My Profile

I first began keeping budgerigars in the late sixties at 12 years old. A neighbor of mine gave me a sky blue hen which was 2 years old, she thought it was a cock when she bought it. I was given a sky blue cock by the dad of a friend, I made a cage, put them together in the garden shed and they bred like wildfire. I used to do quite well selling the babies at the local pet shop, which was more profitable than the paper round and not as far to walk.

I started keeping exhibition type budgies in the early eighties I got my first two pairs from Ken Marsden of Glossop who later became the partner of the late Alf Ormerod. I consider Ken to be my mentor as well as a very close friend, he has freely given me help, advice and plenty of good quality birds over the years. I gave up keeping birds when my job meant me being away from home for long periods of time that was in 1992. I started up again in 2004 and again went back to Ken for my stock. I also have birds from Brian Sweeting, John Wilson and my Golden faces from Rene Heylen Belgium.

When I bought a 25% share of the John Wilson stud in October 07 it was obvious that some  Huxley & Marchant blood was present. I had already obtained a number of birds from a couple of sources which were Huxley and Marchant bloodline. When I paired some of these two lines together for the 08 season the quality of some of the young showed an improvement. I would say that around 90% of my birds are now made up of John Wilson / Huxley & Marchant, the remainder being sweeting. I have almost phased out my Heylen with a very small percentage remaining.

I showed at the World Show for the first time in 2009. I entered 5 cocks in the Novice section 4 young birds and 1 adult all rung KVM1. I was very pleased with the results having 4 first in their class and 1 second. The adult Op Grey Grey went on to win the CC and second best Novice adult. The young Sky won best Novice young bird.

I am looking forward to the 2010 season as I am going into the Intermediate section and intend to show a lot more of my birds in most of the area shows. At the time of writing (21/02/10) I have 85 youngsters and things are going ok touch wood.

I look forward to meeting some of my old friends and hopefully many new ones around the shows in 2010. And wish them all a Happy New Year and a very good breeding season all the best.

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