Ron Payne's Budgerigars - The Moonraker Stud - 2005 Season
2005 Breeding and Show Season
Full of optimism, I carefully selected my breeding pairs in early December 2004. The 2005 rings arrived before Christmas but it was the first week of January before any were used. It turned out to be a good breeding season with over 140 chicks reared. I didn’t change the feeding routine at all as I saw no reason to. Again I used Carrs Avi-Herb Aqua in the drinking water. I suffered very few losses in the breeding cages and I felt the quality of the birds bred had improved slightly.
The show season started off at the Heads of the Valley Show in July. This was not very successful for me, the birds had not been prepared as I had only returned from two weeks holiday on the day previous, but I was determined to support this friendly society. The birds were rested for a month and prepared for some later shows. The first of these was at Bristol BS, followed by Swindon BS, Gloucester BS and finally Bath CBS. Challenge certificates and special awards were won at all these shows, culminating in best young bird and best in show at Bath with a light green cock.
I entered a large team of birds for the BS Club Show in November, but as the show got ever closer it became apparent that only a handful would be ok for showing and I took the decision to withdraw my birds and attempt to get an early start for the 2006 breeding season.
During the year I managed to get a couple of birds from the successful stud of H & D Hockaday. These were a young opaline cinnamon cock and a young normal cinnamon cock. I intend to start another line within my stud with these birds, only time will tell if I have been successful, but I am viewing it as a 4-5 year project.
2005 also saw another highlight in my judging career with an invitation to judge the highly regarded Blackpool BS show in September. This turned out to be a superb show, lots of quality birds on show and a wonderful weekend with good company and lots of fun. I also took pleasure in judging the Welsh BS area championship show - another prestigious event.
I am looking forward to the 2006 breeding season and subsequent show season, watch this space!!