Ron Payne's Budgerigars

(The Moonraker Stud)

Having bred and exhibited budgerigars for thirty years, I hope that you will enjoy looking at my web site.

If you learn something from it I will be delighted, please e-mail me and let me know.

If you think I am missing something (apart from good budgies!), please also e-mail me and let me know.

This wonderful hobby of ours can only expand and improve by mutual co-operation and friendship, I hope that after looking through the content of this web site you feel you can add something to our hobby, please get in touch.

Why "The Moonraker Stud"? I am a Wiltshire man (or should it be a Man of Wiltshire) and Wiltshiremen are often referred to as Moonrakers. This name comes from legend and folklore. According to history some men from Devizes, in Wiltshire, were involved in smuggling contraband through the port of Bristol. Legend has it that they were chased by excise men and threw their smuggled barrel of brandy into a pond. With a full moon one evening they returned to the pond with hay rakes to try to retrieve their booty, only to be caught by an excise man. When asked to explain their actions they replied that they were trying to rake the cheese that had fallen into the pond, which was in fact a reflection of the full moon. Thinking they were just simple folk, the excise man went on his way - no doubt laughing - and the smugglers continued to get their contraband from the depths of the pond!! The moral of that story is that we may talk like country folk but we are not as silly as it seems!

Always remember it is a hobby, by all means get serious about it, but let's all have some fun and friendship at the same time!