Our favourite colour of budgerigar is Light Green. There is nothing more pleasing to the eye than a really, good quality Light Green in good feather. But having spent many years breeding them we have come to the conclusion that if you try to maintain a stud of pure Light Greens you are going to struggle.

We have found over the years that the introduction of the Grey factor into most studs brings many benefits. For some reason it seems to be dominant over most other colours. There will no doubt be some fanciers who would disagree, but we can only report on our own experiences.

If we have a nest containing Grey Greens, Greys, Light Greens and Blues it is fairly certain that the biggest and boldest of the youngsters will be Grey Greens, with the Greys second best and the Light Greens and Blues, third best.

Our aim is to breed good quality budgerigars, irrespective of colour, and that is why despite our love of Light Greens, our stud is now dominated by the Grey factor.

Many fanciers decry the Grey factor , claiming that surplus youngsters are difficult to dispose of through the pet trade. This is true, but are you really trying to fill the cages in your local pet shop or is your aim to build up a stud that can hold it's own on the show bench. The pet shops have a role to play in our fancy but you should not let their requirements dominate your thinking.

If you are not bothered about winning well, then it may well be that you prefer the less dominant and more colourful varieties and good luck to you, that is the beauty of our hobby there are plenty of horses for courses. However do not complain if you cannot win Best-in-Show or Best-in Section.

Before we started to keep exhibition budgerigars, we bred Dutch rabbits for over fifteen years during that time we bred many Champions, Best-in-Shows and Club Show Winners including "Boy Blue" one of the most prolific winning rabbits of all time.

In those dates our breeding methods were looked upon as being opposite to the accepted practice of breeding best to best and of buying in the very best outcrosses available. Those methods worked for us then and they continue to work to this day with budgerigars.

We believe that in all forms of livestock breeding, blood is of more importance than visual qualities and what's more it is less expensive. Of course if you are able to have both the visual qualities as well as the good blood then so much better, but those kind of birds are rarely available and when they are the asking price is often greater than the average fancier can afford.

Before purchasing birds make a point of looking for breeders who do their winning with owner bred birds. If at all possible arrange a visit to the birdrooms for possible outcrosses. It is of the utmost importance that you really like the overall quality of that stud, for we firmly believe that you can only expect to breed birds equal to the average quality of the stud from which they are obtained. The higher that average than the higher your expectations are entitled to be, but if that average is poor then your expectations should likewise be poor regardless of the quality of the birds you obtain.

If at all possible these outcrosses should be paired to the most prepotent birds that you possess in order that the qualities you saw in their "home stud" can be brought out. Our most successful outcrosses have come from inferior brother and sisters of really top quality class birds. It is far better to buy the worst birds from a really outstanding stud than the best bird from a poor stud. Do not be dazzled by being shown the stars of the stud, look for the birds hidden in the bottom cages, it is only by assessing these against the stars that a true average assessment can be made.

Beware of buying from studs where many of the birds look under the weather and where the drinkers on the bottom cages are full of coloured water. A healthy stud is a noisy stud. Once the birds have become accustomed to the stranger they should start to join in the conversation. Make sure that you buy healthy birds - only buy birds that look active and healthy should be considered. It may be that the bird you really fancy is just a little under the weather with the moult, do not be tempted to take a chance, moving moult-birds can be tricky. Of course it could also be that the bird in question is not moulty, but ailing for something more serious.

We do not buy show birds - it is possible to have several stock birds for the same outlay as would be needed to buy one show bird, and if you do not put all your eggs in one basket you will have many more chances of one of your outcrosses "clicking" with your stud. It is also a fact that visually poorer birds are usually more successful in the breeding cage than the big show winners. You often hear that the last pair to be put up has bred the best youngsters, if these reports are followed up it will be found that although these birds were visually inferior, they themselves were off top quality parents.

A word of warning about buying blood, only buy blood if you are able to see what the so-called blood came from. Many birds are sold on the premise of being off that strain or another. If the bird you are buying is of poor quality bred from poor quality parents, then you can be quite sure that it will surely breed poor quality offspring even if its great, great grandfather was Best in Show at the World Show. What you should look for is poorer quality birds off very good parents with good quality brothers and sisters.

We like to keep plenty of spare stock, it is all too easy to sell good birds, just try to buy some back. Everyone should aim to have a fair degree of choice even on his last pair, that way you should not need to ever pair two faults together and if you should have a really bad breeding season you will have some stock to fall back on.

Unlike many fanciers we do not pair up on paper prior to breeding. We like to pick out those hens which are bright eyed, alert and chewing everything in sight, in short those which appear to be in breeding condition. It does not matter whether it is the best hen or the worst one, we then look for a visually suitable cock. By suitable we mean that any failings shown by the hen must be countered by using only cocks which excel where the hen fails and similarly with the cocks weaknesses. We never pair up birds which show the same faults, that way you should never produce an inbred fault. In the long run you will only get out what you put in, only when we have found a visually suitable partner do we check our records to see that they are not too closely bred. By close we mean brothers x sister or parent x offspring, apart from that anything goes. All our birds are closely related, we do not have lines, they are all one big family.