separate apart from the occasional visit to a line in order to employ a bird as an outcross to one of the other two lines. This done, breeding is returned to emphasis on breeding within the line to which the 'outcross’ was introduced.
Thus, pedigree is very important and his breeding records are an essential tool. His breeding programme is quite largely dependant, as well as using fertile birds, on the employment of many 30 pairs of feeders – birds which are very healthy, not feather-pluckers and which he can trust to raise healthy youngsters
The temperature is, indeed, hot and humid, which brings its own problems. Among aids to comfort, he provides roomy nest boxes which are divided to allow for older chicks to be separated from their younger siblings.
Artificial Insemination. Still a controversial subject in the United Kingdom, and a practise which remains banned by the Budgerigar Society, is something which Jorge de Pina heartily recommends. He considers that this is the way forward to ensure healthy and improved stock from birds which have something special to offer and provides solutions to many problems encountered in breeding. Cock birds are always tested for their fertility before pairing up , ensuring that infertile birds do not waste time in the breeding season. He argues that it is a process used in all other livestock – so why not budgerigars, he asks? Jorge added that birds used in this way are also used for breeding by the more natural method.
As to the show scene, Brazil is, of course, a vast country. There are relatively few budgerigar breeders in the country – about 500. Showing brings its own problems, compared with the United Kingdom, because it is necessary to send or take birds in suitable travelling containers for hundreds of miles to reach the show, by both air and road, taking at least several hours to reach their destination. On arrival, they are caged up in show cages provided by the show promoting society, who need to carry a stock of up to 2,000 cages, otherwise the show could simply not be held. The membership being limited, there is a shortage of fancier workers, but labour in Brazil is cheap so people are paid to store cages and keep them in good condition, and also to carry out the work at the show
The show preparation that Jorge carries out with his stud follows a similar pattern to most fanciers over here. He selects his team some fifty days before the event so that he can build them up and do his utmost to bring them into the desired feather condition.
The talk was, of course, illustrated with excellent images. This report can only give a flavour of the presentation and I commend it to anyone who has the opportunity of enjoying it in the future
This talk had been introduced by George Booth, BS Chairman, who also thanked Ron Pearce for his continuing excellent work for the society in planning these Seminars, not the least in the superb choices he makes in booking such knowledgeable and interesting speakers, the like of whom the average fancier would not get a chance to hear. “
John Herring
Mark Bridgeman
Sunday’s Powerpoint presentation was also very well attended, but as usual there were not as many as on the Saturday. Those who did not manage to attend missed a very informative presentation by Mark Bridgeman, from Victoria, Australia, as to how the exhibition fancy in Australia is organised . Those of us who were able to catch this talk were left in no doubt as to how easy exhibitors in the U K have things, especially in the very small distances that we have to travel to attend the shows of our choice.
Mark’s presentation was largely concerned with how the exhibition fancy is organised in Australia. There are some 1200 members of the National society in Australia, and most of the zone societies (there are seven such zones in Australia) were formed relatively recently, the earliest being Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia in 1975. It is therefore a comparatively new fancy as an organised body in the original home of the budgerigar! As said, each state has its own local clubs – Victoria, for example has seventeen local clubs.
I, for one, was surprised to learn that unlike our own Club Show, the Australian National Show is a show competed by teams from the various zones, or State societies. Those teams have been selected from birds shown at the state show by local societies, and there is apparently strong competition at each stage. The best three birds in each colour class are there selected to represent the state at the Australian National Show. The details of the birds selected, ring numbers etc, are sent in advance to The Australian National show office. (A similar procedure has already taken place at local society level, with the ring details etc supplied to the state office)
In common with other very large counties, show birds in Australia usually have to travel vast distances to reach a show. They travel in suitable containers and at their destination, they are kept in holding cages, under the scrutiny of the members (usually three) appointed by the state society to be the carers (and in effect, the managers of the show team), who then decide which two of the three birds sent in each class will go on to represent the state at the National Show.
While the prime reason for the state shows is to select that team, individual fanciers do gain, or fail to gain, status points at these shows in the various classes, all hinging, naturally, on the success of their team. These points are very important, because they determine whether of not a fancier can move up in status, and also, perhaps more important, whether he/she maintains the status so far achieved! (Will this ever come about in the U.K. I wonder ?).
The result of the selections is a National Show which has fourteen birds in each Colour class , that is, two birds per colour from each zone. The actual selection and entry of the teams takes place on the morning of the show, and this gives the carers a further choice as to into which class to enter birds. For example there is a Best Hen class into which hens may be entered rather than represent their colour.
The actual judging of these classes is very much an Open affair. In the same way that the BS Club Show has public viewing of the selection of major awards, so does the Australian National show for their classes. The main difference is that those judges have to give a commentary as they make, and change, their selections and give reasons for all such movements! Mark commented that this is valued highly; fanciers feel that they learn much from the experience.
He showed us a goodly number of slides of their show birds, and the first thing that he pointed out was that the sloping rood of their cages is not as severe as ours and reached a point much higher up the back of the cage. This, they feel, allows the bird to take a position further back in the cage and the lessened restriction allow it to show its head qualities more freely.
As to the birds themselves, amongst some beautiful birds, were some equally beautiful one, mainly Opalines, which were heavily ticked, and would not therefore be successful as show birds in this country. Mark did, however, add that their quality of show bench only developed within the last few years, and from a comparatively restricted selection of birds, which included the flecking factor. It will therefore take some time before they find themselves at the same stage as we in the UK whose journey down that road to clean Opalines has gone some way, but much work yet needs to be done.
In judging, (perhaps ticking apart) variety content is of great importance in all colours, that is, throughout the range. Mark showed a number of slides which demonstrate the difference in many of our varieties, as to what is and is not acceptable. The differences were particularly apparent in the Clearwings; he reckons that our Yellow wings and Whitewings would usually be disqualified on variety content in Australia, particularly because of the colour is our tails and flights. However, the differences are largely confined to the rarer varieties and in normal features and more popular colours, there is little to choose in our approach.
As he showed us further slides, Mark stressed that in Australia there is a very strong feeling for integrity of variety, and this attitudes spills into the breeding programme as well as the show scene.
A very enjoyable and informative presentation which gives other “variety fans such as myself further food for thought -- and encouragement! Thanks, Mark
Dave Herring