HARRY HOCKADAY AT THE 2009 BS CLUB SHOW
Presentation – “Four years on and did it work?”
Introducing Harry to the “full house” assembled to see his presentation, The Budgerigar Society Chairman, George Booth said that Harry had been invited back by popular demand to give another presentation this year.
Taking the floor Harry said that he was bound to cover some of the ground that he dealt with four years ago, and apologised if this became too much of a repeat for previous participants. Most people believed that the best pairing is Best to Best but he had then proposed a different method, and this year’s presentation would relate more to whether or not this had worked.
Decide want you want to do
The first decision relates to whether the breeder wishes to keep a collection or a stud. Going out and buying birds from here, there and everywhere will result in a collection of unrelated birds, some of which will breed a mixture of good, bad and indifferent, even when following a design of pairing best to best, sometimes it works immediately but sometimes those good birds are such which really do not breed to type when they themselves are paired up.
Far better to study show results, and the birds of those successful breeders and decide which one is breeding birds nearer to what you want, then go to him and/or those fanciers who have also built their stud on his bloodlines; bearing in mind that the fancier himself may not have birds to spare. By buying such connected stock’ you get a basis of the bloodline of your chosen fancier immediately to hand to become the basis of your own stud.
To maintain this pattern, it is then essential to pair related stock, ultimately using pairings such as grandfather to grand-daughter; Harry stating that he prefers not to get closer, to form a line.
Harry speeds up this process by taking away the cock after the first chick when a nest hatches, thus preventing him from going fully into ‘family mode’, but he warned that it is inadvisable to take him away earlier as the hen may abandon her eggs. Thus removed, the cock may be re-paired to a further hen; in this way a further branch is developed for use. Ideally this same method will be used to form a second line using a similarly good cock. Harry still feels that the cock is the main part of the pairing and it is his qualities that he wishes to stamp on the young. The hens should, of course be produced from strong lines, while not necessarily visually outstanding birds in themselves
The use of birds from one bloodline has the added advantage that there are likely to be far fewer of those hidden faults that give such disappointments cropping up randomly; the other main drawback of using birds from a ‘collection’.
Harry’s initial stock
The H&D Hockaday partnership had their initial stock from Dave Topliss who was highly successful at the time and had the quality of birds they were looking for.
At this stage, Harry showed slides of two of those original birds. In the initial stages of producing his own stud, he concentrated on developing birds of size, shape and width of head, and when Dave Topliss gave up the fancy, Harry turned to Pilkingtons and to Mannes, whose birds worked in well with the stud.
In the early stages, as a Beginner, he paired visually Best to Best but certainly would not do so now. He stressed that you must be in full control of your stock at all times by keeping meticulous records, and maintaining the stud as a stud and not letting it, at any time, lapse into a collection.
A new video
Harry then showed a video detailing some of the birds that he had produced last year, and pointed out the improvements that he had made to the quality of the stock; all young birds shown having good width and direction of feather. It also related to some of the slightly older birds, including a well proportioned, but smaller Olive hen which produced super birds. This happened because he knew what was behind that hen - the genetical make-up.
Pedigrees of the birds important
When pairing up, many people put a cock in a cage then put a hen with it to see if they look visually compatible; in other words, on the visual Best to Best method, but he places much more reliance on what the birds were bred from in deciding whether they are indeed compatible. In other words, as he stated, he applies the laws of genetics, which he regrets is nowadays becoming so much something of a bad word, albeit a very useful science.
Harry than stressed that he felt that the hardest thing to put on a bird is directional feathering, adding that it is much easier to put size and spot on a bird.
This more or less concluded the presentation, but I have to stress that no verbal description can capture, adequately, the improvements in stock which those who viewed the presentation were able to observe, and which lent much weight to the conclusions that he has reached.
Following a short break, Harry continued with a brief Questions and Answers session.
The first one was, “Do you consider Feather type?
He replied that he does, but only if there is a perceived problem. He advises that if we do have a feather problem, we should get rid of it. If he feels that his feathering is too Buff, he brings in an outcross to rectify the situation.
“When preparing birds for a show, do you pull tails?”
Harry replied “Yes, but only one at a time and the top one first so that the new one will grow first and the underneath one will then grow to support it. He does pull out spots to ensure that the full complement will be in place for the show.
“How do you choose the hens you wish to keep?”
Harry said that he tried to keep 80 cocks and 100 hens. Those hens would not necessarily comprise all the visually most attractive – sometimes the bigger hens would be sold depending on their genetic background.
Then someone spoke about the importance of down feather. Harry agreed that down feather is very important as they allow the surface feather to sit in their most advantageous position
“Is there any reason why you have not specialised in any one particular colour?”
Harry prefers to breed with compatible colours, including spangles, and he uses a variety of colour providing that other features are present. What matters is the quality of the birds being used.
“If you were starting again, how would you start?”
Harry confirmed that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would first make sure that he had an aviary of such size as would meet all his hopes and aims for the foreseeable future. The welfare of the birds generally, and both their and his comfort would be paramount. It would be so equipped to meet this initial requirement. He would then look to see which fancier(s) were doing well and by careful study, decide from whom to buy stock. He again stressed that blood is the key.
“How many birds would you need to start a new line?”
At first, he said three to six pairs, but if you only have two pairs, foster out the first young and re-pair the birds in order to gain time.
This was an extremely well presented lecture that was received just as well as Harry’s first presentation four years ago.
Footnote: The original presentation was to be given by both Harry and Don, but sadly Don was very much under the weather and was unable to be with us.
Reported by John Herring