I've managed to identify 3 main cocks and 7 main hens (and even two extra spare hens). I've been very hard on the cocks. As for the hens, I feel the quality seriously drops after those 7-9 best hens. I'm in doubt about hen #10, so I might start her of with cock #4 as they also match visually. So eventually this makes 4 cocks and 10 hens.
These top hens have a certain level of quality or carry some desired trait, like mask & spots, feather, directional feather or size, without being too bad in other areas. It's putting together all the pieces in this stage of my stud.
This makes a ratio of cocks to hens of about 1:2 - 1:3 (depending on which cocks and which hens you count). That should be a comfortable ratio. If the breeding season evolves good, I might consider using a few spare cocks on some of the better hens. But they will be mainly foster parents or a gamble at breeding some rares (read: Danish pieds).
Among those birds are two pairs I've obtained on the Budgerigar Sale (though they will probably not be paired like I bought them).
I didn't buy them for their colours but for easy reference I'll name them according to their colour.
One pair from Bert Sempels:
- pied grey cock (2009)
- cobalt hen (2010)
The cock brings several qualities into my stud without being really exceptional in a specific trait. The spots could be slightly better.
The hen has a fantastic mask with big spots (the picture doesn't show that very well). She could be a bit bigger though (both in length as in the head). But it would probably not be on sale if it had everything. A very useful hen in a stud like mine that is historically lacking in depth of mask and size of spots. She's cobalt, so in the long run she might help my dark factor birds.The other pair is from André Goossens. I bought last year's out-cross from him and it proved very useful and obviously is in the breeding team again this year. These are the two new out-crosses:
- grey spangle opaline cock
- sky blue opaline cinnamon hen
I liked the cock immediately when I saw it. I like its size, posture, shape, ... A heavier feather would have made it a stunning bird in my opinion. The spangle markings are good on the lower end of the wing, but higher up they are lacking. Also the spangle spots are missing. But I don't mind these variety specific shortcomings too much for now.
The hen is still very young and has a heavy feather. For a bird with such feather I would have expected a wider head. But counting the birds in my aviary that have a wider head didn't take long. It's again a hen with a very good mask & spots. On the other hand she has a tendency towards heavy flecking. This is a hen that could really bring my stud forward: fixing the mask & spots and bring in a heavier feather.Before I went to the Budgerigar Sale I put some thought into what my stud could use.
Mask & spot was certainly on the list again. Last year it was the only thing on the list and because of that it was already partially fixed this year.
I wasn't to sure what other specific feature I needed to focus on. I don't have any buff birds so maybe a buff bird would be useful? Somehow I was a bit reluctant - I certainly didn't want to get a buff bird just because it was buff. Perhaps size? I decided to see what was available and go for a bird of a type I liked. Just call it 'general quality' if you like.
Obviously going back to André was almost mandatory considering his bird really helped my stud.
So, did my purchase match my criteria?
Mask & spots: The hens certainly match my criteria for mask & spots. The spangle cock doesn't have spots, so he's difficult to judge. But having seen André's birds on shows, I'm not too worried.
'General quality': Here the cocks score more points in my opinion (though I also like the young hen). As usually on a sale the cocks are of higher quality then the hens.
Both cocks certainly bring more size into my stud. The heavy young hen brings more feather. Two criteria I was considering, so not too bad after all.
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