Spotlight on Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller, a champion breeder and exhibitor, lives in Barnby Dun, a pleasant village near to Doncaster . Arthur has been breeding and showing crests for fifteen years. Up to November 2007 he had bred 35 visual crests.

Arthur has converted the rear part of his detached garage into his aviary, where security is provided by the usual electronic alarm systems and heavy duty padlocks but also by a guard dog! His aviary measures approximately 14 feet X 8 feet 6inches and contains 16 breeding cabinets (30” x 20” x 18” deep), arranged in four tiers of four, with removable dividers allowing each tier to be converted into flight cages. It has an internal flight running the full length of one side which leads out into a similar sized external flight. The aviary contains a fully functional sink unit with a recently installed heavy duty extractor fan set in the wall above it. The efficiency of the fan, which is on a timer, is evidenced by the lack of dust anywhere in the aviary.

Below, one of the 2008 breeding team

 

The cleanliness of the aviary, with its clean atmosphere and its lack of dust is the first positive impression that you get when you enter the aviary. Next, it is the quality of the workmanship of the cages which is of a high professional finish. Lastly, it is the quality of his visual crests. Below is a quality FC cock.

In recent months Arthur has made several changes to his usual system of bird management. First, the recently installed extractor fan. He was amazed at the amount of dusts it extracts and tested it by putting a cloth over the fan for a few minutes, the cloth turned white with the dust!

Secondly, he has changed over to his own home made seed mix which now consists of 6 parts Buxton's canary to 4 parts mixed millet to which is added 1 part tonic seed and 1 part Premium Wild bird mix . Thirdly, he has redesigned his external nest boxes (see photo) and has almost completed the change over to new plastic boxes, measuring 10”x 7” x 8”, which he builds himself. Ventilation in the boxes is provided by round ventilation caps which are commonly found in roof fascias in newly built houses. These boxes are proving very successful, of the 10 breeding cages in use in November 2007, 9 had the new style boxes. In 8 of these there were fertile eggs and, in the last, the clutch was starting to hatch out. There was no evidence in the boxes of problem condensation or of dust mites. He does not use concaves, only sawdust in the bottom of the nest boxes.

Above the new style nest boxes in situ below a view of the aviary.

 

 

Softfood and supplements given consist of EMP, carrot, seaweed, groats and hormova, with entravian probiotic being given every second day.

 

His original crested stock came from John Chell and Mick Baker. The vast majority being crests or crest breds. The odd normal in evidence has been brought in as an outcross to improve the quality of his crests. He is one of the few breeders in the UK to concentrate solely on crests. This allows him to practice what he calls the “numbers game”. He is a firm believer that breeders must have a certain amount of visuals to not only reproduce crests but to improve their quality. His methodology for improvement is based upon a three year plan:-

Year 1- outcross is paired to a visual

Year 2- best crest bred youngster(s) from year 1 is/are paired to visual(s)

Year 3- best crest bred youngster(s) from year 2 is/are paired to visual(s).

 

The resultant visual offspring from year 3 will hopefully have improved upon the original year 1 visual and are used as pairings to another outcross and the pattern starts again. Arthur feels that the crest breds produced in year 3 are probably hiding as much crested genetic material in their make up as possible and have considerable value in the breeding programme (see photo). Crest breds showing any sign of feather displacement are also useful in the breeding programme if they are otherwise of the right quality. He is currently running three outcrosses into his crests, two already in the breeding cages and one, an outstanding grey green cock (see photo), is about to enter the programme. This system can only work where where the breeder has a sufficient number of visuals to support it. Arthur is fortunate at the moment in having two quality visual cocks which he confirms produce visuals no matter what bird they are paired to. This seems proof that his system really does work, in that it strengthens the crested gene in his visuals making them almost prepotent for producing crests.

Below, a crest bred cock of quality

 

 

Arthur is firmly of the view that there is nothing to be gained in pairing crest to crest other than increasing the number of visuals likely to be reproduced, their quality will not improve. Anyone obtaining visual stock from Arthur is reminded by him of this and he strongly advocates that they take up his 3 year improvement plan if they want to make any headway in crests! The “numbers game” is not new; he published details of his ideas in Budgerigar World in 1997 shortly after winning Best Crest at a SRVS in 1996 with a FC cinnamon light green cock. In that article it was quite clear the value he placed on the use of crest breds, the necessity of breeding visuals and the use of normals to improve them. Without reproducing visuals, breeders are in danger of losing the variety from their aviary. The downside to using normals is the reduced number of visuals to be expected from such a pairing and accordingly, such normal outcrosses should only be used sparingly. Introducing varieties such as recessive pieds, rares and red eyes into a crested breeding programme was not to be recommended as most of these varieties have enough difficulties to improve on their own, without being crested.

 

While Arthur has one or two heavily flecked birds in his possession he only uses them sparingly and somewhat reluctantly in his breeding programme. Many of his visuals are dark factor birds, in both normal and opaline.

 

In a good season he hopes to breed about 100 to 120 birds. In 2007 the “numbers game” certainly paid off for him and he has been able to release several quality visuals into the fancy at large.

 

Pure crest breeders such as Arthur are worth their weight in gold to the fancy, they are able to produce sufficient numbers to let quality visuals go from time to time. Many crest breeders will recall how they started with crests, forced to obtain whatever stock they could no matter what size it was in the hope that by pairing it to another-- hard to obtain-- visual they could produce their own crests and start improving them. Some even paired crest crest bred to crest bred in the hope of producing visuals. Obtaining birds from Arthur and the like allows crest breeders to jump forward several years in their breeding programmes. It is no longer a case of having to start from scratch, as happened 20 years ago, with “joeys” that could almost squeeze between the bars of a show cage!

