Ron Payne's Budgerigars - The Moonraker Stud
Management
My routine stays much the same for most of the year. I aim to have finished breeding by June so that the person who
looks after my birds does not have too much to do when I am on holiday. At that stage the birds are on plain water with
just a dish of my standard feed, which consists of 50% Johnston and Jeffs Continental mix and 50% of Bucktons 50/50 mix
which I purchase from a local source (this is not the BS mix).
Upon my return from holiday which is usually late-July, we are plunged straight into the show season so my show team is usually selected just before I go away and left to rest in long flight cages. One of my first jobs after my return is to check the show team over, broken flights and tails would have been sorted in early June, and any additions and deletions made to the team.
At this stage I start spraying with hot water quite liberally, this continues up until the first show when I ease off on the spraying although by that stage I am adding plume spray or pigeon bloom to the water.
Very late additions to the show team are kept separately and fast tracked with the above routine. With the relatively short show season, experience will tell you which birds are never going to be fit enough to show and they are released back into the flights.
Only first round youngsters are usually considered for the early shows, but by the time of my own show at Swindon in early September it is possible that second round chicks will be available to show. In 2002 a second-round light green cock took the cc at Swindon for me so I am always watching the young birds progress for likely candidates.
Following Swindon show I start to "tweak" the diet a little, by introducing soft food on a weekly basis and feeding tonic seed to the flights.
At this stage my standard mix is coated with Carr's Ad-Herb. I used this addition to the diet for the first time this year and have been pleased with the results.
This product was developed for pigeon fanciers and has resulted in my birds appearing much healthier with very few losses. It is not a time consuming task
to mix and I generally mix up a large bucketful which lasts over a week.
My soft food mixture at this stage consists of a product called Optimal Start 25 which comes from Belgium but is available through pigeon product suppliers. The manufacturers claim 25% protein in their product. I feed a liberal amount of brewers yeast to the soft food. Again this is purchased through a specialist pigeon fancier supplies shop and a £4 tub lasts about four months! To this is added a small amount of Hormoform and the same amount of plain groats and is all mixed up in a food processor with a small carrot.
As the main breeding season approaches scrambled eggs (done in a microwave with a teaspoon of cider vinegar) are added to the mix. I gradually increase the amount of times per week soft food is fed until the last week of November when it will be available on an every other day basis. Greenfood left over from the kitchen will be added when available, i.e. cabbage, cauliflower and sprouts.
For the 2004 breeding season I tried to simplify things slightly and purchased some hoppers and twin pots for grit and soft food from Riversway Products. I found these to be well made and easy to clean and would recommend them to any fancier thinking of changing things!
2004 proved a very successful breeding season for me and I intend to continue with the same routine for 2005.
Carr's Ad-Herb will be launched onto the cage and aviary bird market as Avia-Herb.