Robert’s aviary is approximately 20 feet by 14 feet, down to 10 feet wide at the training room. with no outside flight. Instead it boasts a large inside flight with a tiled floor. His aviary, like his garden, was immaculate. Ventilation is provided by an extractor fan, a large overhead filter fan, two louvered windows (in the flight) and an open wired door. Robert keeps several varieties of budgeriagars but his spangles were very impressive. His budgerigars were very steady in the flights and also when put into a show cage. Members saw for themselves the quality that Robert has managed to put into his birds, three generations of the one family being put into the training cages to show how he had managed to improve his stock. This was the first formal visit by a budgeriagr club to Robert’s aviary. He moves to Intermediate level this year. From the quality of birds on show it is likely to be a succesful move for him.

Having seen good budgerigars, we sat for a little while in his lovely garden, in the sunshine, with tea and sandwiches. This is something we do well (the EBS folk like a good feed!).

After a 90 minute journey, which included popping in to see Jim Laurie and his wife-(the EBS folk like a good gab!), we arrived in Ayr to view Willie Peacock’s aviary, most had not visited him since his move. Homemade soup, more sausage rolls and fairy cakes awaited us -(like hobbits the EBS folk like a good second feed!). Willie too has a fantastic garden- this time hard landscaped with lots of pots in full bloom, lots of little water features and a koi pool, with a couple of real monsters swimming around in it.

His new aviary,while similar to the old one in layout, is much smaller. The two blues, one grey and one cinnamon green stood out from amongst his 300 greens! Quality birds were everywhere, all had been despotted before our arrival. Despotting is something that Willie does constantly, for several reasons,he finds he can assess the birds much better,the cleaner mask brings with it the appearance of greater depth,also when regularly handling the birds for despotting he can quickly pick up on any troubles such as growths, lack of weight etc fortunately these occur rarely in his birds. It also makes him very efficient in the art of trimming,and he even enjoys the task!

Willie keeps cocks and hens in separate flights and the youngsters in long flight cages until they moult out. There were some promising youngsters in that cage. Amongst the adults there was good depth of mask in evidence, wide heads and good body size. While there was flecking in some of the birds, Willie seems to have it under control and uses it to maintain spot size. Willie’s budgerigars were a complete contrast to Robert’s, we went from a multi coloured avaiary to one of almost single colour, what a contrast!

The members of the EBS wish to thank both Robert and Willie, and their respective wives, for their kind hospitality, which was greatly appreciated, as well as the opportunity to look at some wonderful budgerigars.
June meeting
Bob Quigley is to be the trainee judge at the Edinburgh BS Open Championship Show on 2 August 2008.

On 3 June, Bob put in some practice by judging the EBS members’ moulted out show. 33 birds were put before him for his consideration and best in show was awarded to a quality grey green cock bred by Willie Welsh. It beat five others in its class before going on to take best champion breeder and best in show. This young cock exhibited excellent depth of mask with good spot size and sat well during the judging. Best beginner was a very clean opaline green belonging to Porteous Gordon. This bird had Bob almost standing on his head to view the bird properly! What ever happened to “45degrees to the vertical” Bob?.

Bob took the opportunity to pass on some of his knowledge to e new member of the EBS, John Scarman, who had never seen budgerigars shown and judged before. John appreciated the experience which may encourage him to breed exhibtion birds in the future.

AVIARY VISIT-April 2008
Following a successful evening in February as guest speaker at the Edinburgh BS, Nick Flavell (of the Findlay & Flavell partnership) extended an invitation to members to visit him to see how he prepares their budgerigars for show. The partnership has an excellent reputation for putting birds on the show bench in exemplary form. That visit took place at the end of April on a very warm sunny Sunday afternoon.

Show cage training for their birds starts when the young budgerigar leaves the nest, with old show cages being attached to the nursery cage. Nick tempts them to enter and stay in it with treats such as millet sprays. He feels that this early learning is never lost and when they enter a show cage for real, they quickly settle down as they remember this early experience.

Nick has built a couple of all wire cages in which to spray the budgerigars prior to the show but after de-spotting, usually the Wednesday before the show, he hand washes the birds that are going to the show. Nick gave a full and detailed demonstration of his method of hand washing, using two young birds as examples. They are washed, using an old shaving brush, with tepid water into which a very small amount of shampoo has been added, rinsed in another dish and give a final rinse in a third dish. He then rolls each bird into an old towel and leaves it to dry out for approximately 20 minutes. A healthy budgerigar generates sufficient body heat when wrapped up in this fashion to dry itself quite quickly. The bird usually settles down in its “cocoon” once it feels the heat building up and the drying process starting. They are then removed from their wrappings and allowed to completely dry off in his training show cages.

He is a past master of the art of de-spotting and demonstrated his way of doing so to his visitors. The Edinburgh BS hope to have a dvd of the visit and the hand washing demonstration available shortly.

The Edinburgh BS wish to record their thanks to Mr and Mrs Flavell for their most generous hospitality, Sundays for them is very much a family affair but the members were made most welcome.