 

 

Arthur is quite happy to talk about crests at any time (within reason) so feel free to phone him (he does not use email) for a chat or even to arrange a visit.

 

Profile of John Hunter, Carlisle

I visited John in August of 2006 as there are so few crested exhibitors in Scotland to write about and I thought it would be nice to go on a border raid!

Carlisle is in the North of England for those who don’t know, not too far from the Scottish border. A nice town situated around a well preserved castle, the city centre has excellent shopping and eating facilities which makes it ideal for the family while you pay John a visit to see his birds!

John took early retirement a few years ago and this allows him to spend a lot of time in his birdroom, this is evident from the steadiness of his birds while breeding, and of his show team.

Approximately 150 birds are kept, 90 per cent of which are visual crests; almost all the other 10 per cent are crest breds, with only one or two pure normals amongst them. These he has brought in as outcrosses to improve the size and exhibition qualities of his crests. His birds are all of all mainstream colours and varieties but with crests on. There is little evidence of flecking in the stud but he has managed to improve spot size and depth of mask over the past two years.

 

HOUSING

John’s budgerigars are housed at the back of a neat garden, behind a fish pond, in a 12 x 8 foot shed; electricity is supplied; the shed is fully alarmed and has security cameras. It is fitted with an air extractor fan and also a dust removing extractor. He has, at his disposal, 26 breeding cases of mixed sizes but generally about 18 x 12 inches, each of which is supplied with either a wooden or plastic nest box fitted to the outside of the cage. John prefers the plastic nest box for hygiene reasons. At the time of my visit some of the cages had their dividers withdrawn and were converted into stock cages; in each stock cage he hangs rope toys, more normally associated with parrots, for the budgerigars to play with. Attached to the shed is an outside flight 8 x 6 foot which is connected to a 3 x 8 foot flight inside. Electric tubular heating is supplied in the winter months to keep the bird room at approximately 68 degrees F. Natural light comes from a double glazed window.

THE BUDGERIGARS

John started in budgerigars about 12 years ago and still shows as a beginner. That said his crested budgerigars are of good quality and size with many sporting perfect examples of full circular crests and these can certainly hold their own against exhibitors in the higher levels. He was originally introduced to crested budgerigars by Grant Findlay, from whom he obtained his original stock of crests. Grant also obtained for him a pair of crests from Maurice Woodley in Doncaster. No other crests have been brought in; improvements being achieved by the use of outcross normals. John pairs the outcross normal to a good crest and uses the best of the crest bred young into his crests.

He breeds all year round and therefore has a steady supply of visuals for the retail market, as well as keeping his breeding and show team young and healthy. He estimates that about 75% of his visual crests are full circulars, the budgerigars with the poorer crests are usually sold on. He hopes to breed about 150 youngsters each year and realizes that “you cant keep them all”. I saw some excellent youngsters in his young bird stock cages, quite a few showing a lot promise for after their first moult. In particular, one sky full circular youngster he showed me was as large as some of his adults; it was only 5 weeks old and still in the nest box. His nest mate, needless to say, was not as large.

FEEDING

Versa laga champion seed is fed all year round together with a tonic mix from Johnston and Jeff (who sponsor the Scottish BS Open Championship show).  No additives are added to the dry seed but he does add to the water a product imported from Belgium called “Vitaza Jumpy”. EMP, with nothing added, is the soft food he uses for his breeding birds. The usual cuttlefish and grit were in evidence and freely available for his budgerigars. I noticed also sweet corn on the cob being fed.

EXHIBITING

What attracted me to John’s budgerigars when I first saw them was their immaculate presentation in clean show cages. Show cage training consists of attaching an old show cage to the end of a row of stock cages to allow the birds to get used to it. They also spend a couple of hours at a time in a treble training cage he has. If a budgerigar is reluctant to perch, crumpled up tissue paper is put on the floor of the show cage and this usually persuades it to perch! John noticed that the steadiness of his show birds improves the more they are shown and become used to the cages.

His most memorable wins were taking a first and second prize with his crests at the BS show last year and winning the John Round Trophy at the Blackpool BS Open Show in 2004. He has already won 2 Challenge certificates this season and tries to support about 10 shows each year.

CBC

Due to the distance John does not get to meetings of the CBC unless he is at Doncaster, but he would like to talk more to crested budgie people. Perhaps any new membership list could include members’ telephone numbers if they were happy to do that. He would also like to see more young people joining the hobby and taking up crests.

SUMMARY

I felt the 200 mile round trip was well worth while. I saw a great number of excellent examples of crested budgerigars all under one roof and met someone who clearly cares about his birds. I would recommend a visit to anyone who is the Carlisle area or is prepared to travel. For those who may consider obtaining stock from him, John has an arrangement with a courier who has delivered his birds safely as far South as Cornwall. I hope that the photographs I took that day do his birds justice and give members a good idea of their quality. If you do decide on a visit make sure you get clear instructions on how to find his home, the estate itself is easily found and is not far from the M6 motorway, junction 43.

BS SHOW 2006

John won best beginner breeder crest with an Opaline Green FC Cock.

Donald Bruton
(Donald & Adam Bruton, Edinburgh)

Anyone wishing to contact John should send an email to blissthreebliss@yahoo.co.uk giving a telephone number for John to contact them.